Composer David Julyan returns to the claustrophobic mines of the hugely successful 2005 horror film The Descent and develops the ominous and powerful musical landscape he created for the first film. The Descent scores are both great examples of Julyan’s very ambitious and detailed meld of acoustic and electronic music and the second score is exciting in its use of modern, aleatoric techniques within the orchestra in conjunction with eerie “under-your-skin” sound design...

I rather enjoyed David Julyan's score for The Descent: Part 2. While there are a few dull background atmospheric tracks (this is a horror score - what did you expect?) there are also a number of interesting themes.

Highlights include 'Mountain Opening'; 'Rios Leaves a Message'; the main segment of 'The Pit'; 'The Rock Bridge'; and The Descent: Part 2' - all of which have very different, and very impressive, themes at their core.

Even the in-your-face horror tracks designed to heighten the movie's tension, have a lot of depth to them. 'Juno Returns', for example, has a James Horner feel to it. In fact, I'd go as far to say any one who likes Horner's work on Aliens will enjoy this soundtrack too.

As original horror soundtracks go, they don't come much finer than this.

8

Darren Rea