A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

One of the strange things about Hollywood is the relative frequency that two different studios end up making movies about very similar things at the same time as each other, and there is the inevitable race to see who can release theirs first.  It's always happened, and certainly still happens today (Mission to Mars and Red Planet; Antz and A Bug's Life; there were even meant to be two Alexander the Great movies coming soon, but now only Oliver Stone's looks like it's going to be released).  Such a situation occurred with Dante's Peak and Volcano, modern-day disaster movies about volcanoes erupting.  They're both absurd, it goes without saying, but at least the former aimed for a shred of common sense, with Volcano seeing Los Angeles devastated by a volcanic eruption.  (Would anyone actually notice?)  It did star Tommy Lee Jones, though, who was presumably short of a bob or two at the time, and featured the immortal tagline "The coast is toast!"  Dante's Peak was the better movie, but its score by John Frizzell was rather anonymous; Alan Silvestri's for Volcano was far better.

It begins with the kind of "something's about to happen" music which always accompanies these pictures, with glistening winds highlighting very strong music.  It's not the most striking of openings, but it's impressive material.  "Tarnation" begins the run of fantastic action music with some Elliot Goldenthal-style brass trills introducing a great six-minute piece.  Silvestri is the only composer to have come close to Jerry Goldsmith over the last couple of decades when it comes to scoring mindless action thrillers, and this is a perfect example.  "Teamwork" is a muscular, anthemic piece which introduces the memorable main theme, later given a terrific workout in the magnificent "March of the Lava", the standout piece.  Things then get rounded off nicely with the swelling "Cleansing Rain", a nice big finale cue.

The album may not even be half an hour long, but it contains enough invention and ideas to impress.  As I said, Silvestri's the only man other than Goldsmith who has been able to consistently write interesting scores for these movies.  Volcano is one of his best efforts, a full-bodied score which never fails to impress.

Tracks

1. Main Title (2:44)
2. Miracle Mile (3:59)
3. Tarnation (5:54)
4. Team Work (2:41)
5. Build a Wall (5:01)
6. March of the Lava (3:42)
7. Roark's Missing (2:46)
8. Cleansing Rain (2:30)