MovieScore Media’s latest release from Spain offers a curious blend of a heist movies and an inspirational sports story with Arnau Bataller’s intense action hybrid score for The Vault (also known as Way Down). Directed by Jaume Balagueró, the film follows engineer Thom Laybrick who is fascinated by the complexities of a vault in The Bank of Spain. When he learns of a legendary stored treasure kept there for ten days, Thom wants in and uses a window of 105 minutes to get in - the 2010 Football World Cup finals between Spain and The Netherlands which distracts the bank’s employees...

Arnau Bataller (The Brotherhood, [Rec]4: Apocalypse) delivers 18 tracks (1 hr, 01 min, 23 sec) for the score of The Vault [Way Down].

Talking about the music, the composer says: "The music of The Vault is the sum of many musical ingredients mixed to obtain a fresh, exciting cocktail that leaves a good taste in the mouth of the audience. We start putting the sound of the viola da gamba representing some historical elements, Then We add a few drops of "passion", the force that moves our protagonists represented by a theme played by strings. We continue with touches of thriller and action, planning the robbery, high-tech equipment, accompanied by lines of pulsing synthesizers, hang drums, guitars, and keyboards. And we finish by sprinkling some epic music for our protagonists, who face all sorts of problems while most people in Spain were celebrating a historical moment: the victory of the 2010 Soccer’s World Cup 2010. Agitate and Serve fresh.”

While I did, on balance, enjoy this score. There's not a lot here that you won't have heard before. There's also little in the way of memorable or thematic music. What we end up with is a soundscape that embodies the movie and is rather relaxing to listen to. While the suspense is amped up... it's also, bizarrely, very "samey" and if you're not careful you can easily tune out.

For lover's of suspense based themes this is well above average fair, but everyone else might find it a little lacking in variety.

7

Darren Rea