Fans of Alan Silvestri's Predator music got a real treat earlier in 2003 when the Varese Sarabande CD Club gave the score its first-ever official release.  Previously, they had to be satisfied with the release of Silvestri's score for the 1990 sequel, which was released by the same label, though into stores as a regular release.  It's a fairly similar affair though probably expands on the ideas from the original score and arguably has one or two more highlights.

The most notable aspect is the jungle percussion that pervades much of the score.  Ironically the film itself was this time not set in the jungle, but perhaps Silvestri was attempting to crank up an imposing atmosphere or even trying some play on the fact that the film is set in the "urban jungle".  Whatever he was doing, it was a highly-effective approach, bearing remarkable similarities to John Williams's dino-sequel score The Lost World several years later.

The album is split fairly evenly between action music and suspense material.  If there's one thing Silvestri does well, it's action music; and if there's one thing he does badly, it's suspense (witness something like Identity).  All of which means that there's a slightly uneven flow to the album as it plays out, with wonderfully exciting material sometimes being buried fairly deeply in with the interminably dull suspense stuff.  When the score explodes - like in "Tunnel Chase" or "This is History" - it's a joy to behold - but you do have to go through the grinder a little in order to get there.

If truth be told - and I know this will be a controversial comment - the nine-minute end credit suite is so effective at summing up not only this score but also the first one that I would say if you had that cue on a compilation (and it is available on the Silvestri compilation released by Varese in the mid-1990s) then you don't really need either of the two scores in full.  Multi-layered and terrifically exciting, it's a really driving, wonderful piece, clearly one of the highlights of the composer's career.  The rest?  Well, I could take it or leave it.

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