Customer Reviews

Conan The Destroyer: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This soundtrack has received a lower rating in general from reviewers than the "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack. It is understandable, but I still think it is a great soundtrack. Let's talk about some of the differences.

I think one reason that people may have a tendency to put down this soundtrack is because the story of "Conan the Destroyer" simply didn't live up to the incredibly epic and awesome standards set by the original movie. The first soundtrack was tied in to the movie in a special way, with a minimum of dialogue and key emotional moments accompanied with important parts of the music. They tried that with the 2nd movie, but they just couldn't pull it off. Mainly because the 2nd movie was so shallow to begin with. It didn't have any emotions worth setting to music.

And along comes Basil Poledouris to face this challenge, and it is difficult. With the story so shallow, he is basically given nothing to work with in terms of emotion. So the soundtrack falls flat in carrying all the heavy emotional impact that was found in the first movie.

With the first soundtrack, you could visualize the entire movie as you listened. This made the soundtrack very powerful, because the story was so darn good. But it is hard to do that so much on the second, because the story is just so forgettable. Okay, I guess I am repeating myself here.

Another reason that people could give this less of a review is because of the length. It is substantially shorter than the first soundtrack.

So in all fairness, this probably should get only 4 stars, but I give it 4-1/2 which rounds up to 5. Why? Because the music itself is still really good.

You can try to ignore the underlying story of the first movie and just consider the music itself. Then compare the music of the 2nd movie with the first, and you will find that the two fit together extremely well. The second makes a wonderful companion piece on those terms.

One of the best things about this soundtrack is the use of the harpsichord on track 3: "The Horn of Dagoth". (As least, it SOUNDS like a harpsichord to me - I'm no music expert.) Also memorable in my opinion is the new main battle theme, as well as track 11: "Dueling Wizards."

Like everybody else here, I wish "Conan the Destroyer" had been more than the campy schlock that it was. Still enjoyable on it's own terms, but not living up to the epic scale of the original. But the music can't be judged by that standard, and it is still a very good soundtrack.

Upon my second or third listenting of this CD, I noticed what was missing -- the palace music. When that chick is about to be executed, there's that very mellifluous tune in the background. But it's not the soundtrack. I have no idea why not, because it's very good. It might be on the Conan The Barbarian CD, or maybe Basil didn't compose it.

Crystal Palace is the best track of the lot and the second track is good, too -- the love song. Crystal Palace worked fabulously with the film... Arnold smashing those mirrors in syncopation with the music? Hoo-doggie! Buy this disc.

Basil Poledouris is an outstanding composer, and his best works are easily the Conan Soundtracks.

Exceptionally strong, bold music punctuated by moments of beautiful, lyrical work, these CDs aren't for constant listening, but when you're in the mood, there's nothing better.

I agree with most of the earlier reviewers and am sad at the way the opening was messed up, but what's really a shame is that this CD is only 33 minutes long, half the length of its predecessor. What they should do with the Conan CDs is the same thing they did with the Star Wars ones -- release them with the complete musical background as it was in the film. That would be impressive.

Another thing to note is that while The Barbarian Soundtrack has better music, the tone of the music in destroyer is more fitting for the themes in the original Conan stories.

This is an excellent soundtrack with some very beautiful, and very powerful songs. I have only given it four stars though, because it is merely a dim reflection of the soundtrack to "Conan the Barbarian", just as the movie "Conan the Destroyer" was a mere shadow of its predecessor. This album is much shorter than "Conan the Barbarian" and some of its songs are almost the same. Furthermore, the first and last tracks are almost identical, thus decreasing the album length further. It is still a good soundtrack, but I would only recommend it to owners of the "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack who are thirsting for more.

This is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard.The power of main theme, the emotions of Crystal palace make this one in a life experience.The cd evokes strong emotions when it's playing and you will not get any idea to skip tracks and miss an adventure voyage in Conan's world.Don't mind what they tell you-if you liked Conan The Barbarian you will like Conan The Destroyer.

Conan The Destroyer Basil Poledouris

In my humble opinion... Basil Poledouris' best works are his two Conan soundtracks, the outstanding lyrical masterpiece [pity about the titles!] - Conan The Barbarian, and the sequel - Conan The Destroyer. Both soundtracks are huge in scope and sound, very like the early to mid twentieth century Russian classical music of Prokofiev and Khachaturian - big, brash, commanding, stirring and at times moving, calming and soothing. Had Basil Poledouris been born 50 or 60 years earlier I have no doubt that his name would be among those of the great composers. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the easiest way for a composer to earn a living, and to make his music available, is to write film scores. See the success of John Williams and James Horner, both household names. Having this kind of music in the world is a good thing.

I digress...

The music for Conan The Barbarian was fantastic. Not a dud track on it. Big and loud, full of memorable melodies that you'd find yourself humming or whistling, as a colleague of mine does while working, and his favorite music is hard rockin'! The score for Conan The Destroyer is not just a re-hash of the original, as sometimes happens. There are melodies and themes borrowed from the original, but used in a different way.

On Conan The Destroyer there is a lot more use of percussion, the more unusual, deeper, wind instruments, and even a harpsichord. The music beats and pounds its way along, with the percussion defying you to tap your foot, and you find yourself humming, or whistling, imagining the time before "the oceans drank Atlantis".

This music is far superior to the film, which was a very, very poor sequel to the outstanding original. I would go as far as to say that the music stands on its own, and one would not have to have seen or even heard of the film to enjoy the music. It would make a great concert suite and would leave you reeling for days.

If you like Prokofiev's "Romeo And Juliet" and "Lt. Kije" then you will most likely enjoy Conan The Destroyer.

If you don't have this disk, get it, but get "Conan The Barbarian" first, and try to find the release with 18 tracks, you get more of the music.

I could have easily given this 5 stars but the opening main title was butchered beyond belief. I ended up copying the soundtrack off the movie to a cassette and then adding the CD to that cassette. The CD does bring out musical instruments that can't be heard clearly in the movie, but it could have been AWESOME if they had just dropped the whole first 15 minutes of the audio of the movie directly on the CD. The sounds of the whips snapping and the screeching of the horses during the credits and Mako's dialogue were too good to leave out. Seems like they did the same thing with RoboCop...the other soundtrack by Basil P. Left out the title theme or inserted small segments of it in other tracks.

This soundtrack is awesome!! I believed at first that it would pale in comparison to the original, but when I received it, it turned out to be just as good; if not better!! Even though Basil had a shorter budget in the sequel than in the original, his hard work paid off with excellent music!! 5 Stars, definitely.

If you're buying this soundtrack because you loved Poleodouris' first effort--don't. You'll be disappointed. Gone are the themes and tight composition of the first one, replaced by rather aimless background music with few high points, ala his later "Robobcop" soundtrack. Less electronica, of course, but without the style and grandeur of his first effort. Still, not completely terrible, and if you're a completist...this is for you.

Every time I listen to the sound track it gets my adrenaline pumping. It's perfect for my Aikido class or when I go to the gym to work out...