Blade Trinity Soundtrack CD

The BLADE movies present a murky, night-enshrouded world plagued by vampires and protected by the complex, flawed hero Blade (Wesley Snipes). The third installment of the comic-book-based series, BLADE: TRINITY, features a soundtrack that continues the tradition of assembling an excellent collection of enigmatic musical acts to add to the sinister, action-oriented mood.

Four of the album's first five tracks feature various members of the Wu-Tang Clan (a fitting match considering the collective's rich mythology), starting with the arresting track, "Fatal," by the RZA, one of the best young film composers in the business (GHOST DOG, KILL BILL). The sly "Thirsty" presents one of the last vocal tracks by the incomparable Ol' Dirty Bastard. (ODB passed away shortly before the soundtrack's 2004 release.) The staggeringly bizarre Kool Keith provides a transition, with his morbid hip-hop group Thee Undatakerz, on the pulsating "Party in the Morgue." From there, the record takes a more electronic note, highlighted by the Crystal Method's grinding "Weapons of Mad Distortion." BLADE: TRINITY closes in a more traditional mode with a track from the film's score by Ramin Djawadi, which still mirrors the essence of the richly divergent soundtrack in its dynamic approach.

Like the franchise's previous installments, Blade Trinity taps hip-hop and aggressive, guitar-infused electronica to soundtrack its nightmare world of blood, creatures, martial arts, and ordinance. But where Blade II aligned MCs with DJs collaboratively, Trinity puts half its running time in the more than capable hands of Wu-Tang mastermind RZA, and fills out the remainder with a couple of highlights and the usual bangers from big beat survivors (Crystal Method, Overseer). RZA himself takes the lead on opener "Fatal." It's a suitably brooding, lurching track, with raw, Blade-themed raps ("Unleash the beast within/I walk around with the strength of a hundred men") and a striking sample from the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" that's unfortunately submerged under waves of surging strings. RZA produced, mixed, and co-wrote "I Gotta Get Paid" (featuring Lil' Flip, Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon), "When the Guns Come Out" (WC, E-40, and Northstar's Christ Bearer), and "Thirsty"; the latter, a brittle neo-soul ballad featuring the vocals of newcomer Black Keith, is made more bittersweet by a great verse from Ol' Dirty Bastard, who passed away the week Trinity was released. The remainder of the soundtrack is dominated by hard-hitting amalgams of swooping electronic beats, chopped-up electric guitars, and bellowing vocalists. While the Method's "Weapons of Mad Distortion" or "Hard Wax" from forgotten One Little Indian act Manchild are probably adequate music cues for florescent-light-shattering, slow-motion firefights, they leave less of an impression next to Trinity's impressive first half, not to mention the two tracks included from the film's original score, which not coincidentally was co-helmed by RZA. [A clean edition with profanity removed was also released.] ~ Johnny Loftus

Liner Note Author: David Goyer.

Personnel: Reverend William Burk, P Dot, Suga Bang Bang (vocals).

Audio Remixers: Danny Saber; Daniel Merlot; Crash Berlin.