FDF Vol 3 Issue 218: Judgement Night - Music from the Motion Picture

By: March

Album - Music from the Motion Picture Judgement Night
Artist - Various
Key Players -Various
Produced By - Happy Walters, Glen Brunman and Amanda Scheer

Release Date - September 14, 1993.

What caused me to blow off the dust? - Does anyone recall the movie? Nuff said.

Overview - Released in conjunction with the film of the same name. The movie starring Emilio Estévez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven and Stephen Dorff as a group of friends on the run from a group of drug dealers (led by Denis Leary) after they witness a murder. All of the tracks on the sound track were collaborations between hip-hop artists and rock / metal artists. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200.

FDF Comments (aka the songs) - Broken down for ease in reading both acts, the track name and some thoughts.

Helmet and House of Pain - "Just Another Victim": Of all the tracks off the sound track this is the only one I ever recall getting even a tiny nod of radio play. Page Hamilton starts with the crunchy Helmet guitar sound and the tempo falls in check with their persona. Hamilton howls the first verse and as the chorus approaches more samples become present. Helmet holds down the second verse and its a matter of "rinse/lather/repeat". After what is basically a helmet song the tempo slows to a grind and House of Pain are the vocalists. The drum beat is much more canned and Hamiltons riffs are held in check.

Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul - "Fallen" - This is a very different feeling track. Finger snaps and a much more laid back tempo. De La Soul take the lead and have Teenage Fanclub back them up. It sounds like a less "silly" version of a De La Soul track. It sounds like them, but a little more serious and focused. TF is used more as a back up band. I don't hear any of the accents in the vocals and just a light guitar and pretty simple drum beat with some percussive fills. De La Soul has some fun near the end camping it up some, but the tempo doesn't change much.

Living Colour and Run DMC - "My, Myself and My Microphone": - We are back to the "rock" on this track. Run DMC feeds off Vernon Reeds guitar prowess. This is a little more driving musically but the Run DMC lyrics are clear and strong. They are not a secondary fill on this. Rev. Run sings the second verse and there are more DJ scratches and fills. Living Color are terrific musicians (we gushed over them on Livid! here). They don't really break out, but offer a strong bed for Run DMC to craft their lyrics.

Biohazard and Onyx - "Judgement Night": The title track for the film has that crunchy guitar listeners would expect from Biohazard. Onyx has a lot more overlap on their rap vocals. Much like the previous track the band is just there seemingly as the "live track". The bass is not punishing for example and barring the distorted guitars it could be any other bed a rap act sings over. Biohazard is the first band to be "name checked" on the sound track as well. This is the first song that seems to warrant the parental advisory sticker.

Slayer and Ice-T - "Disorder": We get some rumbling drums and Ice-T gets, well..very Ice-T about what needs to be done. "War..we don't need your War" he shouts. Finally a track that feels like a mash up/duo. Each member of Slayer is high in the mix and Ice-T swaps vocals with Tom Araya. If you held this cd in your hand and read who was involved this honestly is the first track that would equal that expectation you'd imagine. It is so good they even give you a ripping guitar solo from Kerry King.

Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E - "Another Body Murdered" - We actually start with a solo piano on this track. It doesn't last long before Mike Patton of Faith No More starts to chant. The guitar comes up and Boo-Yaa are right underway. Faith No More is relegated to backing band status but do a strong job and push the tempo and urgency after the first verse and half. It gets a good drum tempo for rapping later with some tight instrumental breakdowns. Personally I'd have liked to have heard more of Mike Patton, but this song actually gets better as it goes and ends up being another one of the stronger tracks.

Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill - "I Love You Mary Jane": Cypress Hill make the first of two appearances on the sound track with indie noisemakers Sonic Youth. Its got the cranky single guitar build up but the haunting vocals come from Kim Gordon. This is the most down tempo track to this point. The quirky vocal delivery from Cypress Hill skip across the slow musical tempo. Cypress sings praises to "mary jane" as Kim sings in hushed tone underneath. The track gets more of a Sonic Youth feel at the end, but it is not for long.

Mudhoney and Sir Mix-A-Lot - "Freak Momma" - This track sounds so under produced compared to the others. Sir Mix sings at a rapid fire pace and Mudhoney keeps him right on task. The band joins in to sing the song title with Sir Mix and we then return to the verses. It is actually a refreshing sounding track as it feels far less "packaged" for the sound track. You could almost see this as being something done outside of a sound track "gimmick"

Dinosaur Jr and Del The Funky Homosapien - "Missing Link" - J Mascis of Dino Jnr is known as a great guitar player, and he does get to play but he holds back some. Del The Funky offers a pretty straight forward lyric and then Mascis gets to spread out some. He keeps busy on the guitar even during the verses which is a nice touch since he is great to listen to. The song fades quickly though.

Therapy? and Fatal - "Come and Die" - The big guitar from Therapy? gets things rolling and when the drums come in they feel/sound a little more canned vs being a live drum track, but that switches quickly. McKeegan and Carins of Theapy? offer up the big tasty riffs for Fatal to sing over. Therapy? offers a little on the chorus but not a ton vocally. On a later verse they do, but it is brief. As much as I love Therapy? this feels like the most unfocused track and feels largely forgettable.

Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill - "Real Thing" - The collection ends with the second appearance from Cypress Hill. The track takes a little to get rolling with big bass fills from Jeff Ament. The guitars a buzzy, but buried under the vocals. There are some DJ scratches. The most noticeable part of Pearl Jam might be, to most, Eddie Vedder and barring being mixed along with others on the chorus he is not show cased.


FDF Overall Take - I am pretty sure I bought this for Helmet, Therapy? and maybe Pearl Jam. One of the curious things, for as heavy as all the artists are there is not a ton of cursing. Some of the tracks have no questionable content at all. It is refreshing in a sense that the bands didn't need to resort to such antics. At the time this was a big deal and the genre of rock and roll was comfortable in blending these genres. Now, the record sounds almost campy sadly. It is not out and out bad, but if you buy the record for the "rock" artists chances are you'd be let down. If you stumble upon it for cheap money its not terrible, but don't pay anything crazy for it is my suggestion.

Links

This is the trailer for the film is here.

This very site has reviewed some of the bands showcased here so here is an index:

We looked at "No Code" from Pearl Jam.
Body Count, Ice-T's project.
"Vivid" from Living Colour
"Troublgum" from Therapy?
"Meantime" from Helmet
"Whitey Ford Sings the Blues from Everlast (House of Pain).
"Tougher Than Leather" from Run DMC

Curious? Check out some MUSIC!

mp3's have been removed..

Disorder - Slayer and Ice T
Just Another Victim Helmet and House of Pain


The album appears to be out of print, but not terribly hard to find. You can track down various versions here.

Disclaimer - For the most part songs listed you can find on iTunes or your local cd shop. The idea is to give you a little taste of the music. Please support the artist buy purchasing some of their work. Songs are posted for about 1 week but can and will be removed at the request of the artist, band, band management etc. If you are one of those persons contact me via the email link in the profile and they will be removed as soon as we are made aware of the request.