Customer Reviews

Inferno: The Complete Motion Picture Soundtrack Recording

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

 

 

When Dario Argento saw Emerson, Lake & Palmer live on stage, he was particularly impressed by Keith Emerson's performance and asked him to write the soundtrack for his new opus, "Inferno". The rest is musical history.

After many years without a CD release of this masterpiece of modern film music writing, the italian label Cinevox re-released it, and, as is policy at Cinevox's, added previously unreleased material, this time in form of a 10+ min "Outtakes Suite" - which finally includes some fine tunes previously dearly missed on the album.

For those who know the film: The impact of the soundtrack is not in the least bit inhibited by the lack of visual cues, sometimes even heightened, e.g. in Track #12, "Mark's discovery", which is an extremely beautifully structured/layered track that almost gets lost in the films vivid imagery. Afficionados of EL&P will be pleased to find "Taxi Ride (Rome)" (#3), which is a version of G. Verdi's "Va pensiero" (Nabucco) , absolutely on par with their other Classical Re-inventions. (Interestingly, the fact that it is a "cover version" isn't mentioned anywhere in the CD's booklet.) The sound quality of the recording is extremely good, so that the whole range of the orchestra Keith Emerson worked with can be wonderfully explored.

What more is to say? This is a must. Period.

I had just bought this and had it on my turntable on a sunny spring day in Baton Rouge, LA when I heard a knock at my door. When I opened it, it was the neighbor. "Could you turn that down? It's really scary."

Of the various Keith Emerson soundtracks I've managed to track down (not an easy task) this remains one of my favorites. Moody, spooky, disturbing, THRILLING. You don't wanna be depressed when you put this on-- it MIGHT just push you over the EDGE!! The finale ("Cigarettes etc.") is certain to remind one of Keith's ELP work, and worth having even if soundtracks aren't your thing. I rented the film AFTER hearing this-- I'm NOT sure the movie lives up to the soundtrack that accompanies it! (Though it's hard to tell with Italian imports WHAT may have been lost in the "translation"-- OR the editing room!!) I paid between $30-35 for a Japanese import of this-- but I would have regretted not having it all these years. (BONUS track? Damn!!) Only Keith's masterpiece, NIGHTHAWKS, surpasses this to my ears.

Keith Emerson is one of the very best musicians to play keyboards.
Besides his work as a rock musician and the strongest part of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, he composed music for several soundtracks. And this one is his best - besides, the music is great throughout !

Along with Goblin's Zombi: Dawn Of The Dead soundtrack, Cinevox has rereleased Keith Emerson's Inferno on their "Gold Tracks" subsidiary (the spine reads CD MDF 605). Is the Gold Tracks reissue worth the additional investment? Absolutely! As with the Zombi CD, the remastering breathes new life into the recordings and with the additional volume and clarity, the bonus tracks certainly stand on their own.

The Cinevox three bonus tracks are essentially a regrouping of their ten minute bonus track. Unfortunately, Cinevox chose to eliminate the "Cigarettes, ices, etc." section. Newcomers obviously won't miss it, but to those who have the 1997 reissue it's a little bothersome. Incidently, I made a CD-Rom of the 2006 release with the 1997 bonus track added and the difference in sound quality between the two is incredible, to say the least!

The packaging is a digipak-foldout of the original 1980 album release cover with a MUCH better design than the 1997 CD. It comes with an eight-page booklet with more photos but with a shortened synopsis.

Overall, a great work of sonic art is getting a well deserved face-lift. I give the 2006 release 4.5 stars out of five. Buy it!

This cd recording quality is mediocre. The soundtrack is ok but I like the inferno track only, the other tracks are very similar to each other. Overall: DISCRETE.