David Arnold – Stargate (Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack)

From the very initial movements of the "Stargate Overture", you could tell that David Arnold's soundtrack for 1994's Roland Emmerich latest sci-fi blockbuster was a return to the great, bold and epic, orchestral works of the late seventies and eighties by John Williams.

This, during the first half of the 90s, when the overall trend was to create soundtracks as Frankenstein-ish collections of pop songs, plus maybe a minimal classic and orchestral input, was a daring movement to say the least.

After listening to the above mentioned overture, you can't do anything but thanks Arnold and the creative team behind the movie for betting on the classic approach to film music.

Because "Stargate" is nothing short of a wondrous score, filled with awe- provoking moments: from the heroic and epic cues that, at some points, sound bigger than the actual scenes on the screen ("Battle At The Pyramid", "The Stargate Opens", "Mastadge Drag" or "Caravan To Nagada") to the romantic and more intimate ones that are utterly either sorrowful or sweet, but always beautiful beyond words ("Daniel & Sha'uri", "Unstable", "The Destruction Of Nagada", "We Don't Want To Die" or "The Kiss").

All across the score, Arnold deploys wildly inspired writing insight and skills that are way above of what you'd expect from a newcomer (he had just previously scored another movie, the independent "The Young Americans", to great effect) and as much as I ire and love John Williams' output, I believe "Stargate" wouldn't be out of place among the maestro's string of works from that same period of time.

All in all, one of my all time favourite scores, that has never been far away from my stereo since I first found about it.

If you dig sweeping, bold adventure scores with plenty of great moments and melodies to be ed, then don't think twice and get yourself into the Stargate with Daniel and O'Neal, and be ready to fight an evil god-like alien and search for the seventh symbol that may bring you back home.

You'll thank me when you come back to Earth.

This release is the wet dream of every Stargate fan! I ever since loved the franchise and especially the first original movie with music composed by David Arnold.

This new 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition is absolutely perfect! It sounds great and includes more tracks than any release before. The original score from 1994 had a running time of 65 minutes, then in 2006 there was a deluxe version with around 75 minutes playtime. This version right here has almost 110 minutes of playtime!

If you are a movie soundtrack fan and collector, this NEEDS to be in your collection.

My only complain might be, that this sadly doesn't come in a digipak. It is just a standard jewelcase. I personally don't get why we mostly still use boring and cranky standard jewelcases. Not that many people buy physical music anymore and those that do are collectors and appreciate the product so why not releasing it as digipaks? I wouldn't even mind a little price gain as long as the product ends up great but then again 30 dollars for a standard 2CD jewelcase is already high enough so please try to at least provide digipaks.

Sorry about that picky complaining rant. But all this aside, the amount of music and audio quality is outstanding. Just the physical product itself is 08/15 and this for a price of 30 dollars + shipping...