VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande and Craft Recordings announce the first-ever vinyl release of Clint Mansell’s adrenaline-fueled score for Doom. This 2-LP set will be available on Green and Orange Smoke vinyl (in homage to the Doomguy’s suit colors) in North America, while the international edition is pressed on Black Ice vinyl. Releasing October 11th and available for pre-order today, Doom (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) will be available in a gatefold jacket featuring brand-new illustrations by acclaimed artist Micha Huigen on the cover and the inside of the package.
Doom (2005) is a horror sci-fi feature film adaptation of the hit game from id Software, starring Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, and Dwayne Johnson (billed as The Rock). A team of marines are sent through a portal to a research facility on Mars, where they must battle demonic creatures which are revealed to be mutated humans from genetic experiments.
The action-packed romp features many nods to iconography of the Doom video games, creature designs by the legendary Stan Winston Studios and a lengthy first-person shooter sequence. The forward-thinking score by Clint Mansell elevated the tone and energy of the film by blending orchestration and electronics with authentic alt-rock elements, which crescendoed with a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song “You Know What You Are?.” Praised IGN, “When the score is raging and bombastic, clanking and thrashing metal, it is absolutely at its best.”
While Doom’s monsters and zombies are of alien origin, Mansell’s score hearkens to the games’ satanic birthplace of these beasts. The score smartly evolves from haunted house spookiness to balls-out action, all impeccably produced. “I wanted to sort of capture the adrenaline and that sort of metal thrash that goes with the game and world in my opinion. It’s like it needed something edgy,” Mansell commented on his creative process for the liner notes. “The original thought was to do a big orchestral score, and there is some orchestra in it, but it’s a very contemporary-type movie and the score needed to be contemporary, too.”
Mansell’s score ferociously operates right on the edge of turning to full rhythmic anarchy. Slicing percussion and voice erupt on “Destroyed” and manic drumming signal a “Containment Breach,” showcasing the composer’s continual use of musical attack and atmospheric flight. It’s in the notoriously exhilarating “First Person Shooter” where Mansell reaches his rock and roll apotheosis for the piece that served as the origin of his score: A gut-busting guitar solo unleashes his action theme into an electrifying, head-exploding concert of metal and synth effects.
Composer Clint Mansell started his music career as the lead vocalist of the British cult alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself. After the band dissolved, Mansell moved to the United States and went on to become a prolific film score composer. He’s best known for his multi-decade collaboration with filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, composing the scores for his films Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, and Noah, which resulted in esteemed accolades for Mansell, including nominations for a Golden Globe® and a GRAMMY®.
