Articles - Music Reviews

Over the past decade the computer games industry has grown so astronomically quickly that major releases now have the budget to employ big name artists to aid in the creation of a “soundtrack”.  Ubisoft has done just this for the third installment of the uber-popular “Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory”; they have enlisted Amon Tobin, from Ninja Tunes, to supply a soundtrack that is designed to interact with the player’s movements and actions! 

The sound is very characteristic Amon Tobin but for this release has been designed with four levels of intensity to coincide with Splinter Cell’s activity levels (from Stealth to Major Alert).  The game itself focuses on the current political situation in North Korea and pits a lone US agent, fighting for the free world, against a whole army of North Koreans.

“Ruthless” is probably the best track on the album with its dark, menacing and over-bearing beats.  It leads nicely into the orchestral composition “Theme from Battery” intended for the tense nail-biting scenes. Amon Tobin definitely hit the nail on the head when composing for this dangerously dark and mysterious theme.  However this album is so fantastic that one needs not to be a gamer to appreciate the raw and unsurpassed talent of the jazzy drum n’ bass master Amon Tobin.

Track Listing:
01.  The Lighthouse
02.  Ruthless
03.  Theme from Battery
04.  Kokubo Sosho Stealth
05.  El Cargo
06.  Displaced
07.  Ruthless (Reprise)
08.  Kokubo Sosho Stealth (adapted from Cougar Merkin)
09.  Hokkaido
10.  The Clean Up

www.love-da-records.com

Genre: Electronica

Review by: Melissa B.