Chrome-atic Scales

It's been a year and a half since I wrote about Syfy's aborted Battlestar Galactica spinoff, Blood and Chrome. Overall, it didn't quite impress me, though some elements of it certainly did. One that I mentioned was the score by composer Bear McCreary. A soundtrack album was subsequently released, and has been in my collection for some time now. I recently realized that I never took a moment to sing its praises here.

Blood and Chrome was trying to be a more action-oriented, kick-ass version of Battlestar Galactica. Appropriately, McCreary scored it with a more action-oriented, kick-ass version of his Galactica sound palette. Even casual fans of the revival series, people who don't usually notice film and television music, will know the general sound of Battlestar Galactica: emphatic strings, sprays of Eastern flutes, unusual vocals, and above all, driving percussion led by taiko drums.

For Blood and Chrome, McCreary served up the "rock" version of those ideas. The score uses growling synth bass, lots of electric guitar (far more than was used for the "Pegasus" episodes of Galactica), and odd sounds that evoke one of those weird electrical sparking devices in a cliché mad scientist's lab. And all of these new sounds are presented with prominent distortion. Two tracks in particular really showcase this new approach, "A Cylon Spy" and the long "The Last Battle of the Osiris." Another track, "Ski Lodge Battle," supplements the traditional taiko percussion of Galactica with a thumping four-on-the-floor rock beat.

While throwing these new sounds into the mix, McCreary also plays with small changes to the old sounds. In some tracks, tremolo strings replace the forceful manner in which he usually employs them. Other tracks really amplify the use of those Eastern influences. And he's still strategically using human vocals, and the specific vocalists he's worked with before. But the end credits track, "Apocalypse: Blood and Chrome," is a departure in that (as far as I know) it's the only time English lyrics appear in the Galactica universe. (Well, original English lyrics. "All Along the Watchtower," you can sit back down.)

There are also a few select moments for longtime fans of Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica music. The track "Coker's Interlude" is a sedate piano solo that conjures memories of Starbuck's piano noodlings late in the final season of Galactica, as well as Daniel Graystone's musical hobby in the spin-off, Caprica. And then there's the track "The Galactica," which introduces the ship itself. Not only does it reincorporate the melody Stu Phillips created for the original television series, it briefly uses the same rhythms that introduced the Galactica in the revival's debut mini-series. (All weaving in the new rock vibe too. A truly deft composition.)

Blood and Chrome may not have been much of a pilot, but song for song, the music is some of the most consistently engaging material Bear McCreary ever composed for the franchise. I give the album an A-. I know I have a small handful of soundtrack enthusiasts like me following the blog; if you missed this one, you should go back and pick it up.