If you look at all my reviews of the soundtracks composed by Tom Holkenborg, you can see some correlations between them. The first one is that I cannot get behind the bold-sounding orchestral sounds that he likes to use. In my opinion, these sounds, often recorded by an orchestra, have been processed too heavily after these recordings, resulting in the removal of the emotional nuances provided by the musicians. These adjustments make the music sound identical over multiple scores, especially when combined with the percussion sounds he uses underneath. I know that Holkenborg’s music is quite popular and that he has quite the following, but these sounds are apparently not for me. In contrast to those massive sounds, whenever Holkenborg tries to do something different, it tends to stand out, resulting in better results, with White Lines and Brimstone as great examples. Having these two concepts related to Holkenborg’s music is why I want to talk about his most recent work, the soundtrack to Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, because the music contains both of these.
The Scargiver is the second movie in the Rebel Moon series, a new space opera for Netflix, written and directed by Zack Snyder. Holkenborg has been collaborating with Snyder on many films, including the first Rebel Moon movie A Child of Fire. While there was some emotion in the music for that film, to me it sounded like a standard Holkenborg score in general. The Scargiver, on the other hand, surprised me. When listening to this music on Spotify, I remember that after hearing gorgeous, emotional music from a string ensemble, I had to double check to see if I was still listening to The Scargiver. You can find this magnificent piece in “Auguries of Innocence,” which has been used in the movie as part diegetic music and part underscore. It is not the only great piece on the album, with other excellent emotional tracks such as “Poems No Child Should Know” and “Whitsun Oath.” The film has many flashbacks to emotional and impactful moments from the main characters’ pasts, perfectly underscored by these kinds of tracks.
Much of the movie’s music still contains massive Holkenborg sounds that are not that interesting, but these special emotional moments stood out to me. They were taking me back to Holkenborg’s Brimstone score. It reveals a side of Holkenborg that I would like to hear more and hopefully, we will get more of this in the future. I had a similar conclusion in my White Lines review, so my expectations are a bit reduced, but miracles may happen.
Listen or buy
- Buy this soundtrack digitally from Amazon.com or Apple Music
- Listen to this soundtrack on Spotify
Tracklist
The highlights are in bold.
- The Hated Other (5:05)
- Seneschal Psalms (2:01)
- We Make Ourselves a Place Apart (2:13)
- Auguries of Innocence (4:11)
- Quickhatch (3:37)
- The Falling Mountain (2:30)
- Enemy of the Sun (1:30)
- Poems No Child Should Know (3:09)
- Warmblood (2:48)
- Born of Woman (5:39)
- From a Rabble Such as This (1:40)
- Everything That Rises (3:49)
- Or Cover Me With Dirt (2:24)
- What’s Best in Men (2:14)
- Cut and Run (2:50)
- Who Dares Wins (4:19)
- Whitsun Oath (5:50)
- The Land We Breath (2:00)
- Maman Tché (3:01)
Total length: 1 hour
Netflix Music (2024)
