The Devil's Rejects

According to his biography on the Internet Movie Database (by Wolf J. Flywheel, a name I think I shall take for my own some day), Tyler Bates is 'Known for surprising juxtaposition and a flair for delicate, atmospheric touches...' and is 6 foot 3. He is also the composer of such classics as the remake of Get Carter and the horror remake Dawn of the Dead (although not its rubbish sequel, Land of the Dead) and plenty of other, dire horror films. Oh, and a track from one of his scores ended up in Miss Congeniality 2. Make of that what you will. The Devil's Rejects are served up by 'director' Rob Zombie and are evidently an horrible lot. Then again, one would imagine the Devil should reject the good, not the bad, so the film is inherently flawed on that basis alone. In any event, it seems to have garnered some of the worst reviews of a (nearly) mainstream film in living memory. Can't wait.
There are times when it's annoying to review an album second to Mr Southall as he uses all the best lines on MovieWave. Damn him. However, it is difficult to disagree with his assessment that, by and large, The Devil's Rejects is unremittingly unpleasant and largely pointless. The opening few tracks aren't overtly worthless, just not very good. Ten Cars - Twenty Five Pigs is a fairly standard mix of drums loops and the score only threatens to be bad. However, with the exception of the lounge muzak of Ride the Horse, pretty much the rest of the score is just plain unbearable; a mixture of horrid noises and the aforementioned drum loops. It's what I imagine having a migraine is like, although fortunately you can switch the CD off at any moment. Which I did. After half the album, I must confess that I sampled the rest of the tracks briefly, but just couldn't face any more. Maybe that's the desired result? Sorry if feel that's an unprofessional thing to do as a reviewer, but given the wealth of superb music I have at my fingertips, it struck me as pointless to persist with an album evidently so uncompromisingly awful

I can't subscribe to the train of thought which would describe the album is 'difficult' or 'challenging' and I am being impatient or intolerant. It was the disintegration of tonality in classical music in the 20th Century that left the majority of concert goers in the wilderness, feeling that new classical music was more an intellectual exercise and largely worthless as entertainment. Fortunately, the situation has much improved and contemporary classical composers are turning in plenty of outstanding and enjoyable works. Similarly, scores like this do little to further the cause of film music as a worthwhile art form. There is nothing wrong with experimentation in music, but Bates has assembled something that is more akin to sound design (and not very good sound design, at that) than music, which would be tolerable if it was pleasing to experience or was