This album collects together tracks from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s dark soundworld for director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Performed by the London Music Works and City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra this unique compilation brings together the best score cues from Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In the music for The Dark Knight, Zimmer and Newton Howard individual styles are distinct - Zimmer merges percussion and electronics whilst Newton Howard combines lush orchestral passages with solo piano sections. The soundtrack for The Dark Night Rises, the final film of the trilogy, was written by Zimmer alone and merges operatic, militaristic and mystical to provide a powerful climax to the trilogy.

Zimmer's work on The Dark Knight Rises sounded, to me, like music that had been abandoned from his work on the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (this is most notable in the tracks 'Why do we Fall?'; and 'Imagine the Fire'. In addition 'Like a Dog Chasing Cars' from The Dark Knight has a similar style.

This isn't an album I'd dig out and listen to all that often. While the music works incredibly well in the movie, on its own it's a little flat. For fans of the movie who aren't necessarily soundtrack fanatics, this will provide you with an interesting taster of the scores from the films. But if you're a soundtrack fan who enjoyed the music you'll all ready own the original scores.

The album lasts for 1 hr, 13 min, 54 sec and contains 15 tracks.

Track listing:

Batman Begins
1. Vespertilio
2. Eptesicus
3. Barbastella
4. Antrozous
5. Molossus

The Dark Knight
6. Why So Serious
7. Aggressive Expansion
8. Like A Dog Chasing Cars
9. Introduce A Little Anarchy
10. A Watchful Guardian

The Dark Knight Rises
11. Mind If I Cut In
12. Fear Will Find You
13. Why Do We Fall
14. Imagine The Fire
15. Rise

5

Darren Rea