biohazard: DEGENERATION ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)
April 17, 2009 by Dennis Amith
“For fans of the ‘Biohazard’ (Resident Evil) videogames or the most recent CG film ‘biohazard DEGENERATION’, the original soundtrack features the instrumental soundtrack by Tetsuya Takashi plus a rock track from J-pop artist ANNA TSUCHIYA and trailers for the film and ‘Biohazard’ video games for the Wii, XBOX 360 and PS2.”
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ARTIST: Various Artists
ALBUM: biohazard: DEGENERATION ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
LABEL: avex trax
DURATION: 44:40
RELEASE DATE:December 17, 2008
DISC 1: biohazard DEGENERATION Original Soundtrack
- ウイルス (Virus)
- 封鎖 (Blockade)
- 潜入 (Instruction)
- 生ける屍たち (The Living Dead)
- 突破 (Breaking Through)
- 死闘 (Fight to the Death)
- カーティス〜現状報告〜 (Curstists ~Status Report~)
- レオンとクレア (Leon & Claire)
- タイムリミット (Time Limit)
- 火事 (Fire)
- 楽園 (Paradise)
- 過去 (The Past)
- カーティスとアンジェラ (Curtis & Angela)
- 変貌 (Transiguration)
- 交戦 (Battle Engagement)
- ディジェネレーション (Degeneration)
- カウントダウン (Countdown)
- 守るべきもの (What is to Protect)
- 安堵 (Relief)
- 真犯人 (The Culprit)
- それぞれの道 (Separate Paths)
- 末路 (The End)
- GUILTY(FILM EDIT VERSION) by ANNA TSUCHIYA
DVD: Region 2, 4:3, DURATION: 28 minutes
- “GUILTY” biohazard DEGENERATION Original Clip ver.
- Comic-Con Ver. (English)
- BIOHAZARD 5 Game Trailer for the PS3/XBOX 360
- biohazard Game Trailer for Wii
- biohazard 0 Game Trailer for Wii
- Biohazard Umbrella Chronicles Game Trailer for the Wii
- biohazard 4 Game Trailer for the Wii
- biohazard 4 Game Trailer for the PS2
- BIOHAARD – CODE: Veronica- Game Trailer for the PS2
The Resident Evil series has become one of the top selling titles for video game company CAPCOM. Known in Japan as “Biohazard”, the series has sold over 34 million games and among the series, one of the most popular titles was the 1996 Sony Playstation game “Resident Evil 2″ which introduced us to the characters of Raccoon City rookie police officer Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (sister of “Resident Evil 1″ hero Chris Redfield).
The two were popular characters that fans enjoyed and in 2005, “Resident Evil 4″ featuring Leon Kennedy became a huge hit earning “Game of the Year” by various publications.
With the popularity of the character of Leon Kennedy, how fitting was it when CAPCOM announced the reuniting of both Leon and Claire. As a fan of the video game series, I was definitely excited and couldn’t wait to see the film.
“biohazard: DEGENERATION” takes place seven years after “biohazardl 2″. The film starts off with a man on a flight to Harvardville and he happens to be infected with the T-virus (this virus turns a human to a zombie and can spread the virus by biting on a human/animal. The only way they can be killed is a bullet to the brain), meanwhile at Harvardville Airport, we see Claire Redfield.
Claire now works for Terrasave, a search and rescue organization at chemical and biological attacks and meeting up with a friend and her niece. Of course, all hell breaks lose in the airport after someone infected with the T-virus starts chomping on people and next thing you know, the airport becomes full of zombies. Next thing you know, the plane carrying the infected person with the T-virus crashes into the airport and zombies start coming out of the damaged plane.
Claire, Rani, a woman and Senator Ron Davis have barricaded in the airport but need help quickly. Because the Senator is involved, the government sends in Leon Kennedy, who has experience taking on the zombies plus the help with two individuals from the Special Response Team. The search and rescue begins.
After the first arc of the film featuring the search and rescue, the focus then goes to WilPharma, an agency that is creating an vaccine for the T-virus but it appears the terrorist have blown up the WilPharma trucks carrying the antidotes. It is revealed that the terrorists are pretty much individuals who are trying to get people to recognize what happened at Raccoon City (since the government pretty much has covered up the zombie infestation due to the Umbrella Corp. and the T-virus).
