Milan Records (Sony Music Soundtracks) releases music from the Netflix film Thunder Force, by Fil Eisler. In the comedy film directed by Ben Falcone, two childhood friends create a crime-fighting duo when one of them invents a formula which turns them from ordinary people into extraordinary individuals with super powers. The Czech-born and English-raised composer has received and been nominated for several awards. Previous projects for film and TV include Empire, Proud Mary, The Titan, and The Romanoffs. For this one he’s avoided the easy path to quirkiness, instead playing it straight and allowing the humour to speak for itself. As one of the main characters is a Metal fan, the score has been split between orchestral and Metal Music – employing such luminaries as Scott Ian of Anthrax, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour, Dave Lombardo of Slayer, and Lzzy Hale of Halestrom. He has also incorporated the electric cello talents of Tina Guo...

Opening track 'Thunder Force' is a pretty good chanter Metal song, with a hook riff and a nice solo. This has single written all over it, so it’s logical that this was released as a lead for both the show and the soundtrack. 'Thunder Force Suite' showcases as orchestral piece with brass bugle sounds introducing an all-encompassing stomping/galloping and soaring experience with percussion. It becomes more introspective halfway through, before taunting with ghostly cello and dark tones. 'This Town’s Gonna Get What It Deserves' applies a mix of traditional orchestral moves and Metal riffs. The best track is 'Training Complete' which adds foreground orchestration to background Metal. It’s very nicely done, so it would have been nice to hear an extended version.

With 33 tracks in total you can probably guess that most of the other offerings play more like interludes than pieces in their own right. Again, I’m forced to ask the question why some of these can’t be edited together to make longer suites for the soundtrack release, rather than separating all the snippets used in the movie. Although there seems to be an overall theme of orchestral and Metal music (and I’m a fan of Metal), there are other moods. 'I Like ‘em Thick' is a great paced and throbbing Jazz suspense moment. There are a couple of mellow pieces, as well as the use of Electronica, chilling strings, guitar fuzz and edgy drama. 'Thunder Force Out' is more of a melancholic outro, which ends with a determined flourish in the style of the opening piece. A charged score, tarnished by the stop-start effect of some very short pieces of music.

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Ty Power