Trials Of The Blood Dragon Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the video game Trials Of The Blood Dragon by Power Glove.
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At a glance:
Geek Score: 100
Total Minutes Of Excellence: 74.9
Album Excellence: 100%
How are the scores calculated and what does it mean?
Trials Of The Blood Dragon is a 2016 trials racing game developed by Redlynx and published by Ubisoft. The year is 2019. Roxanne and Slayter, the offspring of the legendary Rex Power Colt, are going to Vietnam War 4 to save freedom, and save the world. The game is using the Trials game engine mixing it up with 80s style shenanigans. The score is composed by Power Glove.
Well this came right out of left field. I didn’t see it coming. When I saw the title and composer I immediately thought this was a sequel to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, but it wasn’t. Instead they have taken clear inspiration from that game, using the family of the main character Rex Power Colt for a new story. Not only that, but they have put it in the Ubisoft Trials universe. Brilliant! I saw the trailer for the game and they made it like an 80s toy commercials with all the ridiculousness that comes with. It was awesome and I expect the music to be just as awesome. The music for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon drew heavy inspiration from Terminator and other 80s synth scores so you can imagine my excitement for this one.
The score opens with ‘Vietnam War IV’ and the mood has been set with heavy percussion and a subtle win effect plus some haunting vocals. Then at 35 seconds, the synths start and I’m in 80s heaven. Yeah this is going to be great. The title cue ‘Trials Of The Blood Dragon’ is a love letter to 80s action films with everything that entails. Oh yeah, I am transformed back into time where movies were awesome, neon lights all around me, ridiculous plots and just that music man, wow it is superb. Be warned though, maybe you’ll have to be a child of the 80s to fully understand my love for this music, but if you are, get ready for a wild ride. There are certain type of music that’s so unique for an era, but none more so than this type of music. You’ll know what I mean once you start listening to it. It is defining, and it never seize to impress how they got the sound down so correctly. Not everyone can do this, but Power Glove has got it spot on.
This holds a lot mor variety than Blood Dragon did. One of my favorite cues is ‘Punch!’ which is a cool guitar cue with orchestral stabs and samples galore. Fantastic! Blood Dragon had Terminator and was influenced by Vangelis, this one is more inspired by the martial arts films and also video games of the era. ‘Lixv’ is one beautifully crafted cue that sounds like a training montage in the jungle. It even mess around with 80s hip hop in cues like ‘Open For Business’. Sounds amazing. As an exciting bonus, Carpenter Brut is on this score as well with one cue called ‘Roller Mobster (Power Glove Remix)’ which is one of my favorites on the score. When it comes to hard synth, Carpenter Brut is one of the best there is. This is the definition of badass. This score is brilliant but yes, the absolute best stuff is in the first half, but I was hooked from start to finish. This is one of the most fun and original game scores that’s come out in recent years, a must have!
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Vietnam War IV
2. Trials Of The Blood Dragon *
3. Bullet Proof
4. Punch! *
5. lixv *
6. Sibling Rivalry *
7. Open For Business
8. Jungle Warfare *
9. Open Sesame
10. Ancient Caverns
11. Abyss
12. Escape
13. Roller Mobster (Power Glove Remix) *
14. Freefall
15. Gravity
16. 9th Dimension
17. Lowland
18. Sweat Shopping
19. Blastoid
20. Lock On
21. R&D
22. Inferno
23. Kiss Of Death
24. Ballistics
25. Boss Fight
26. Ice Chasm
27. Reckoning
28. Crossfire
29. Rising Sun *