Believe it or not, we are fast approaching the Second Age of live-action LOTR adaptations. With a name as clumsy as the Orcish tongue, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is set to premiere on Prime Video in September—and with financing from an all-seeing, all-hearing megalomaniac hellbent on eternal life, to boot. Can’t get much more authentic than that...
Well, damn. We stand humbled and corrected. Bradley Hall, a YouTuber who has already garnered a sizable following for his various heavy metal-related content, recently unveiled his most intricate and painstaking project yet: A metal reworking of Howard Shore’s entire soundtrack to Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. And not just the theatrical version, either—this is the 3-and-a-half hour Extended Edition, for Eru Ilúvatar’s sake.
According to Hall, the project is the “culmination of months of pandemic-induced boredom/frustration/madness.” “The music itself was very easy; cinematic music in general is usually not very demanding technically,” he explains in the video description. “It was however incredibly monotonous, dull and time-consuming; which is a challenge in itself!”
Hall estimates that it took around 2 months to program backing drum tracks, 1 month to record all the guitars, and a little over a week to mix, film, and edit the ensuing video. To (fingers crossed) appease the Hollywood rights’ holders, the movie itself and dialogue are reduced in the YouTube upload, but Hall says that you can totally sync it up with the film itself (currently available on HBO Max).
Don’t expect the same kind of obsessive detail to finish out Jackson’s original trilogy. “Absolutely not!” Hall confirms in the video’s description regarding plans to adapt both The Two Towers and The Return Of The King. While he doesn’t rule out future movie soundtrack adaptations, he “DEFINITELY” will not tackle one as long as this.
It stands to reason that Hall’s vow subsequently excludes tackling Jackson’s follow-up The Hobbit trilogy... to the disappointment of no one. In the meantime, we suggest falling down the rabbit hole that is “Let It Go” metal covers.
[via BoingBoing]
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