Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Album review

This disc contains background scoring for the film versions of the second and third novels in Swedish writer Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (both directed by Daniel Alfredson), and the theme for the television version of the trilogy, which also was used in the film of the first novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (directed by Niels Arden Oplev). All of this music was written by Jacob Groth, a composer with a singularly appropriate name, since removing the "r" expresses the style of the music perfectly. For his goth scores, Groth employs the Slovak National Orchestra to play the dark string themes, then augments them with extensive keyboard programming to enhance the contemporary feel. Notably, on "Abuse," he uses industrial sound effects, while "Zala Collage" is in electronica style. At its liveliest moments, on "Running Out of Time," the overall sound, combining the Romantic style of classical music with heavy metal, might be summed up as "Beethoven meets Metallica." Danish singer (and Groth's wife) Misen turns up on the plaintive, melodramatic "Would Anybody Die for Me?" from The Girl Who Played with Fire, sounding like a cross between Björk and Amy Lee of Evanescence.

© William Ruhlmann /TiVo