Zanobard Reviews

Benjamin Wallfisch’s eerily unnerving score for Alien: Romulus is a proper treat for Alien fans for the most part; it features a brand new dramatically malevolent motif for the Xenomorph alongside two character pieces, with Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic original themes, Horner’s stabbing brass action style, Gregson-Williams’ Prometheus motif and Goldenthal’s grand orchestrations too. If it wasn’t for some irritatingly distorted ear-piercing electronics in some of the action, it’d be near perfect.

The score for Alien: Romulus is made up of a dramatic orchestral whirlwind of themes, both old and new. In terms of Wallfisch’s own creations up first is Rain’s theme, the motif for the titular main character of the film. Hers is a gently hopeful four note piece that makes its debut in “That’s Our Sun”, playing wondrously on loud brass, strings and ethereal vocals. Secondly is then Andy’s theme, for Rain’s brother – it’s a slightly more serious motif but intriguingly is made up of the same notes played backward (to symbolise their sibling relationship), and it appears in its fullest form in track “Andy”. Thirdly and finally for Wallfisch’s original motifs here is then of course the theme for the Xenomorph itself; it’s a boldly and darkly dramatic piece as you might expect, and like Andy’s is also connected to Rain via its notes – it has the same notes in fact, just with one additional one at the end. It’s a striking similarity and a curious one, but orchestral style helps to keep the two themes musically separate as Rain’s is hopeful at heart, and the Xenomorph’s is of course the antithesis in its dark and moody nature. It debuts in sinister string form in opening cue “The Chrysalis” alongside a couple of rather familiar musical notes, and it’s those that we’ll move on to next.

Naturally of course with a brand new Alien soundtrack, the question at mind inevitably is; does it use any of the classic themes or styles from Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic 1979 original, or James Horner’s more action-centric Aliens sequel score? (Or indeed, if you’re a bigger Alien fan – how about Elliot Goldenthal’s terrifyingly foreboding 1992 ALIEN³?) And the answer happily for Romulus here is yes it absolutely does, and from all three no less (and even an extra one too, all of which we’ll get into in a bit). So to start this review proper, Jerry Goldsmith’s iconically eerie opening notes from his main title from Alien appear just prior to Wallfisch’s Xenomorph motif in “The Chrysalis” alongside a couple interspersed notes from the secondary main theme, with a very creepy chanting choir then bringing the track to a sinister close a minute later. From here Wallfisch then starts to build atmosphere, with a brief glint of grandly orchestral hope in the aforementioned “That’s Our Sun” before “Entering Nostromo” reprises the Xenomorph theme on low-pitched and rather sinister-sounding strings. The now rather creepy ambience continues throughout the three minute piece and continues into “Searching”, where its joined by string flurries, moodily low-pitched brass and some rather ethereal vocals.

“There’s Something In The Water” is where the score admittedly starts to lose me a little. It’s where that horribly grating, barely listenable (sorry, but it’s true) high-pitched, frantic, distorted electronic thunder that features through a lot of horror soundtracks nowadays starts to appear. As soon as it began here I thought no come on, you were doing so well! Thankfully though this sort of distorted electronic soundscape doesn’t appear too often on the album. The subsequent “XX121” for example returns to the gentle sinister ambience from earlier with a few gentle notes from Goldsmith’s original Alien theme, before Wallfisch’s own Xenomorph piece then lurches dramatically into frame on tense brass later on in the track. Action setpiece “He’s Glitchy” then features frenetic heartbeat-like percussion for much of its four minute runtime, keeping tensions high and the pace at terrifying levels throughout its runtime alongside eerie electronic hints. Some distortion elements do annoyingly return in the back half though. The similarly frantic “Run!” then features dramatic electronic thunder in its opening minute before the Xenomorph theme returns on high-pitched and very creepy-sounding strings.

