Joseph LoDuca - Evil Dead (Original Score) (1984 - 320kbps)

When Sam Raimi released Evil Dead on a shoestring budget of $375,000, no one realized at the time that it would eventually become a cult classic, spawning two sequals that would make up one of the horror genre's most beloved trilogies. The movie was initially rejected by several film distributors due to its extreme depiction of graphic violence, gore and rape. It was eventually unleashed into theaters in 1981, generating a massive amount of controversy in its wake. While the violence and gore were controversial in their own right, the most notorious scene in the film involves a demon possessing the trees of the forest, which then take a snake-like form and brutally rape the character of Cheryl. The film was subsequently banned in many countries, including Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and most notably, Germany, which banned the film for almost 10 years.

I've watched many movies where the film score or soundtrack just didn't capture the spirit of the film or compliment it well at all. Fortunately, Sam Raimi discovered Joseph LoDuci, who would go on to compose the scores for the majority of Raimi's films in the future, including both Evil Dead films and Army of Darkness. LoDuca captured the madness of the film perfectly, composing a hybrid score consisting of both analog synthesizer sounds and traditional instrumentation. Many horror films of the 80's were plagued by horrendous synthesizer scores, and thankfully LoDuca didn't fall into that trap. Instead he was able to create a number of remarkable synth movements within the score, which have aged remarkably well, managing to avoid the cheap sound and generic style of many of his contemporaries. LoDuca utilized a variety of instruments in his score, including an assortment of percussion instruments, a string quartet, guitar and piano, the majority of which were utilized in an unconventional and experimental manner. The best example of this in my opinion is the track for the aforementioned "demonic tree rape scene", in which a cacophony of strings expertly illustrate the madness and savagery that is being displayed on the screen.

The version of the score I am posting today was originally released on vinyl in 1984 by Varèse Sarabande Records. It was eventually re-released on CD in 1993. The liner wrotes were written by none other than Stephen King, who was a huge fan of the movie, describing it as "the most ferociously original horror film of 1982". He was also very outspoken against Germany's decision to ban the film in their country. A few other labels have also released their own version of this score, most of which contain fewer tracks than the Varèse Sarabande release, which contains a total of 19 tracks. I'm out of time for now, but I wanted to throw one more thing out there before I close this post out. Before this years Halloween Countdown ends, I may post a link to download "Within the Woods", which was the short film that Raimi and company created as a prototype for Evil Dead. The copy I have is a VHS rip, which means that it is low quality, although it only adds to the atmosphere of the film in my opinion. I've heard that a higher quality DVD rip is circulating the net somewhere, so I'm trying to find a copy of it before it gets too late within the month. Please let me know if this is something you all would like to see posted here. In the meantime, I hope all enjoy this fantastic score.

Year of Release: 1984
Label: Varèse Sarabande (STV 81199)
Genres: Soundtrack/Score, Horror
Bitrate: 320kbps

Tracklist:
1. Introduction
2. Eye Games / Charm
3. Bridge Out
4. Rape of the Vines
5. Ascent / Inflection
6. Automatic Writing
7. Skin
8. Give Her the Ax
9. Love Never Dies
10. Kandanian Dagger / Book Burning
11. Dawn of the Evil Dead
12. Not the Shower Curtain
13. Check On You
14. Pencil It In
15. Get the Lantern / Book of the Dead
16. Dawn / Incantation
17. Shotgun
18. Games
19. The Cabin / Wounded Melody

Download: Joseph LoDuca - Evil Dead (Original Score)
Download Size: 81MB