MONSTERSATPLAY.COM
While Richard Band may not be responsible for
some of the true greats in 80's horror soundtracks he does have
quite a few gems under his belt. Before dipping into the Full
Moon catalog late 80's early 90's to work his magic he blessed
us with fantastic themes and musical interludes for such films
as Ghoulies, Troll, the often forgotten Prison and who could
ever forget the groundbreaking sounds that accompanied Stuart
Gordon's Re-Animator? (also available on CD from La-La Land
records) We had the opportunity to check out La La Land's recent
soundtrack release from another Stuart Gordon classic scored
by Richard Band, 1986's From Beyond.
The film itself has always been a favorite among fans with it's
squishy and bizarre low-rent (yet effective) creature effects
along with the presence of Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton,
both of whom had appeared together the previous year in Gordon's
Re-Animator. The film itself has yet to make a proper appearance
on the digital format (there's a muddy HK disc available) but
thankfully - fans can now enjoy the remastered soundtrack like
never before.
The discs clear inner tray reveals a selected
Richard Band filmography and there's also a full color 6-page
insert which includes pictures along with words from Stuart
Gordon, Richard Band and writer Randall D Larson. The liner
notes do a great job of going into detail about the process
of scoring From Beyond and how Band opted to forgo his usual
thematic elements in an attempt to create a more other worldly
type of atmosphere by using electronic elements, strings and
recurring motifs. From Beyond offers up a great soundtrack for
genre fans and this crystal clear recording provided by La La
Land Records comes highly recommended. The run is limited to
3,000 copies, so you better act quick. I'm assuming that once
they are gone, they're gone forever!
Lawrence
P. Raffel
Movies Editor
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