“Prometheus Fire” then does exactly what you’d hope it would from its title; the Xenomorph motif dramatically opens the track before none other than Harry Gregson-Williams’ wondrous main theme from Prometheus makes a surprise cameo alongside interspersed notes from Goldsmith’s original Alien. It’s a short appearance, but a welcome one nonetheless. “Guns V Acid Blood” then reprises James Horner’s crashing, stabbing brass action style from Aliens alongside Wallfisch’s Xenomorph theme throughout its ninety second runtime, with thunder then turning to wonder in the subsequent “The Hive” as Rain’s theme reprises alongside the Xenomorph’s on strings. A grandy orchestral crescendo is then built up to in the opening seconds of “Gravity Purge” before high-pitched horror-like strings tear the music right back down as the atmosphere rapidly descends into dark, jumpscare-esque territory. The terrifying choir from the opening track then returns alongside deafening bursts of brass and frenetic drums in “Elevator Shaft Attack”, with the orchestra kicking up a proper pace all across the minute-long cue.

Four minute action setpiece “Get Away From Her” then continues in a similar vein, with the dramatically in-your-face orchestra and pelting choir reprising Wallfisch’s Rain, Xenomorph and Andy motifs throughout as well as Horner’s aggressive percussion-isms and Goldsmith’s eerie ambience, and even a little stylistic hint towards Goldenthal at the end. “The Offspring” then descends into much creepier territory, with eerily out of tune strings and extremely unsettling electronics evoking a keen sense of just alien-ness. It’s an otherworldly track, this one, and not for the faint of heart (it’s a tough listen, for sure). With the album approaching its end, “Collision Warning” thunders the action to its finish with those unfortunate electronic distortions alongside crashing brass and frenetic strings. “Raine” then reprises Rain’s theme in thunderously dark, victorious form, with some increasingly dramatic and foreboding vocals and very Goldenthal-esque grand orchestrations forming its stylistic baseline until the track thunders to finish at the minute mark. Final track “Sleep” then closes the album on a gentler yet still eerie strings note, with Rain’s theme playing serenely until the track pushes to a rather horror-like vocal crescendo.

Overall, Benjamin Wallfisch’s fittingly unnerving score for Alien: Romulus tries thematically to have it all, to some pretty superb – but not perfect – results, all said. The composer introduces three brand new themes to the franchise in the hopeful Rain’s (see “That’s Our Sun”) the more serious Andy’s (see “Andy”) and the darkly foreboding Xenomorph’s (“The Chrysalis”) that are all intertwined in notational similarity, but starkly different in orchestral style and each enjoyably recognisable once you start to catch them on album. In addition, Wallfisch also reprises Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic original themes from the 1979 movie (“XX121”), as well as James Horner’s stabbing brass action style from Aliens (“Guns V Acid Blood”), Harry Gregson-Williams’ wondrous Prometheus theme (“Prometheus Fire”) and even hints towards Elliot Goldenthal’s grand orchestrations from ALIEN³ (“Raine”). And you’d think the album would be a bit of a mess because of all this, but actually for the most part – it kinda works.

Each of the themes play in eerie harmony with the rest of the music here and never outstay their welcome, enhancing and enriching it throughout. For me, the Xenomorph motif’s grandly brass and choir-based playthroughs in “The Chrysalis”, “Prometheus Fire” and “Get Away From Her” are the highlight as they sound phenomenal (in a really eerie, forebodingly malevolent kind-of-way) and that then gets us to the best part, which is that Wallfisch’s grandly orchestral and vocal-centric style here really works. It fits the eerily unnerving musical atmosphere of Alien like a glove, and if it wasn’t for those damned annoying harshly distorted electronics that keep appearing in the action music, it’d be pretty much perfect. On the subject of negatives, I would’ve liked an end credits cue perhaps or some sort of larger setpiece to really cement the new themes and style (as most tracks here are unfortunately quite short), but the thunderous action powerhouse “Get Away From Her” is reasonably close as it reprises most of the above stylistically and thematically, so it’s not an apocalyptic issue.

Just check out “The Chrysalis” and soak in that stylistic and thematic atmosphere. Pure Alien.

Score: 8/10

Standout Cues: The Chrysalis/Prometheus Fire/Get Away From Her

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