Anthony Head (Nathan Wallace)’s embrace of evil in “Night Surgeon” succeeds thanks to the layered vocals on the chorus, and the bite of the instrumentation. The “Good/bad” disparity becomes more pronounced on the soundtrack’s second half. However, the call and response trick gets so worn that even the chorus sounds ready to give it the finger by it’s third repetition (“some mighty fine print”). The music hits a groove, Terrance Zdunich (Graverobber)’s sing-speak finally hits on target, and the song actually has a hook. Standout “Zydrate Anatomy” comes in a whopping nine songs after the last genuinely good song as a kind of midpoint highlight just in time to keep me from going Repo Man on this thing. “21st Century Cure” takes the occasional problems of other songs (noncommittal melodies, rhyming just enough to piss me off when it doesn’t, and shallow mehtul rawking) and puts them all in one three and a half minute package. Meanwhile, “Things You See in a Graveyard” is doomed from Paul Sorvino (Rotti Largo)’s chewing on the scenery, and “Legal Assassin”, despite bright spots, is simply too schizophrenic and overwrought to take off. On songs like “Infected”, it’s lackluster vocal performances matched with poor melodies and overbearing music. Pinning down the exact reason(s) why is a taxing process. The same can’t be said of “Crucifixus”, two minutes of operatic mewling by Sarah Brightman (who plays Blind Mag, and is almost too talented to be here).Īs we make our way into the album proper, two things become pretty clear: 1.

To be fair, the soundtrack does start on the high note of “At the Opera Tonight”, which utilizes a nu-metal drum beat (which you’ll be hearing a lot of), a spooky atmosphere, and most importantly, knows damn well it’s a song. The verdict on the Repo! soundtrack is similar to that of the movie: an interesting concept marred by clumsy execution. Will Repo! stand the test of time? I don’t know, but let’s take a look at the music of this thing. 2008’s hard rock/metal movie opera Repo! The Genetic Opera has spent the past two years being pushed as a “cult classic”, a term that’s supposed to mean “so bad it’s good”, but gets confused with “You just don’t get it, man, it’s so awesome“.

Repo the genetic opera mark it up