Children of Men

John Tavener was the perfect choice as the composer to create the musical score for the film CHILDREN OF MEN. Much of the music used throughout the film (songs like 'Ruby Tuesday' etc) are well enough known that they don't require re-recording in this memoir of a deeply moving film. But it is the opportunity to listen without the visuals to the music Tavener created 'that brings an even deeper appreciation for his accomplishment. In addition to Tavener's own compositions this CD includes the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau rendering of Mahler's 'Nun Will Die Sonn' So Hell Aufgeh'n' from the 'Kindertotenlieder' (a more apt song cycle could not be imagined for this childless film) as well as Krzysztof Penderecki's 'Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima' as conducted by the composer and Handel's excerpt from 'Alexander's Feast' ('War, he sung, is toil and trouble').

Depending on where you vacation, the last thing you might expect from an album by a band named after a Finnish lake made infamous by a multiple homicide and titled Halo of Blood would be for it to be fun. Strangely enough, though, that's exactly the feeling that comes through on Children of Bodom's eighth album, which finds the Finnish band returning to deliver another dose of dazzlingly technical melodic death metal. Sure, the album is filled with lots of dark moments and macabre imagery, but listening to it is a bit like watching a fighter plane demo, which is to say it's loud, thrilling, and when enjoyed properly, it's likely to result in some hearing loss. Filled with big riffs and high flying solos, Halo of Blood is an album that's hard not to headbang along to…