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BANOS, ROQUE  Evil Dead (2013) OST  CD   (La-La Land)   16.98


      Who would've thought that the score to Fede Alvarez's 2013 re-imagining of the demonic splatter classic Evil Dead would turn out to be such an amazing piece of pitch-black orchestral dread? We've stocked the Unseen Forces/Ajna Offensive vinyl release before, but now we've got the La-La Land CD in stock as well.

     It's one of the most ferocious film scores to emerge in the past decade - even listening to this in the middle of the afternoon with the music fully separated from the visuals has the capacity to give me an anxiety attack. Alvarez's film itself was an interesting reinterpretation of Sam Raimi's original turbo-charged demonic vision from 1981, filled with scenes of stomach-churning violence and a much more grim and graphic approach than the original; while the original Evil Dead will always remain a classic blast of hardcore 80's horror, Fede Alvarez's remake proved to be worth a look if only for his ability to construct some truly demonic set-pieces and an effective atmosphere of hopelessness and suffering. On it's own, the score from Spanish composer Banos is an absolutely terrifying piece of dread orchestral music, one that eschews the use of electronic elements for a more organic approach that recalls the dark orchestral sounds of those classic older Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young scores. Blending together fearsome operatic chorales, bleak instrumental pieces for piano and strings possessed with an immeasurable sadness, washes of ominous percussion, clusters of spidery atonal piano, gorgeously sinister violins, swells of dissonant nightmarish strings, thunderous volleys of rumbling percussion, and crazed chortling woodwinds, Banos crafts a fearsome ambience that at times can easily rival the most horrific strains of black industrial. He also incorporates some interesting elements into the score to enhance the panic-stricken energy and scenes of suffocating dread, using a fearsome air-raid siren as a recurring motif, a frightening bullroarer-like sound that almost seems to take on the ferocious flesh-chewing tone of a chainsaw as it reappears throughout the score. There are passages of desolate murky ambience and deep pulsating synthesizer drones, howling choral voices and horrifying operatic screams, queasy electronic noises buried deep in the mix.

     The use of string arrangements is masterful, the first side of the soundtrack alone rife with blasts of shrieking Penderecki-esque orchestral power that will send you flying off of your seat, while further into the score, Banos utilizes swells of hive-like insectoid dissonance that comes swarming out of the blackness. One of the standout sequences is the pitch-black liturgical horror of "Abominations Rising", where those choral voices erupt into a horrifying infernal hymn from the blasts of violent brass and percussion, shrieking female voices issuing a cacophony of Latin blasphemies over the jagged, dissonant orchestrations. Even in it's more subdued moments, the music is imbued with an overwhelming sense of dread and loss, even in the dark lullaby of "Come Back To Me", an achingly beautiful piece that also recurs throughout the film. One of the best modern horror scores I've picked up, Banos's Evil Dead works particularly well on vinyl, and even employs a well-executed lock groove on one side that spins out into a hypnotic, disturbing vocal loop. Fantastic stuff that's recommended to anyone into the blackest corners of modern orchestral music.