There are essentially four parts to the Armageddon score, ranging from the rather pleasant to the completely intolerable. The title anthem, the wild guitar rhythms, the keyboarded action cues, and the romantic, Celtic-laced romance variants on the title anthem and love theme are these four parts. The anthem in and of itself is listenable if only because of its own dumbed-down chord progressions. Written for real or fake strings, the anthem is among the more readily memorable themes to come out of Media Ventures during its height, and it flourishes in the launch and landing sequences in Armageddon. When Rabin reverts to his unrestrained guitar wailings, the score ultimately fails; from "Oil Rig" to "Armadillo," these passages are so abrasive that they're hardly listenable (and they also break up the otherwise decent "Finding Grace"). The typical Zimmer-ized keyboarded action for the major effects scenes in the film are filled with samples familiar to those who collect Zimmer's work; it's all terribly derivative, and the method of providing a heightened sense of excitement through the short, staccato blasting of the keyboards isn't going to win any awards. The final, most digestible aspect of the score is, not surprisingly, the work of Harry Gregson-Williams, who was also just getting his feet wet at the time, but who would also eventually prove himself to be one of the top two Media Ventures artists in the 2000's. When Rabin's score was deemed lacking enough romantic appeal, Gregson-Williams was brought in to add the Celtic flavor you hear in the cello and flute performances of the anthem and sub-theme for the love story. The film didn't necessarily call for that ethnic sound, but given the record sales of James Horner's Titanic score at the time, it's no surprise that the sound was considered a potential selling point. The exact extent of Gregson-Williams' contribution to Armageddon (overall) is still not entirely clear, and the history of the work on album hasn't made the situation much clearer.

After Rabin released 30 minutes of his own score on a promo to coincide with the release of the film (only a song album was initially available), a commercial release with 50 minutes (and some of Gregson-Williams' uncredited work) was offered late in the year. It's a rare day when the lack of a song on a score album is considered an unfortunate event, but the presence of Aerosmith's song "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing" would have been welcomed on the score album given its prominent placement in the film. A 2-CD bootleg with over two hours of music from the film, including alternate takes and a snippet of Aerosmith, eventually hit the secondary market a few years later. It is, despite the hype, not complete. The additional 80+ minutes of music on this bootleg is pretty much more of the same, so if you enjoyed what you heard on the commercial album, then the bootleg just gives you significantly more of it. Of particular note is the inclusion of additional Gregson-Williams music, including significantly more representations of the love theme for cello and flute. The flute solo hidden in the middle of "Bad News" among the reasons why people flocked to buy this score in the first place. That particular cue is perhaps representative of the overall score more than any other... Gregson-Williams' beauty is tragically interrupted by more Rabin pounding just as you're getting used to the gorgeous, softer themes. The sound quality on the bootleg is equal to that of the commercial album, with the exception of the finale cue alternately named "Returning Home" and "Armageddon Trailer," which in either case sounds muffled. Rabin's mutilation of "America the Beautiful" is atrocious, though people with a sense of humor may interpret it as a rendition of what the song would have become had the Nazis won the war. Given how worshipped Armageddon is by Media Ventures collectors, perhaps the appeal of the bootleg (and its countless variants and revisions) comes as no surprise, but the score on the whole is so amateurish and underachieving that two hours of it is a mind-numbing experience. Still, it was the right score for the right film at the right time, and you can't help but shake your head and laugh at its predictable success.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download