The Raid: Redemption (Original Motion Picture Score & Soundtrack)

Editors’ Notes Upon learning that they would score the soundtrack to a film from the good folks who brought us Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle, Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese must have known they had their work cut out for them. The music they’ve created for The Raid: Redemption fits the story as snugly as body armor, contrasting watercolored serenity with a hyper-tense cold sweat. The opening “Prayers” sets the tone with light piano notes played over an ascending ambient pulse, before the anxiety-building “Gear Up” perfectly punctuates the protagonist’s preparation for battle. The brooding drones and industrial beats give “The Arrival” a dark beauty, akin to Vangelis’ bar-raising score for 1982’s Blade Runner. The tension comes to an apex with “We Have Company,” nearly five minutes of hard-pulsing dubstep replete with a low-wobbling bass that booms like shifting tectonic plates. The soundtrack bookends with Chino Moreno’s mechanized ballad “Razors.Out” bleeding into Get Busy Committee’s hip-hop dirge “Suicide Music.”