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When I first put the Underworld: Rise of the Lycans soundtrack into my CD player and the otherworldly, devil-sounding song, “Lighten Up Francis” by Puscifer, started playing, my cats stared at the player, then back at me with a look that said it all: Have you lost your freaking mind?
What’s really hilarious, though, is that “Lighten Up Francis” turned out to be one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack. Sometimes, I need music with a hard beat—or something a little weird and a little wild—to help me feel alive. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans delivers both.
This sixteen-track disc features rock, goth, and industrial acts, which producer Danny Lohner remixed with interesting and sometimes creepy results. Danny Lohner, a former member of Nine Inch Nails, performed with many of the artists who appear on the
soundtrack, including Puscifer and Black Light Burns.
Each of the tracks on the soundtrack delves into the origins of the centuries—the old blood feud between the vampires (Death Dealers) and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves), bringing the Underworld storyline alive through music.
I can’t say that I’d actually heard of many of these artists before—except for The Cure (there’s no mistaking that band’s sound) and Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland, who happens to play on my favorite song on the soundtrack, “Deathclub” by William Control. “Miss Murder” by AFI, with its hard-driving techno sound, scared my cats. They didn’t actually run for cover, but they did shrink away from the CD player with a panicked look on their face.
“Over and Out” by Alkaline Trio slows things down with its haunting melody and lyrics, making this one a favorite of mine. My least favorite is Genghis Tron’s “Board up the House,” because the artist mostly screams the lyrics with a guttural voice that has to be hard on the vocal cords—not to mention my ears.
As I listened to this CD, I kept thinking of my niece. Since she’s barely out of her teens, she and her boyfriend would absolutely love the wildness and weirdness of this music.
All in all, I enjoyed the Underworld: Rise of the Lycans soundtrack. It’s not a CD that I’ll listen to often, but it did make me feel alive—and a little bit wild. When I need that type of fix again, I’ll definitely reach for this CD.
