The avante garde Alien³ score was written for the motion picture of the same name. Scored by Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...

, it was his first big mainstream score; he described it as an experiment and spent a whole year creating it.

The score

Goldenthal cites the score as one of his six stand-out soundtracks. Whilst creating the score in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 were going on and he has noted that the wild and tempestuous atmosphere in the city was an influence on the score's dark and visceral sound.

In 1995, the Industrial band Front Line Assembly

Front Line Assembly

Front Line Assembly is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early Industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining...

 sampled the cue "Agnus Dei" on the track "Infra Red Combat" from the album Hard Wired

Hard Wired

Hard Wired is an album by Front Line Assembly, released in 1995. It makes extensive use of audio-clips from the 1995 film In the Mouth of Madness, especially in the track "Mortal." The album includes artwork by David McKean....

.

Reception

Movie-wave.net said that most of the cues are quite "dissonant" and "bleak" for a casual movie score listener. Allmusic described it as "...mandatory for all serious enthusiasts of film music."

Track listing

1. "Agnus Dei" – 4:29
   • Boy Soprano
     Soprano
     A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
     
     : Nick Nackley
2. "Bait and Chase" – 4:42
3. "The Beast Within" – 3:09
4. "Lento" – 5:48
5. "Candles in the Wind" – 3:20
6. "Wreckage and Rape" – 2:43
7. "The First Attack" – 4:19
8. "Lullaby Elegy
   Elegy
   In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
   
   " – 3:41
9. "Death Dance" – 2:18
10. "Visit to the Wreckage" – 2:04
11. "Explosion and Aftermath" – 2:21
12. "The Dragon" – 3:08
13. "The Entrapment" – 3:42
14. "Adagio
    Tempo
    In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
    
    " – 4:14

Audio

The menacing cue that comes with the opening sequence of the Sulaco being evacuated by the on-board computer because of the alien presence and fire. This sample is taken from the part where the escape pod is hurtling through the planet's atmosphere.
Cue of the failed attempt to capture the alien.
Cue from the scene where the sprinkler system is activated to destroy the alien.
The cue from the scene where Ripley commits suicide in the blast furnace.

Crew/Credit

• Music Composed and Orchestrated by Elliot Goldenthal
• Music Produced by Matthias Gohl
• Conducted by Jonathan Sheffer
• Additional Orchestrations by Robert Elhai
• Synthesizer Programming by Richard Martinez
• Music Mixed by Joel Iwataki at The Enterprise Studios
• Electronic Music Recorded at The Enterprise Studios, The Village Recorders, Los Angeles, and Eastside Sound, New York
• Orchestral Music Recorded by Tim Boyle at Twentieth Century Fox
• Boy Soprano Soloist on "Agnus Dei": Nick Nackley

External links

• A review
• Another review