Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines

Pumping Brad Fiedel's brooding original theme with even more menace, the composer proceeds to forge a massive, unsettling panorama of percussion-driven, electronic suffused orchestral fury that evokes an unsettling, mechanized world gone mad. Sounding like the symphonic sensibilities of Prokofiev and Shostakovich as interpreted by the mechanised forges and stamping machines of some hellish assembly line, Beltrami uses the most aggressive elements of 20th century Russian romanticism here like a steel club. There are moments of stem-winding suspense and surprisingly tranquil respites, but the main attraction is the sturm und drang of Beltrami's furious and often other-worldly action music. Also included are the gentle acoustic ballads "Open to Me" and "I Told You" by Dillon Dixon and Mia Julia, respectively, performances that seem jarringly out of place contrasted against the score's orchestral metal-fest. --Jerry McCulley