Customer Reviews

Ghosts of Mars: Original Motion Picture Score

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

 

 

Let me put it to ya like this. If you enjoyed John Carpenter's latest opus, then there's a 9 out of 10 chance that you liked the music. If you liked the music, then this cd is for you.

If you like music by the band Anthrax, you will like the music on this cd. If you previously enjoyed anything by Buckethead (Monsters and Robots being a favorite of mine), you will like this cd. If you enjoy ANYTHING by Steve Vai, you will like this cd. And last but not least. If you enjoyed ANY of JOhn Carpenter's previous scores (such as the simple but excellent Vampires) you WILL enjoy this cd.

If any of the aforementioned artists or albums appealed to you, stop reading this ridiculous excuse for a customer review and go buy the album.

The overall sound is an unreal, intoxicating blend of bizarre techno and metal. By far, my favorite track is number 6. It takes a while to get started, but around 1:20 it gets heavy and kicks into action. Track 8 is a bit different from the norm. It definetly has jazz or porn groove written all over it. Good saxophone and guitar.

All in all, if you truly appreciate genre crossovers, this is a wonderful soundtrack. Even if you're a die hard metalhead, you can still pick this up and love the aggressive nature of the album. Very very good stuff.

Carpenter's most recent (possibly final?) cinematic offering was dismissed by most as an overly familiar retread of his earlier, better movies. But the score, oh man, that score! Like the one for his penultimate movie, Vampires, it is filled with energy. Gathering together several heavy metal guitarists (as opposed to the blues musicians for Vampires) Carpenter turns them loose and the results are ear splitting fun. Recommended.

Being the metalhead/horror fan that I am, I was excited to learn that John Carpenter had a new movie and was going to use respected metal musicians on the soundtrack. While I admit the film sort of disappointed me (being a BIG fan of John Carpenter and all) I was not disappointed by what I HEARD in the movie, a metal instrumental free-for-all featuring people like Steve Vai, Buckethead (a former Guns N Roses guitarist), Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails and the instrumental section of Anthrax.

This music rocks. It is instrumental guitar mania, with a little blues thrown in here and there. Steve Vai and Buckethead blow my mind with their solos. Anthrax provide the right mix of heavy that one would expect from this band. So I highly recommend this soundtrack to anybody who wants to hear some guitar gods play some downright dirty instrumental metal laced with killer solos.

Semi-spacey, semi-industrial vibe to the backing music with some great sensual blues rock soloing. It's a little too hard in parts to be good make-out music, but perfect in songs like Dismemberment Blues, Can't Let You Go, Visions of the Earth.

I got this album because of Robin Finck's involvement. He's a great rock guitarist who I discovered from his work with Axl Rose, but aside from Chinese Democracy, he doesn't have any recorded stuff in which he solos. Finck plays lead on Love Siege, (he's on the left channel, buckethead's on the right,) Fight Train and Power Station. Power Station has some really nice blues licks at the end when the song slows down to breathe.

Eliot Easton probably does the best work on this album. I don't know the Cars at all, but his work here is flawlessly tasteful and expressive. A great guitarist. He plays best on Dismemberment Blues, Visions of the Earth and Slashing Void.

Buckethead's song (where he's the lone guitar) Kick Ass is ok. It begins with an arpeggiated thing that sounds like his work on Electric Tears, then it has a hard part that sounds too much like the Mission Impossible theme for me to like it. It would be good otherwise.

Steve Vai's tracks sound a bit uninspired. I don't know if he just didn't care about doing a cool job, or the more soulful work of Easton and Finck just work better with the songs, but his work here isn't memorable to me.

Plain says it all. I expected a lot of finger gymnastics with the talent pool on the cd. I wanted to hear Vai and Buckethead shread. 16 bucks down the drain. John Carpenter starts ever song the same with the same keyboard intro. Sounds dark. Ok fine. But the songs go no where with next to no input from Vai or any of the other players here. Very disappointed.

I saw the movie yesterday it was ok.I think the music is not very original but pretty good anyway.The guitars are shredding you can hear the industrial music throughout the whole movie.Not to mention that you can hear alot of songs during all of the movie.
I haven"t bought the soundtrack but if you like industrial music you should give it a go.I thought the song during the ending credits was just plain awesome.I dont know the songs name but it must be lovesiege.Buckethead is still in guns n roses and hasnt been fired by the way.