Zanobard Reviews

Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch’s thunderously vocal score for Predator: Badlands succeeds in just how dramatically different it is, with the use of the Yautja language as a powerfully chanting theme for Dek alongside pounding drums standing out significantly – altogether almost making up for the complete lack of Alan Silvestri material.

Right from the outset, Predator: Badlands seemed like it was going to be a very different type of Predator movie to that of its predecessors – largely because unlike previous films, it actually follows a Yautja as its protagonist rather than a group of humans. With that in mind, and the fact that Prey composer Sarah Schachner was announced to be collaborating with Predator: Killer Of Killers composer Benjamin Wallfisch on Badlands, to say I was curious indeed about this upcoming score is understating things for certain. What does a Yautja-focused score sound like? Will Alan Silvestri’s iconic themes return? Important questions, so let’s waste no further time and dive straight into answering them. The new album opens with “Yautja Prime”, and immediately there’s a completely new sound for the franchise. Deep, electronically gutteral vocals growl intensely as the music begins – actually chanting in the Yautja language, believe it or not, according to Schachner herself – before dramatically imposing drums, burning brass and surging electronics build to a rapid crescendo. The track then quietens slightly, simmering moodily with the vocals still in tow, before the thundering drums and loudly aggressive chanting return to crash the cue intensely to its end.

All-in, wow there’s a lot to unpack here. Credit where credit’s due to Schachner – who composed this track – I’m really impressed. The intensely eerie-sounding electronics combined with the altered, deeply gutteral vocals creates such an alien sound, and at the same time the emphatic drum and brass usage has such dramatic undertones of warrior and honour in their practically knuckle-cracking thunder, which overall really well captures the Yautja and their culture in both sound and mood. Now that said – there’s no Silvestri here, which is a bit of a shame. Perhaps that’ll appear later, but honestly (and perhaps blasphemously) I’m almost tempted to say this score doesn’t need it, that’s how intriguingly unique this soundtrack style is. What a start!

A deafening percussive charge leads “Brothers”, with dramatically in-your-face vocals aggressively chanting the Yautja language throughout alongside bursts of loud brass and frantic strings. The score then slows for the more emotional “Earn Your Place”, with the vocals dialing up the alien styling from earlier as their electronic alterations intensify alongside now quietly pensive strings. It doesn’t take long though for the frenetic action to return, as “Bad Plant” thunders the deafening drums back into centre stage alongside anxious cello bursts – you can tell Sarah Schachner has composed this track, that’s for sure (and that’s no bad thing, it sounds great). The shorter “Badlands” then continues in a similar manner with aggressive brass and vocals, before some rather alien-sounding electric ambience then gently fades the cue into finishing tranquility. “Spiky Plants” then echoes with eerie electronics layered on top of the plinking tranquility from the back half of “Badlands”, before “Meet Thia” changes things up completely with some much more human-sounding chanting vocals. These lighter and more free-sounding chants – a motif of sorts for Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia, a major character in the film – then combine with aggressive strings and deeper vocals in the back half for some intensely wary action.

I see what this score is doing thematically, and it’s actually really intriguing; motifs rather than full themes, the deeper and more aggressive vocals we’ve heard already are for Dek, the Yautja protagonist who’s trying to ‘prove himself’, and they contrast really well with the lighter vocal ideas for Thia too. The gently ethereal ambience – a motif presumably for the alien planet the two main characters find themselves on – then returns for “Other Half”, before “Tessa” then gives the score pause as moodily malevolent, marching electronics occupy centre stage alongside an eerie vocal humming, introducing an antagonistic motif for the titular Weyland-Yutani synthetic who works against Dek and Thia in the film. Benjamin Wallfisch then takes the compositional reins for “Razor Grass”, with pounding drums and chanting Yautja vocals building intensely in the first minute before action truly kicks off – the Yautja chanting becomes loud, electronically distorted and distinctly aggressive from here as it crashes alongside frenetic strings and deafening drums, building to several in-your-face crescendos before finally reaching its intense end at just past five minute long. The gently wondrous atmosphere of Schachner’s Prey then happily returns for “The Alpha”, with a cello playing centrally alongside the ever-imposing Yautja vocals.

