Customer Reviews

Angels & Demons

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, here it is. Hans' long awaited follow up to his amazing score to The Da Vinci Code. Now, The Da Vinci Code was a flawed film adaptation but it wasn't all bad. I can honestly say it would have been a terrible bore without Hans' score. The motifs carrying through that lead up to the wonderful CheValiers De Sangreal segment were breathtaking. It had a very classic feel in a modern way.

Hans takes the themes and atmospheres from The Da Vinci Code and turns them on their side a bit for Angels & Demons. We still have this angelical religious atmosphere but you can feel the darkness biting on its heels every step of the way. Some of the tracks are incredibly intense. The choral arrangements are breathtaking and the score has a pulsing life to it. There are some percussion segments that felt uncharacteristic of Hans and more along the lines of Harry Gregson-Williams, but they keep the pace moving. Zimmer fans will find some arrangements similar to his score for Hannibal, which I guess not coincidently was a score to a film that took place in Florence.

Hans has a few soloists featured on the score. Most notably is Joshua Bell on the violin, which I'm sure was recommended by James Newton Howard after he used him for Defiance. Longtime collaborators Heitor Pereira is the featured guitarist and Martin Tillman on the cello. Each of them providing personal performances to their instruments as they accent Hans' music.

The album finishes off with a variation on the popular CheValiers piece that closed The Da Vinci Code. You can also get a bonus non-album track titled "H20" by going to angelsanddemons.com/soundtrack. You have to sign up for updates, but once you do you immediately get the bonus track. Overall, this is a great score by Hans. It doesn't feel like a rehash of The Da Vinci Code, which I think some people were expecting. It's a great continuation on the themes, moods and atmospheres he built with the first score. It's definitely more aggressive and bleeds of the Zimmer style. Bravo.

Kudos to several of the other reviewers so far, and I'd like to reiterate that this album starts off with one of the most in-your-face, exciting tracks Zimmer has composed since the Battle scene in Gladiator. My problem with the Da Vinci Code soundtrack was that it was too soft and generally took too long to build to those monumental moments that Zimmer is known to swat at you, but here, it starts right away, as it should.
As for the rest of the score, it's what it's supposed to be... lots of violins and choral chanting, some softer tunes, with hints of Da Vinci's riffs but solid and different enough to stand on its own.
I'd also like to reiterate from another reviewer that you MUST go to angelsanddemons.com/soundtrack and get the free bonus track H20 while it's still there.
Hans, you're the man, and I will continue to buy your music without hearing a second of it beforehand.

I'm a huge Hans Zimmer fan so I immediately snagged this album as soon as it was released. Having finally seen the movie, however, I must admit I am incredibly disappointed with this soundtrack.

Although the track listings available in this album are fine, there are significant omissions of musical cues used in the film. For example, there are at least 2-3 excellent variations of Zimmer's now famous "Chevaliers" theme that do not appear on this album.

Perhaps the most notable omission is an incredible (new) theme used in one of the film's climactic scenes involving a "helicopter" (that is all I will say to avoid spoiling it for those who have yet to see the film). This was a beautiful piece spanning several minutes, reminiscent of Zimmer's "Journey to the Line" in the "Thin Red Line" soundtrack.

It is quite possible the studio is planning an extended soundtrack. Although this is extremely rare with film scores, it has been known to happen (witness James Horner's "More Music from Braveheart," John Debney's extended "Cuthroat Island" score and even Zimmer's own "Gladiator: More Music from the Motion Picture" and "The Dark Knight 2-Disc Special Edition Soundtrack").

In summary, I recommend this album for hard-core Zimmer fans who absolutely must own every CD released with his name on it. For the rest of you who are flirting with the possibility of purchasing it, watch the movie and then listen to the actual tracks on youtube, before making a decision.

Silvestre

This CD has not left my player since I bought it a week ago. Undoubtedly the best track on the CD is the first one "160 BPM", but the whole CD is good in general. I have not yet seen this movie and I only bought the soundtrack because Hans Zimmer composed it. I kind of figured it would end up like so many film scores in my collection that I only own because a specific composer did the music for them. But I was very pleasantly blown away by this latest work of Zimmer's. I wish he would score a soundtrack where whole thing sounded just like "160 BPM" from this CD. Well done Hans.

There is some great deep and rich orchestral music from Hans Zimmer in this score - this is what we've come to expect from him anyway. There is the now familiar theme music of Chevaliers de Sangreal represented in 'God Particle' and '503'. The music in this score expands on what was heard in the Da Vinci Code, and twisted into a much darker form.

Besides these two tracks, however, there isn't a lot of thematic material in the score, instead Zimmer focuses on very dark and brooding pieces, heavy with choral and percussive sounds. I'm sure that these tracks would integrate seamlessly into the film and help create the desired dark religious mood, but the score does not stand well on its own. Many tracks, especially 'Air' and 'Science and Religion' that are over 9 and 12 minutes respectively, feel like 'nothing' tracks, as they have no recognisable theme and generally make uninteresting listening. A lot of the score sounds simply like 'Zimmer-filler', in that it could be dropped into any other generic action scene and would play seamlessly.

