'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald' And 'Halloween' Release New Soundtrack Samples
This fall's sequels Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Halloween are two of the most anticipated movies of the year, and they also come with two of the most anticipated scores as well. James Newton Howard is tackling the Harry Potter spin-off sequel while John Carpenter himself returned to craft the score for the new Halloween, along with his collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. Both of the soundtracks have released new sample tracks to tease fans before they full scores are released. Listen to them below!
Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald Soundtrack
WaterTower records has released two tracks from the Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald soundtrack.
The first is the titular track "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," which is a rather whimsical, almost angelic piece of music for the first half, but then it becomes much more triumphant and adventurous in the second half.
The second track, titled "Salamander Eyes," is a much more somber but beautiful piece at first. But then it becomes heavenly, almost sounding like a track from Danny Elfman's score for Edward Scissorhands.
My only complaint with these samples, and also the score for the first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is that the score doesn't seem to have many memorable, signature themes like the primary Harry Potter franchise. Obviously it's going to be hard to top the original Harry Potter theme by John Williams, but there are several orchestral cues and themes from the films that he didn't score which still stick with me to this day. Maybe there's more in this sequel's score that we haven't heard yet.
The score for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be available for digital download starting on November 9. For those of you who are still buying CDs, the soundtrack with arrive on November 30 with a vinyl release coming sometime in January 2019.
New Halloween Score Track
Meanwhile, over on the horror side of fall, we've got a new track from the Halloween score before the soundtrack is available the same day the movie hits theaters. This track is called "Halloween Triumphant," and it has the outstanding new version of the Halloween theme, along with some elements that play with the theme in a new way, revitalizing it for a new generation while staying true to what people love about the original. Listen:
The above track is the final one on the soundtrack, and it's likely what will be playing over the credits when you're walking out of the theater. Daniel Davies has previously said of the soundtrack:
"We wanted to honor the original Halloween soundtrack in terms of the sounds we used. We used a lot of the Dave Smith OB-6, bowed guitar, Roland Juno, Korg, Roli, Moog, Roland System 1, Roland System 8, different guitar pedals, mellotron, and piano."
This is exactly what I wanted from a new Halloween score, and I can't wait until my vinyl version of the soundtrack gets here so I can get myself in the mood for this spooky season.
Halloween arrives on October 19 and the soundtrack will be available the same day.