Orchestrated and Conducted by Nic Raine

Performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic

Produced by James Fitzpatrick, Andrew Barnabas and Paul Arnold

Release Date: June 10, 2003

            Silva Screen Records
 

     With Michael Giacchino's orchestral score to The Lost World: Jurassic Park game for the Playstation platform, video game music got a long-needed shot in the arm. It hadn't been that the music before wasn't ear-catching. Composers had been working with the limited capabilities of what would be analogous (if not the same thing) to the MIDI system and had been delivering wonderful game scores this way for a long time prior (especially on the Super Nintendo platform where scores of this type had their heyday). Still, nothing beats the sound of a full orchestra, so once gaming systems reached a point where they could easily handle digital background music, it was only a matter of time before that would become the rage.

     From Silva Screen records comes this latest album of music composed for the Playstation 2 title, Primal. Originally scored in MIDI, composers Andrew Barnabas and Paul Arnold (who work under the professional title of Bob and Barn) convinced the powers-that-be to allow them to record it with a full orchestra. Thankfully, the offer was accepted and the music was translated for use by the City of Prague Philharmonic under the baton of Nic Raine. In addition to the orchestra, the score to Primal also utilizes the talents of a full chorus. The result of which is a score that sounds very film-like in a way that's similar in heaviness to Medal of Honor: Frontline, but that runs off in a totally different direction stylistically.

     Atmosphere is king in Primal's score, which is comprised into five suites from different areas in the game. Thematic usage is light, though appreciated with music that is so otherworldly and epic that you'll be entranced just listening to it move along throughout its different worlds. A large part of its success is definitely found in the chorus which contributes most of that epic sound in a way that reminded me of Howard Shore's chorus work from the Lord of the Rings films, even down to the non-English chanting lyrics (The Turbulent Depths).

     As impressive as this effort is, the battle tracks seem a bit lacking for all the power that is being pushed out during those cues. A bit more effort on the construction of those pieces would have helped, but they're really not all that bad, they just don't stand out as well as they should seem to. Additionally, there are several moments throughout that will call to mind plenty of other scores in ways that can be distracting at times (it's not really a rip-off as much as it is a musical cliché). The Blue Danube even makes an appearance (that degenerates itself towards the end in a cool way) in Dark Science, and though I'm sure there's a reason in the context of the game, it's appearance is quite startling here. Still, these are relatively minor faults and in no way cripple the rest of the score.

1 - Opening Credits

Nexus

2 - The Timekeeper

3 - Arella's Theme

4 - A Love Lost

5 - Jen Meets Arella

Battle

6 - Raum & Empusa

Solum

7 - The Demon Awakes

8 - Coliseum

9 - A Prince in Chains

Aquis

10 - World of Water

11 - The Turbulent Depths

12 - A Kingdom Restored

Battle

13 - The Mad King

Aetha

14 - Mountain of Suffering

15 - Devil's Waltz

16 - Dark Science

17 - The Helot

Volca

18 - Temple of Flame

Battle

19 - Hall of Gods

20 - Journey's End