Zanobard Reviews

Tom Holkenborg’s score for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga sadly pales in comparison to its Fury Road predecessor; where the original had powerful moments of thunderous heroism and emotional poignancy this album simply has none, resulting in an unrelentingly chaotic percussion-heavy soundtrack with none of the payoffs that made the first worth a listen.

Interestingly, those same dramatically moody string notes that opened Holkenborg’s score for Mad Max: Fury Road also open the album for prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. In starting track “The Pole Of Inaccessibility”, said notes followed by a burst of tense electronics pretty firmly re-establish the solemn, downtrodden musical world of the first film before suddenly – and rather unusually – dialogue! The solemn words ‘as the world falls around us, how must we brave its cruelties?’ are mysteriously uttered, before a rather serene duduk – a woodwind instrument – then brings the rather atmospheric opening cue to an eerie close. The subsequent “Dementus” then leans into much more sinister and at times horror-like territory, with moody swathes of ominous electronics and high-pitched jumpscare-esque strings cementing this tonal switch throughout the track’s three minute runtime. The solemn duduk then reprises in the ambient “The Promise”, with the occasional malevolent electronic undertone rumbling. This then continues into “You Are Awaited”, with the same electronics echoing quietly though until a short crescendo is reached with rising vocals and dramatic drums. From three and a half minutes however the music then rapidly picks up the pace, with worrisome brass taking centre stage opposite increasingly tense percussion and additional vocals until another, much louder crescendo crashes out the cue.

Eerie electronic tension opens “The Bear”, building in both volume and intensity until ominously fading out at the two minute mark. This tension then continues into “You’re Scum” where it builds from sinisterly quiet in the first half to imposingly loud in the second with deafening bursts of brass and electronics. The musical chaos then gets a brief respite – much like how it did in Mad Max: Fury Road – in “Wives’ Quarters” with downtrodden, withdrawn strings taking a rather solemn central role throughout the four minute track. The duduk accompanied by ethereal vocals then reprises in “The Wig And The Seed”, before dramatic action once again rears its head in the nine minute “The Stowaway”; here loudly aggressive electronics and high-pitched horror-like strings take prominence through much of this cue, with angrily imposing drums and brass too then building up to furious intensity in the final deafening minute. “Fata Morgana” then briefly slows things down with mysteriously ethereal vocals before “Gastown” leaps straight back into the chaotic action, with the ever in-your-face War Boys motif from Fury Road also making an appearance amongst the sea of unending roaring electronics and deafening drums.

“A Noble Cause” slows the pace back down in its opening minute with some quietly pensive strings taking centre stage, before additional, horror-like strings and eerie electronics then slowly start to seep back into the music, turning the tone cold and ominous for the back half of the track. The subsequent “The Bullet Farm” then continues in much a similar vein for its first minute or so until a loud burst of malevolent brass heralds the return of chaotic percussive action with the occasional creepy appearance from vocals until loudly horror-like strings and a final burst of brass then brings the seven minute cue to a crashing crescendo finish. “Dementus Is Gaining” then picks up where this leaves off, with bursts of low-pitched electronics and brass seeding a particularly villainous tone throughout the first half, and the ominous War Boys motif leading a tense percussive charge in the second. Foreboding strings then occupy much of the first half of “Dementus’ Diatribe” with loud bursts of tense brass and drums briefly taking over in the second minute until the action comes to a crashing sudden stop, and the gently solemn duduk brings the track to a quiet finish. With the album approaching its end, “At The Dawn Of War” continues the moodily malevolent atmosphere of earlier until “The Darkest Of Gods” then reprises the deafening drums for one final burst of chaotic action in its back half, and “Epilogue” reprises the unusual dialogue of the opening cue alongside sorrowful strings to close out the soundtrack.

Overall, Tom Holkenborg’s score for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a lot like its predecessor Mad Max: Fury Road with its loud and unapologetically aggressive musical style intersposed with brief solemn string respites, but there is one unfortunate and rather key difference; it doesn’t have any of the grander moments inbetween that made Fury Road worth the listen. With Furiosa, you keep waiting for that “Storm Is Coming” or “Brothers In Arms”-like moment where the musical chaos suddenly gives way to fist-pumpingly heroic harmony or a powerfully emotional swell, but unfortunately those moments just… don’t come here. Whether the film just doesn’t call for them remains to be seen, but for me it’s a bitter disappointment there aren’t any here when they were basically the best parts of Fury Road. Without them, the best thing the score here has to offer – other than the somehow even more chaotic percussive action elements that some may enjoy – are the gentler string moments like in “Wives’ Quarters” or “A Noble Cause”, but even these fall a bit flat memorability-wise without motifs like Fury Road. Why doesn’t Furiosa’s theme reprise? Perhaps it was never a theme for her at all. At any rate, without themes or bigger emotional moments to catch your ear, sadly Furiosa just… doesn’t stick with me. An endless barrage of noise without the more interesting elements that Fury Road had to justify a listen. If you liked the musical chaos aspect that score offered you may well like this, but that’s about all it has to offer sadly.

The dialogue in the music here is also weird. I thought we did away with that kind of thing in the ’90s.

Score: 4.5/10

Standout Cue: 7. Wives’ Quarters

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