Customer Reviews

End of Days

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

3.5 Stars

The fall of 1999 saw the release of the film "End of Days" and its accompanying soundtrack.

The late 90s saw the tail end of the post-grunge era and the emergence of Nu-Metal or rap/metal. This soundtrack is a still shot or time capsule of that time. With a few exceptions, the "End of Days" soundtrack is more or less what you would hear if you tuned into a modern rock station in the late 90s. Nu-Metal was dark, masculine, and angry. Post-Grunge was a watered down version of the real thing.

"The Camel Song" by Korn is fairly representative of the whole Nu-Metal movement. It's heavy, has grueling guitars, screaming rap verses and tortured choruses, and not much melody. It sounds, as guitarist Slash once commented, like the "inside of a meat grinder." It is what it is; you'll either love it or hate it.

"So Long" by former House of Pain frontman Everlast, sounds derivative of his late 90s hit "What it's Like." "So Long" is actually just as good, and probably didn't get the attention of "What it's like" because the two sound alike. This dark, brooding song has a good hook and haunting melody.

"Slow" by "Professional Murder Music" is largely forgettable dance/metal filler.

Limp Bizkit's excellent "Crushed" is one of the band's best songs. The band had not yet slipped into mediocrity and self-parody. "Crushed" has a haunting, eerie beat and creepy background vocals.

The album's real selling point and highlight is the Guns N' Roses comeback single "Oh My God." It was the band's first new song in eight years, although it featured only original member W. Axl Rose. Rock fans are largely mixed on this song. People either seem to love it or hate it. Personally, I absolutely love it. It sounds a lot like Marilyn Manson or "The Downward Spiral" era Nine Inch Nails. It's an industrial tinged rocker, but still has the GN'R sound and structure. It has a very infectious, pounding disco beat and full throttle vocal assault. There is some confusion as to who plays on this track. It is: W. Axl Rose (vocals), Tommy Stinson (bass), Josh Freeze (drums), Robin Finck (guitar), Dave Navaro (guest guitar), Paul Huge (guitar), and Dizzy Reed (keyboards).

The inclusion of the Prodigy's "Poison" makes for a little variety and although released several years earlier, doesn't sound too out-of-place.

"Superbeast" by Rob Zombie sounds like every other White Zombie/Rob Zombie song. It's good, but not great.

Eminem's "Bad Influence" is one of the rapper's earliest singles. It has an infectious groove and rap-along verse. This was before Eminem became overexposed. It was a time when he was genuinely interesting.

Poweman 500's catchy "Nobody's Real" was the band's one big hit and enjoyed frequent airplay back in the late 90s. Although Powerman 500 wasn't the most memorable band, this song has stood up well.

Although Stroke (not "The Strokes") never got off the ground, their single "I Wish I Had" is one of the soundtrack's most memorable songs. This spacey mid-tempo number is akin to Pink Floyd.

"Sugar Kane" by Sonic Youth is a great song, but it seems a little out-of-place on a CD dominated by the likes of Creed, Limp Bizkit, and Korn.

Creed's "Long Way" is derivative of "Ten" era Pearl Jam. While this track isn't awful, it's a little dull and a rather anticlimactic way to end the album.

While the "End of Days" soundtrack isn't quite up there with the "Lost Highway," "Natural Born Killers" or "The Crow" soundtracks, it's still a good collection of songs. If you are an Axl Rose/Guns N' Roses fan, it's worth buying for "Oh My God" alone. Or, if you are already feeling nostalgic for the days of when Scott Stapp and Fred Durst dominated the radio, this CD is a good trip down memory lane.

This soundtrack is mindblowing.

Korn and Limp Bizkit deliver two brilliant songs; both fresh and funky (Korn nicely mellow for once) and the Bizkits rap it up. Cool.

Prodigy and Rob Zombie get the drive going, but the story here is clearly OH MY GOD - first offering from thought to be forgotten GUNS N ROSES.

Axl Rose not only re-invents himself here, Oh My God is one awesome industrial yet totally whomping and banging melodic trasher. Well worth the CD alone. Who thought it possible ? Axl surfaces after seven years with a hard rock song compiled with industrial trademarks and a freakin disco beat ? And it works.

I don't know anything about the movie this soundtrack is based on, but this collection of songs is like a great late '90s hard rock mix tape, full of gloomy, ominous, hopeful and deadly, high profile artists and songs. The Frankenstein experiment gone wrong in Prodigy's "Poison" is dramatic and fun listening, Everlast's "So Long" got some bad publicity as allegedly being a song obsessed by a certain high school killer, it is truly less menacing, being a beautiful rock ballad about the results of bullying, Guns N' Roses' "Oh My God" successfully fuses old school rock with a nu metal heartbeat, Eminem's cocky "Bad Influence" attempts reverse psychology in an anti-suicide social statement, the more alternative Sonic Youth breezes along in their traditional rhythm and guitar chaos in "Sugar Kane", Korn's big production in "Camel Song" is like an upheaval of late '90s radio, Limp Bizkit's "Crushed" leans on funk, pop, and The Steve Miller Band in a weird jangle song structure, Rob Zombie's "Superbeast Girl On a Motorcycle Mix" sounds like a high school marching band fully geared for war. Twelve tracks in all, these songs sound like they belong together, hard rock with a heart, a halo, and a gun.

