VA - The Matrix (Music From The Motion Picture) (1999)

This is a fine disc to slide into the player in that interplanetary orbiter you're driving around these days, and crank to bang-your-head decibels just as you go all afterburner into the Forbidden Zone. The Matrix movie soundtrack is a loud, awesomely wild ride that brilliantly illuminates real links among hard rock, hip-hop, and electronica with a hi-sci-fi flair (and flare) for fusion. These sounds are deep, dark, and resonant, as is the tone of the film, with the blackest moments provided by Meat Beat Manifesto in "Prime Audio Soup," Rob D. with "Clubbed to Death," and Propellerheads' "Spybreak! (Short One)." The brimstone burbles on with super-scale performances by Rage Against the Machine and "Wake Up," Marilyn Manson's "Rock Is Dead," and Monster Magnet's absolutely otherworldly "Look into Your Orb for the Warning," guaranteed to punch a hole in your wall if Ministry's "Bad Blood" hasn't done so already. The album's mega-cut, however, is no doubt Hot Rod Herman's outlandish remix of Rob Zombie's Halloween rave anthem "Dragula," which would be worth the price of admission alone even if the entire effect were not the hardest-core theme park sonic extravaganza around. A rockin' ear-blaster for this world as well as the next.~The Matrix [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] Review by Becky Byrkit