WAR CRAFT: THE BEGINNING.

When you think of composer Ramin Djawadi GAME OF THRONES automatically comes to mind, probably not because it is his best score or most outstanding work but simply because it has had so much exposure. Plus, the music is pretty good too. Djawadi has certainly earned his stripes in the film music world and over the past decade or so has written numerous scores for a great variety of motion pictures and television projects. DRACULA UNTOLD, CLASH OF THE TITANS, IRON MAN, PRISON BREAK, PERSON OF INTEREST, PACIFIC RIM, MR BROOKS and also WARCRAFT have all benefitted greatly from his atmospheric, driving and attractive soundtracks. The composer has the ability to fuse symphonic with synthetic sounds seamlessly and via the two musical mediums creates and invents highly emotional, inspiring and dramatically passionate sounding scores. WARCRAFT is one of his recent assignments and when it was announced he would score the movie I think many of us were quietly confident that he would produce something that was outstanding and powerful. WAR CRAFT:THE BEGINNING is an action, fantasy adventure directed by Duncan Jones who’s other movies of interest are SOURCE CODE and MOON. The story is, as far as fantasy stories go, fairly general. On one side we have, the Horde, which is basically a collection of various Orc clans who realize that their world or home is literally falling apart around them, they set out to search for a new abode and fix their evil gaze upon the world of AZEROTH which is a world inhabited by humans, a battle of wills and for survival ensues, the Orcs being assisted by an all-powerful and virulently evil magical force which they call the FEL, but as the struggle for existence and domination begins and grows in intensity the FEL begins to corrupt both Orcs and Humans, thus both sides must decide to continue fighting each other or join and fight the evil force of the FEL. Djawadi’s score is supremely suitable for the movie as it is for 90 percent of its 2-hour duration all action, the composer matching each blow and battle with his powerhouse compositions and underlining each scene wonderfully with his extremely high octane music. But, and there is always a but in film music, the composer also serves up some beautifully crafted melodies that tantalise and engulf the listener and also an even more ample amount of up-beat and infectious sounding stabs and beats which punctuate and further consolidate Djawadi’s epic sounding work. It will be impossible for you not to be attracted to this score, there is so much within it that can be deemed as stand out cues or compositions that are above standard in the contemporary world of film music. The composer providing us with wholesome and well-structured thematic material, in other words real themes that begin develop and also linger in your subconscious and make a lasting impression. Brass, strings and a host of percussive elements combine with an unsettling chanting choir at times to create some real exciting and edge of the seat material.

I suppose one could say that this is CONAN meets THE LORD OF THE RINGS, because it has the grand operatic textures and rawness of Poledouris’s CONAN and also contains the more intimate and homely atmospherics of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The cue TWO WORLDS COLLIDING is an excellent cue to listen too if you were considering buying this score, driving strings, brass punctuations, chanting choir and rhythmic and booming percussion combine to create a musical tour de force that is literally relentless, forebodingly apprehensive and unstoppable. Certainly one to add to your collection.