WITCHBLADE: COMIC BOOK SOUNDTRACK		Review by Mike Oliveri
COULD YOU? TIP JAR Songs of the WITCHBLADE: A Soundtrack to the Comic Books - Dreamworks Records Various Artists Top Cow Comics

I had high hopes for this one.

I really did.

I collected the comics for some time, and I dug the storyline and the plot. Well, before the actual writing took on a soap opera style, anyway.

The cover bears a comic block labeled "25 1/2", pitching it almost as if it were part of the actual comic series. Top Cow founder and comic artist Marc Silvestri graces the cover with one of his images of Sara Pezzini, the detective who bears the Witchblade, a strange medieval artifact. Punctuating the songs are fragments of dialogue intended to create a short story to accompany the music.

The music itself unfortunately can't decide if it wants to be gothic or industrial. The opening track, BABES IN TOYLAND's "Overtura: Astroantiquity/Attacatastrophy" isn't half bad, but the second song, "Go to Sleep" by Kat Bjelland, is absolutely brutal. It's a mix between Chris Isaac with his nuts in a vise and that bizarre caterwaul they call music in the Middle East.

Kat Bjelland actually puts her stench on most of the tracks. Apparently they wanted to get some female artists to go along with the female-driven comic book (our protagonist is female, and the original writer was a woman named Christina Z). Man, did they pick the wrong damn woman. She sounds like Courtney Love with a sore throat.

To add insult to injury, she takes part in an all-woman rendition of THE EAGLES' "Witchy Woman" that is just brutal. I can dig what they were going for here, with the play on the witch title and the women singing it for the female protagonist, but man . . . Kinda like pissing on Janice Joplin's grave.

They also snagged a MEGADETH track, "I'll Get Even With You", but turned it into a "Part 2". All that entailed was playing with some distortion and adding some story dialogue to the end of it. No big thrill, the original version was easier to listen to.

There's really not much else to say about this piece of drek. If they pumped some more money into it they could probably have come up with a much better product. Of course, finding some good female bands in the metal and gothic arena is no mean feat . . .

Ah well, at least they didn't buy any BJORK crap, and there's a lot of nifty artwork in the cover booklet. I give it one skull.

This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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