Overall, if you worship Hans Zimmer and all of his scores, then this review will probably not make an ounce of difference in your decision to buy it. However, if you prefer less generic music, I would choose a much more recognisable score from Zimmer such as Pirates of the Caribbean, The Last Samurai, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down or even King Arthur. If you want something with the Zimmer 'sound', I would suggest looking up Klaus Badelt, Steve Jablonsky, James Newton Howard or Harry-Gregson Williams.

Well, I have never entered a review on amazon but today is a first.

First I have to say that I haven't seen the movie but I can just picture from the previews and the soundtrack how amazing it must be. I really enjoyed the music from DaVinci Code and didn't really want to compare them. Too late!

From the opening track you get the sense that powerful forces are at work. The intricate choir voices intertwined with the drum beats surrounded by the mysterious synthesized bell like sounds gave me chills. And it just crescendos into a powerful otherworldly feeling.

After that, God Particle has a beautiful haunting melody on the violin going into that same choir rendition. Air is amazing with the gregorian chant in the music transporting you to ancient cathedrals.

Fire is kind of a percusion piece with the choirs and really vamps up the music.

Black Smoke is the action piece without much choir pieces but little whispers in it. Very mysterious and compelling.

Science and Religion has some good violin in it but not any memorable melody. I think if more composers would try to invent a memorable tune that can be used as the atmosphere of a scene it would give the movie a real connection emotionally which then could be recreated by listening to the soundtrack. Look at John Williams has done with every movie soundtrack he has created. Also, he has more acadamy nominations than anyone except Walt Disney.

Immolation - is good but without seeing the movie it is hard to picture what is happening here. I know that story having read the book but can't wait to see the movie.

Election by Adoration - slow and tender with almost a repeatable melody with the violin.

503 - pipe organ sounds with violin very sweet. Intense and emotionally connecting.

Buy this soundtrack as it is amazing. It only has two slow pieces and the rest are emotionally compelling, sweet, and awesome. I think Hans Zimmer is one of my favorite composers and tends to make the best sound tracks.

I think we can easily make two categories of film music fans: those who admire Hans Zimmer and those who accuse him of destroying the film music industry. In the history of film scores, there is a "before" Hans Zimmer and there is also an "after" Hans Zimmer. He litteraly changed the face of film music for ever. His sound is his. Like the funny horror themes of Danny Elfman, the melodic waltz of Patrick Doyle or the funny suburbian sounds of Thomas Newman, you hear the powerful and sad-heroic synths of Mr. Zimmer and you know it's him. In fact, he was copied so much that he had to starts his own school of film music just to teach others how to immate him correctly (Harry Gregson-Williams, Klaus Badelt, John Powell, Nick Glennie-Smith, Ramin Djawadi, Trevor Rabin (no matter what he thinks...))! Now, you have little clones of Hans Zimmer pouring out of "Remote Control / media Venture", the school of Mr. Zimmer. Some people hate it for it makes almost all movies sound the same. Some others absolutly love it. After all, it's hard to hear "Lion King", "Crimson Tide", "The Rock", "Pirates Of The Caribbean","The Da Vinci Code" and other "Gladiator" and not catch yourself humming the themes and wanting to jump on the screen in order to fight with the heroes. So if others clones want to immitate him ("Transformers", "Iron Man", "Chronicles Of Narnia"...), than fine, i guess. The More the better (or is it?). But in the meanwhile, it keeps Alan Silvestri from scoring "Pirates Of The Caribbean", for example. And that's the down side even if the score of "Pirates" was fun.

Anyhow, "Angels & Demons" is not as powerful as its predecessor "The Da Vinci Code" but it's Hans Zimmer. And i don't think you can really put one of his scores down. You can criticize the originality, the sound, the clones out there. But taken apart, this score is still beautiful and a piece like "Science & Religion" has got to make you want to pay your respects to the Teacher's talent. For me, Hans Zimmer is the best and i will follow him no matter where he goes musically cause he's the true master behind his school. Not his students and clones. He's able to innovate, to change directions, to come up with something new and he's also capable of immitating his own style. But even if he does that, who will be angry to hear variations of "Chevaliers de SangReal"? Will you be mad if he comes up with a theme that sounds like "Roll Tide" or "Now We're Free", "Like A Dog Chasing Cars" or "Drink Up Me hearties"?

If you do, well you must be one hard person to please.

This soundtrack is definitely better than the Da Vinci Code. The music is filled more with the thrill ride experience in the movie. Highly addictive, I'd say.

With only 9 tracks to go on, this score still hits the spot with several prolonged minutes of familiar themes enhanced with more depth and instruments added. Hans Zimmer does a fantastic job with this one. Can't wait to see what the next film score will be like!! :)

WOW !! Probably the best buy I have ever made in my life. It is much better to first see the movie and then get the music. It is mind blowing. This is not a cd you will play at your party next time, but this is the kind of music you will want to listen on your own and as loud as possible. This cd gets played in my truck, in my office and anywhere I can get a cd player. The only negative I have of this cd is the fact that there are only nine cuts on it. I wanted nine more. I will reccommend this cd to anybody who enjoys good music.Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical MusicSound Tracks: Original Themes From Favorite Films

SUBLIME!!! Just what one expects from Hans Zimmer . . . and the topic for this movie.