You’ve just wrapped on the cinematic splatterfest you’ve written and directed. You need a score, one that will evoke the necessary terror and horror. But you can’t actually afford to pay anyone to compose one... Alex Chandon, writer/director of Cradle of Fear, instead selected a variety of tracks from artists such as Cradle of Filth (because the lead singer stars in the film), Lungworm, Intense, and the Dark Poets. Chandon has then linked each of the 12 tracks with dialogue from the film.
The tracks themselves are straight industrial, with lots of complex beats from drum machines, synthesiser effects and looped vocals. Even one of the two songs provided by death metal merchants Cradle of Filth is remixed as an industrial song. Industrial music works best when it revels in the complexity of which it is capable. Perversely, it can also succeed when it keeps it simple--as in Jezebel’s ‘Plastic Surgery’, which layers distorted vocals and a simple riff over a drum machine. Slacker’s ‘Psychout (o.s.t mix)’ occupies the other end of the spectrum, a danceable layering of beats, strings, spoken word and snatches of easy-listening vocals
It’s hard to gauge how successful this soundtrack is as a soundtrack--despite the mixed-in dialogue--but it is a perfectly listenable compilation of industrial music.
Ian Sales
3