A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

After his cult movies Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, director George A. Romero has stretched himself by going against type and making Land of the Dead in which a group of zombies do lots of nasty things to innocent people.  The composing team of Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek first attracted attention with their music for Run Lola, Run and later with One Hour Photo and the tv series Without a Trace.  Their edgy synth music would seem ideal for an unsettling horror movie, and so it proves (in a way).

The dark, unsettling music pounds away and away somewhat anonymously and creates a genuinely freaky listening experience.  With barely a trace of warmth, the music is ideal for the film.  For sure, there is little personality to it, but then you wouldn't expect there to be.  The music is entirely electronic, though it uses expensive orchestral samples and I'm sure the uninitiated wouldn't really notice the difference; needless to say, there is also layer upon layer of percussion accompanying everything.  At 75 minutes, the album is extremely long - some may even say torturously so.   If it doesn't contradict some sort of United Nations humanitarian directive, then it should, simply because the music is so unnerving.

For all its effectiveness, though, it really isn't particularly impressive on any sort of musical level and the album is not entertaining.  This is film music to stay in a film, not music to be listened to on an album.

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Tracks

1. Sometime Ago (2:15)
2. Eats (1:03)
3. Big Daddy (2:20)
4. Call It A Night (2:32)
5. Last Night (2:43)
6. Department Store Raid (2:13)
7. Into Liquour Store (:50)
8. Liquor Store (2:25)
9. Military Zone (:57)
10. Saving Slack (1:03)
11. Cholo Escapes (:18)
12. Zombie Targets (1:24)
13. Stealing Dead Reckoning (3:09)
14. Meeting Kaufman (:53)
15. Leaving Mouse (1:31)
16. Team Into City (2:09)
17. Looking for Ammo (3:37)
18. Shoot Manolette (1:21)
19. Driving to Drop Off (2:47)
20. Zombies on the River Bank (1:22)
21. Surface (2:07)
22. City Battle (3:56)
23. Overcome Cholo (2:05)
24. Back to the City (2:56)
25. Cholo Bitten (1:11)
26. The Battle Continues (1:20)
27. Mercy Killing (2:16)
28. Zombies Enter Mall (:45)
29. Mall Slaughter (1:54)
30. Dead Reckoning Under Siuege (1:36)
31. Get Away (2:51)
32. You Have No Right! (:37)
33. Gasoline (4:01)
34. The Massacre (2:18)
35. Now We Can Go (:28)
36. To Canada (6:50)