The "pop" movie soundtrack is, in my opinion, a hit-or-miss affair. Sometimes, when popular music is important to the mood of the film, it can have some amazing results (i.e. The Crow, the Blade films, or the vastly underrated Less Than Zero), or it can merely be a mishmash of "it" bands trying to bleed a few more dollars out of the teenage audience the movie is targeting (who also have the most disposable income). Did the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (which still took place in the 1970’s) really need a soundtrack of unrelated new millennium metal music, when perhaps some Lynyrd Skynyrd would have fit the tone a little better? On the other hand, many orchestral movie soundtracks honestly don’t have the memorable qualities that they had in days gone by. Sadly, many modern film scores are derivative and forgettable: horror movies feel the need to use that high-pitched violin wail for every "creepy" moment to the point that the audio itself can destroy the scare through its own cliched nature. The epic film seems to have fed itself completely from the table scraps of John Williams, and I can think of several new composers who can probably caught on any given night sifting through Danny Elfman’s trash looking for a new arrangement. Where have all the Ennio Morricones and the Howard Shores of the world gone?

Of course, I should be fair and point out some of the amazing composers out there who often mix popular music in with classical scores with some genuine greatness: The Rza’s ability to mix Eastern sensibilities with good old-fashioned 8-0-8 hip-hop beats are beyond bad-ass, Marco Beltrami does a similar feat, and now Charlie Clouser, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, has wowed me with his dark and dirty treatment for the movie SAW. Given the fact that SAW seems to be almost an American giallo, having a memorable score is incredibly important (would Argento‘s films be where they are without Goblin?), and I’m happy to report that Mr. Clouser does not disappoint. His pieces are audio ultraviolence, splatters of orchestral arrangements cut with metal-on-metal shrieks, dull steely clanks, and driving drum machines that range from utterly beautiful to downright scary.

Indeed, his pieces are easily my favorite parts of the soundtrack released by Koch Records. It’s a roughly 70/30 split between the film score and "songs inspired by" the film, with rather nice results. Starting off with the Skinny Puppy seasoned "Sturm" by Front Line Assembly, sidling up with the Fear Factory’s almost balladic "Bite The Hand That Bleeds," and closing with the sweeping "Zepp Overature" (sic) by Clouser, it’s simultaneously beautiful and unnerving. The songs themselves seem very well-picked, all of them following an overall industrial-synth theme, where even the weakest of songs seems to weave their way into the soundtrack thematically. Sure, Pitbull Daycare’s "You Make Me Feel So Dead" is a huge industrial cliche both musically and lyrically, but it fits the disc like a glove.

While I have yet to see the movie SAW as of this review, I can tell you one thing: its soundtrack is damned good. It’s dark, grimy, abrasive, and downright unpleasant at times. However, when you’ve got song titles like "Reverse Beartrap," and "F**K This S*!T," it damn well better be unpleasant! My kudos to you, Charlie Clouser for a great score, and to the soundtrack producers for collecting some great songs that slide in between just right.