Claire recalls seeing one of the terrorist at the airport, a man named Curtis Miller. And then you find out that Angela Miller, one of the members of the Special Response Team that accompanied Leon is the sister of Curtis.
Because of the damaged trucks with the vaccine, WilPharma director Frederic Downing needs to go back to HQ and retrieve the vaccine. Meanwhile, both Leon and Angela go to the home of Curtis to find him but find his home burned down.
You realize that Curtis is a terrorist because his family in Raccoon City was killed and he can not let the government continue to hide what happened to the city and thus, to prove to people of what happened, infects himself with the G-virus (which was featured in video game “biohazard 3″, a monster that is nothing like a zombie but a hideous and very powerful).
Thus the second arc of the film features Leon, Angela and Claire trying to stop the monster.
This film helps set things up for the ‘Biohazard 5′ game which was released for the PS3 and XBOX 360 and to show a new mysterious company that is trying to get their hands on the virus.
This soundtrack features 22 instrumental tracks from well-known composer Tetsuya Takashi and does a lot of the musical arrangement for the Johnny’s Jimusho groups in Japan (Arashi, KAT-TUN, SMAP, Hey! Say! Jump, NEWS, KinKi Kids, Takki and Tsubasa, etc.), so his name is well known.
But he’s also getting attention for his work with anime and films. Having worked on the soundtrack for the second animated Appleseed film “EX MACHINA”, Takashi returns with his latest soundtrack for the popular video game series “biohazard”.
The instrumental tracks range from action-based scenes with electric guitar, hard synth and clanging percussion to music that sounds large scale with a symphony style of arrangement.
The only non-instrumental track is the final track “GUILTY (FILM EDIT VERSION)” featuring pop/rock star ANNA TSUCHIYA in a rock driven track (which was used as an ending theme for the ending credits of both the US and Japanese film release).
As for the DVD, you get both US/English and Japanese trailers of the “biohazard: DEGENERATION” film but also many trailers from biohazard ~CODE VERONICA~ all the way up to the release of “RESIDENT EVIL V”.
The CD insert features production credits, messages from staff and still images from the CG film.
Film soundtracks all come down to one’s investment and enjoyment of a film. For Japanese movie or TV soundtracks unlike it’s Western counterpart, it’s not about vocal tracks, it’s about the instrumental tracks and often than not, there are no vocal tracks (typically, if you want a vocal track, you buy the CD single) but for biohazard: DEGENERATION, you do get a rock track featuring ANNA TSUCHIYA.
But as far as movie soundtracks go, “biohazard: DEGENERATION” features a pretty dark soundtrack. Since the film is about action and survival against the zombies and all out war against a large monstrous behemoth, you’re going to get an action-based soundtrack.
Of course, the film does have a tender moment involving Leon Kennedy, so there are two tracks with a romantic arrangement but the majority of all instrumental tracks feature synth-based strings, clanging percussion and darker style of musical arrangements.
I would have thought there was a large orchestra behind the music but nowhere in the production credits are there mentions of an orchestra. So, if this was all digitally created by Tetsuya Takashi, this would be one hell of an arrangement. Well-done!
As for ANNA TSUCHIYA’s “GUILTY”, a cool English soundtrack. It’s always interesting to hear ANNA TSUCHIYA sing English songs especially since she can’t speak in English at all but overall, “GUILTY” is a pretty rockin’ track.
The DVD was a nice touch, especially for those who enjoy the video games. If anything, the DVD is mostly trailers for the film and the video games but nevertheless, it’s still a positive of which you are buying a soundtrack and getting something extra.
Overall, “biohazard: DEGENERATION” is an average soundtrack. The music is pretty cool and overall fits the frantic pace of what was going on in the film. Having watched the film twice and even enjoying it but listening to the soundtrack, there were not many songs that captivated my attention to listen to again and again. But that’s me. For those who really enjoyed the film or are hardcore collectors of the “biohazard/Resident Evil” merchandise, then definitely pick this soundtrack up.
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