This time around the incomparable Wu-Tang figurehead The RZA was enlisted, along with composer Ramin Djawadi, to craft the actual score for the film, which runs throughout, sandwiched between rap jams from Lil' Flip, WC, E-40, Old Dirty Bastard, Kool Keith, as well as electronic numbers from Overseer, Black Lab, Paris Texas, Crystal Method, and Manchild. The result is a kinetically dark aural melee that fits perfectly with the gritty, utilitarian punch of the film.
Excerpted dialogue from the film (Wesley Snipes extolling "I was born ready muthaf@#ka!" to be exact) kicks off the album, bleeding into RZA's the ominous, lurching slab entitled "Fatal." Rapping in a staggered, sluggish manner that seems more suited for a zombie film than an amped up vampiric saga, the Wu leader keeps it mean and lean, using faux symphonics to create an eerie, creepy vibe that lurks deep within the dark shadows right down to the muted, Stygian yell vocals that are slipped in during the second verse/chorus exchange.
The mood is altered a bit on the more upbeat "I Gotta Get Paid," which is a posse cut featuring Lil' Flip, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon. It's an interestingly languid intersection of the sultry South and the rugged Shaolin mechanics. The track flips and boils slowly, Flip delivering his lazy vibe, while Ghost drops speed racer vocalistics, and Rae brings it back with a mellow tempered swagger. RZA's beat is a mixture of Knightrider-meets Keith Emerson electronic squiggle and steel drum breaks and is a buoyant affair that displays his talents for more upbeat, almost downright bouncy fare.
The Caribbean rhythm flavorings continue on "When The Guns Come Out," the track featuring the interesting group combination of WC, E-40, and RZA prot¿g¿ Christ Bearer of Northstar. Underground warrior WC flips his trademark West Coast bang, then comes CB, who drops a smoothly rugged in-yur-face verse, '40 brings up the rear, lacing the track with his liquidic verbal tang, flipping, twisting, and bobbing over the beat like an epileptic linguist. Again the variation of the beat showcases RZA's diversity, which is a welcome attraction given that many times a producer fills an album with similar sounding material.
RZA dips into his mock Oriental sound on "Thirsty," mixing bubbly synth plucks with symphonic strings. Black Keith delivers a slicked out R&B croon that drags you into the track. It's an interesting juxtaposition as his silky vocals create a Barry White-meets-Al Green silk sheet lover vibe, but his lyrics are downright creepy as he alternates between saying "Can we drink?" and "I'm thirsty," the simple phrases reverberating with an undercurrent of evil. ODB drops his trademark mush mouth verbals, which don't really seem to fit the morose vibe of the track (Dirty was always better suited for up-tempo ragers and psycho blow-outs than down-tempo burners).
Co-composer Ramin Djawadi, a disciple of Hans Zimmer, teams up with RZA for the decidedly techno swagger of "Daywalkers." The track flutters with fuzzified shimmer synth and phaser-on-stun waves of surge and pulse that course through the track like blood gushing from an open wound. Toward the end the track slows down, fading into hollow echo chamber nuance that leaves a lingering trace of shadow gloom. The techno, electro-funk continues, albeit in a more upbeat Kraftwerkian-meets-Battlestar Gallactica vein on "Party In The Morgue (Club Mix)." The presence of Kool Keith in the mix insures that the track stays just left of center. Yet compared to what has come before, this track is a neck jerking departure and signals the stylistic shift of the album with a certain amount of brash abruptness.
Overseer kicks out the electro-surge on "Skylight," which churns to wurgle blitz synth and echo shuffle rhythmic interplay that eventually seeps out into mutated siren-styled wiggle. Black Lab continue this stylistic, unleashing shifting synth tension that is heavy on the syncopated snare action, augmented by shift-and-switch rubber band blitz and mock go-go styled call outs ("nitro narcosis" being the favorite phrase the crew tosses out amidst the burble and scatter). "Bomb Away (The Danny Saber remix)" takes Paris Texas turns the emo quintet from Madison Wisconsin into techno death trip illusionists and
synthetic crystal meth atrocities. Let's just say the sped up guitars and blipping speed freak bleeps and whirrs are just a tad cheesy. And when the band's vocals are looped to repeat the word "Notorious" one can't help but think of Duran Duran circa 1986.
Crystal Method kick the ballistics on the scathing "Weapons of Mad Distortion" (hey, can you see the thematics working here? "Bombs Away" into "Weapons of Mad Distortion"?). The track is a rehash/reprint/replay of the album version that appears on the duo's most recent album Legion of Boom. Featuring the snarling guitar theatrics of former Limp Bizkit axe man Les Borland, it's a nails-on-chalkboard train wreck of metallic overload and electronic insurgency. The only bummer is that they didn't do an overhauled remix for the movie. Manchild continue the grungy guitars-having-sex-with-synths propulsion on their entry, "Hard Wax," which features the repeated mantra of "This blood is gonna rake the night," delivered in an alternately breathy whisper and blood-curdling scream.
The album's closer is another chunk of instrumental score, this time delivered solo by Ramin Djawadi. Entitled "Blade's Back," it mixes symphonic swoon with channel shifting rails of synth, lurching between the two divergent musical styles with breakneck speed for the first minute before making a smooth, yet abrupt switch to restrained floating ambiance. The reprieve is short-lived, however, as a militaristic cadence kicks in with a pulsing sense of doom and dread, the symphonics blaring in the background with piercing authority. There's a long pause, interrupted by Wesley Snipes urging us to "Use it, use it!" and then a sinewy synth beat kicks in, bubbling underneath a haunting string section and offset by lingering '70s soul-funk guitar strokes. It's apparent that this one song is really two separate movements of the same theme; one a blazing techno workout, the other an update on classic '70s blaxploitation scores.
The biggest complaint/let down with the Blade: Trinity Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is that the music has been more or less segregated. The rap tracks make up the first portion of the album and then the largely instrumental, high energy electronic tracks fill up the latter portion. Granted the track listing more or less follows the order that the songs appear in the film, but as a stand alone album it would have been better to have sequenced them in a more random order, mixing up the rap and the electronic tracks to give listeners a more cohesive, overall listening experience.
