The Raid: Redemption (Original Motion Picture Score & Soundtrack)

Upon learning that they would score the soundtrack to a film from the good folks who brought us *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* and *Kung Fu Hustle*, Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese must have known they had their work cut out for them. The music they’ve created for *The Raid: Redemption* fits the story as snugly as body armor, contrasting watercolored serenity with a hyper-tense cold sweat. The opening “Prayers” sets the tone with light piano notes played over an ascending ambient pulse, before the anxiety-building “Gear Up” perfectly punctuates the protagonist’s preparation for battle. The brooding drones and industrial beats give “The Arrival” a dark beauty, akin to Vangelis’ bar-raising score for 1982’s *Blade Runner*. The tension comes to an apex with “We Have Company,” nearly five minutes of hard-pulsing dubstep replete with a low-wobbling bass that booms like shifting tectonic plates. The soundtrack bookends with Chino Moreno’s mechanized ballad “Razors.Out” bleeding into Get Busy Committee’s hip-hop dirge “Suicide Music.”