An uneasy sense of tranquility overtakes the music for “Lost And Found” alongside moody vocal echoes of the Yautja, increasingly frenetic strings and the occasional lighter vocal interspersion for Thia. A loud electronic surge then opens “The Kalisk”, with the pounding drums returning alongside the more aggressively alien action sound of earlier cues and the ever-in-your-face Yautja chanting through much of the track until a worrisomely high-pitched crescendo closes it out. The more solemn, strings-focused “Sisters” then quietens the mood somewhat with “Wolfpack” afterward continuing at a similarly relaxed pace, reprising the echoing electronically altered Yautja vocals together with wary strings. Tense, espionage-sounding electronics are then the focus of “Infiltration” alongside moody cello interspersions, anxious drums and increasingly aggressive chanting, with the subsequent “Leg Fight” starting to creep into action territory again as it builds to a frenetic string and electronic-focused crescendo. The Wallfisch-composed “Let’s Go Hunt” then returns to the action-focused orchestral/electronic surges of earlier, with now deafening Yautja vocals unsurprisingly in centre stage. One thing that I will really commend so far actually, is that Schachner and Wallfisch don’t sound like two clashing compositional styles at all on this album – they blend together pretty damned seamlessly, and effectively too.

Quietly sorrowful strings are the focus of “Chosen Family”, again harkening back to the softer, more wondrous side of Schachner’s Prey score, until the eerily marching percussion and vocals for antagonist Tessa return in “Last Chance”, battling against unrelentingly rapid strings and dramatically in-your-face bursts of brass and Yautja vocals representing Dek. The music then settles somewhat for the quieter, more reflective “Betrayed” and the subsequent “The Partnership”, with hopeful strings building to enthusiastically wondrous levels for the latter particularly – again evoking Schachner’s Prey. “Dek Of The Yautja” then brings the titular Predator’s vocal chanting to its emphatic conclusion, thundering triumphantly alongside aggressive drums, strings and brass in about as intensely heroic as manner as the titular Yautja would likely allow. To close out the album, Benjamin Wallfisch then treats us to a thunderous Standout duo in “Prey To None” and “Yautja Prayer”, with the former dialing up the volume on the ever-chanting Yautja vocals to the max alongside deafening drums and brass, and the latter leaning into the more proud, honourable aspect of the titular species, ending the score on a powerfully epic note.

Overall, the big draw of Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score for Predator: Badlands is without doubt its thunderously different compositional style; that impeccable combination of deep, intensely gutteral and utterly alien-sounding vocals grunting out the Yautja language alongside enthusiastically deafening frenetic drums, brass and cello is absolutely phenomenal in representing the titular Predators and their culture, almost to the point where you can forgive the composers for not including any reference to Alan Silvestri’s iconic original score, bar the occasional percussive hint. Honestly though, despite that downside I do give Schachner & Wallfisch major props for, much like director Dan Trachtenberg with the Yautja-focused premise of the film itself, trying something significantly different with this Predator score. The result overall is such a unique and fittingly alien sound, whether its through the ever-thunderous action setpieces (“The Kalisk”,”Prey To None”) or the gently tranquil atmospheric cues (“Badlands”,”Spiky Plants”), and I also really like the use of vocal motifs for protagonists Dek (“Dek Of The Yautja”) and Thia (“Meet Thia”) as well as antagonistic synthetic Tessa (“Tessa”). All-in you can tell a lot of work has gone into this score stylistically and thematically, and the result is honestly one of the better film scores of the year.

Love that Yautja language.

Score: 8/10

Standout Cues: Dek Of The Yautja, Prey To None, Yautja Prayer

Follow me on Twitter for the latest soundtrack and review-based news!