"Oh My God" is just a killer song. The first time I heard it I was like "what the hell is this?" but it really does grow on you. It may not be the best song GNR have ever written, but it's far from the worst either, and with them that's saying quite a bit! This is a new role for Axl, as the old "classic" band on a hard-hitting soundtrack like this, but he fills it well, with what is perhaps the freshest and hardest hitting of all the tracks. And even though it's new, there's plenty of that classic GNR feel to the piece as well. The songs by Korn and Eminem are both pretty good too, but if you have some of their other work you can't help thinking "haven't I heard this already?" a couple times during each of these performances, but there're also some new ideas so it's OK. The rest of the album hasn't differentiated itself in my mind yet, except for the Limp Bizkit song which bores me. Kid Rock should have been on this soundtrack, too.

Korn-Camel Song: This is the second best track on the CD and the entire reason i bought the CD in the first place. One of Korn's best. 5/5.

Everlast-So Long: A little too slow for my tastes, but pretty good. 4/5.

Professional Murder Music: The best track on here. I've never heard of these guys before, but I absolutely love this song. 5/5.

Limp Bizkit-Crushed: What the hell? This is Limp Bizkit? Way too slow. Only Fred and DJ Lethal are here, so why did they say it was by Limp Bizkit? Where's Wes? He's the best part about the band. 3/5.

Guns N' Roses-Oh My god: I don't know why everyone was so hyped by this song. It's not great or anything. 4/5.

Prodigy-Poison: What the hell? Why do people like this? It's fun to listen to while you're bored, but overall, it's not that good. 2/5.

Rob Zombie-Superbeast Remix: Why can't he ever just do a regular song on a soundtrack and not a remix? The remixes suck. On The Matrix he did a remix of Dragula, and here he does the same thing, just with Superbeast. The original song is way better. 3/5.

Eminem-Bad Influence: I was surprised by this track. I usually think of Eminem as someone who can't make music, but this song's pretty good. Not enough diversity though, the entire thing sounds like the first minute. 3/5.

Powerman 5000-Nobody's Real: Awesome track by an awesome band. I picked up their CD before this soundtrack came out, and I'm curious why they didn't use When World's Collide or Opperate Annihilate. Those songs are way better and both suit the movie more. 4/5.

Stoke-I Wish I Had: Wish you had what? Made a good song? So do I. A near 7 minute track of techno beats and a guy singing about how he could get wasted (or something like that). 3/5.

Sonic Youth-Sugar Kane: The beginning's pretty cool, and the track itself is really good, with some pretty wigged out guitars later on. 5/5.

Creed-Wrong Way: Something about the singer's voice annoys me. It's a good track though. 5/5.

Overall good, but they could have taken out the weak tracks (Limp, Prodigy, remix, Eminem, Stroke) and replaced them with something better like more Korn/PMM, Marilyn Manson (he fits the movie well), Incubus, Orgy (i heard they WERE going to be on here), Coal Chamber, Rage, etc. But it's still worth the money just for tracks 1 and 3.

Well 1st off the reason I rushed out and bought this was the same reason many people did. It was finally something new from Guns N' Roses. Although I don't think "Oh My God" is going to be another one of there classic songs, considering that Axl had to do this without Slash (a guitar God), and Izzy (a very underrated writter) he did a marvelous job. I'm a fan of the old sound but this gives me hope that Axl alone can carry the Guns name ahead further. The remainder of the album has some horrible songs and some pretty good ones all mixed in. Eminem gave the darkest of all the tracks, but it is a pleasure to listen to! Overall this is a fine CD that gets pushed over the top thanks in most part to Guns N' Roses.

From the list of bands on the cover, I knew that this album has to be good ! One or two bands can be bad but here is a whole list of them : GNR, Limp, Creed, Everlast, Rob Z, Korn............. The return of GNR thrills , as does the music of this album : must buy !

I never was a big fan of Guns 'n Roses...until the song on this cd, I am absolutely in love with it. I have no clue why people don't like it, but it alone is worth the cd.... But it's nowhere near being the only good song on the list. "So Long" renewed my faith in Everlast, which had been going bleh. Korn's "Camel Song" adds a much-needed freshness to their library, which has been getting kind of repetitive lately (despite their change in style). And "Crushed" is another awesome track that I love. However, this disc is far from perfect. The Powerman 5000 contribution, arguably their best song, is good but sounds like everything else by them. Also, I don't know a single person who isn't tired of Rob Zombie remixes (he's even had remixes of remixes on some soundtracks!). But overall, it's a good cd. It also has a better ending (Creed's "Wrong Way") than the movie.

Ok I don't know why everybody thinks that this isn't GNR just cuz Slash ain't in it, i mean come on, anyone can play guitar, not quite like him but they can, but who can sing like Axl Rose, his voice and lyrics that he wrote entirely made up GNR and this new song kicks because it's Axl's creativity and if ur a true Gun's fan u would like trust me, i am and i love it.

The best soundtrack ever! The best track are surely So long, Nobody's Real,Crushed, Camel Song and Wrong Way. For alternative music fan, a must have! All this song are exeptionnal!