Filmtracks: Black Adam (Lorne Balfe)

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Written 11/6/22

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Buy it... if you value brawn over brains in superhero music that hammers you into submission with its blend of contemporary coolness, unusual vocalizations, and massive orchestra.

Avoid it... if you demand a sensible narrative and any semblance of nuance or subtlety in this long, mind-numbingly brutal, ultra-masculine spectacle of force.

Balfe

Black Adam: (Lorne Balfe) While filmmakers considered including the character of Black Adam as a foil in 2019's Shazam!, the franchise couldn't fathom featuring Dwayne Johnson as that character for just a supporting role. Thus, after a pandemic delay, Black Adam receives his own film in the DC Extended Universe, allowing for a bloated origins story that explains not only his existence but that of a number of other, ancillary heroes that belong to the Justice Society of America, which is not to be confused with the Justice League, the Magical Congress of the United States of America, or the Make America Great Again campaign. Initially, four heroes of the Justice Society, one of whom looks suspiciously like an aging British secret agent, are sent to contain the resurrection of Black Adam from his 4,600-year nap, his backstory containing eerie similarities in ethos to that of the Scorpion King but without the impressive hair products. Since the film is a spin-off of the Shazam! concept, Adam is depicted receiving familiar powers but is an anti-hero due to the execution of his son by the evil king of a fictitious Middle Eastern kingdom of the past. Eventually, when the evil crown of that ruler and its associated demons from the "legions of Hell" decide to rid the modern kingdom of Burger Kings and other unsavory abominations, Black Adam begrudgingly allies himself with the Justice Society heroes to repel such unpleasantries. The film is meant to set up sequels with the character eventually squaring off against Shazam, Superman, and, one can always hope, the Scorpion King. Rather than Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra returning to their Jungle Cruise collaborator, James Newton Howard, to provide the score for Black Adam, they turned to Black Widow composer Lorne Balfe, who was a safer choice to provide the knock-off Hans Zimmer muscularity expected by studio executives and trained audiences. Balfe had impressed with the breadth of his stylistic evolution over the late-2010's, and Black Widow stands among the better genre entries of its age.

By the time Balfe joined Black Adam, Collet-Serra had already selected the song placements for the film, forcing the composer to work around them and build bridges leading into them. Interestingly, Balfe does not explicitly credit any ghostwriters for the project, but the lengthy list of arrangers suggests that Balfe tasked these assistants with adapting his initial suites of material into portions of the score without asking them to write anything substantively new. The highly repetitive nature and lack of satisfying variation in the presentation of the base style and themes may reveal such an arrangement. What you don't hear is anything from Benjamin Wallfisch's superior score for Shazam! despite the conceptual and supporting character overlaps. The outside musical reference that caused an immediate stir was prompted by the appearance of Superman in a credits scene; the filmmakers labored at length over whether to reference the character's theme by Zimmer or that by John Williams for the scene, and the iconic status of the latter won that debate. (Balfe has seemed uncomfortable discussing the decision in depth, as it is something of a repudiation of the vocal and often antagonistic Zimmer minority that has long tried to diminish the merit of Williams' themes.) Despite this Williams-aided cameo, however, Balfe's score is informed greatly by the Zimmer superhero mould, blasting, thrashing, and droning his way to deep, manly heroism with heavy bass emphasis, electronic manipulation, and rock-inspired thematic elements. The composer opted for a massive orchestral ensemble highlighted by an unusually large brass section. Sadly, each instrumental layer often plays in unison, which could have been accomplished with overdubbing. If all the horns play the same line together rather than forming chords or obvious conflicting or complimentary lines of action, then what's the point? The resulting sound is large but boneheaded, lacking much of the potential that such an ensemble can bring. Percussionists and other soloists from around the world representing different cultures were assembled for the score, giving it a somewhat meandering and unfocused ethnic feel, though standard rock drum kits are never far behind.

The application of vocal effects in Black Adam is where Balfe supplies some interesting ideas, though the result is not always palatable. There is a general sense of similarity in the vocal strategy between this score and Andrew Lockington's Rampage, perhaps a Johnson-related coincidence but also illuminating the concept of discordant, lighter vocal usage against brutal symphonic and electronic tones. (Lockington would have been amore inspired choice for this score, honestly.) Some of the chanted Latin lyrics tell the backstory of the main character in Black Adam, and the most ethnic vocal portions, as in middle of "It Was Him," are highlights. On the other hand, vocals are sometimes whispered or altered in ways to supply them like sound effects, and these layers are typically distracting rather than constructive. The defining characteristic of the score is Balfe's synthetic post-production, however, and this area is where the work utterly fails for no good reason. There is intentional electronic distortion throughout the music, hip hop mannerisms twisted badly, and none of these techniques was really necessary for a story for which the ethnic elements were a better match. There seems to be more impactful distortion of organic sounds here than in Balfe's Terminator Genisys, which is a surprise. Badly dated techniques like the sudden drop-out that concludes "Through the Wall" and the backwards crescendo the opens "23 lbs of Eternium" are tired and no longer impress anyone. Animalistic alarm noises, as in "Just Say Shazam," are highly annoying, and grating electronic slurring inhibits several orchestral passages. The fantasy portions of the score without this distortion, like "Lake Baikal," yield the most compelling cues. It sounds like Balfe's intent was to create an overarching tone that blended Zimmer's brooding bass template with the coolness of Ludwig Göransson's Black Panther, the awe of Wallfisch's Shazam!, and the pop-culture heroism of Bill Conti's Rocky. The combination doesn't entirely work, for the Göransson coolness is too manipulated, the orchestral command is nowhere near Wallfisch's, and anything in the genre raising memories of Rocky is, well, misguided. That leaves the Zimmer influences to prevail, which they do.

If scores like Black Adam thrive on bass-dwelling force and sections of instruments playing in unison, then you also have to mention the incessant pounding on key, whether in the thematic constructs or the underlying rhythms. Balfe divides the score between two major sets of themes, one for Adam and the other for the combined Justice Society, but the rendering of the halves is too similar instrumentally and in tone to make many meaningful distinctions. These characters are all just ballsy, cool superheroes and scores like Black Adam do far too little to round out their musical personalities. It's in your face almost all the time, the volumes high even in softer passages, and exhaustion sets in after just twenty minutes of it. This isn't to say that Balfe doesn't attempt some intelligence in his ethnic elements or the intentional placement of the theme sets against each other before eventually bringing them into simultaneous harmony. But the individual battles between themes in the cues around "Just Say Shazam" are decent but not distinct, the applications most often alternating rather than extensively overlapping, which is not particularly clever. Balfe overcomplicates the thematic situation by providing a theme for Adam that is actually five distinct ideas combined into one identity, with an auxiliary theme for the character's relationship with his doomed son. The composer and his arrangers supply each of the five parts of the Adam theme in various purposes throughout the narrative, and each is repeated many times. But because of their quantity, none really excels as the main motific representation of the characters. Less cloudy are the two parts that make up the Justice Society theme, for which Balfe opted not to distinguish each character with any musical voice aside from Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, who receives some half-hearted individualism in the score. Even here, the main theme for the Justice Society somewhat defeats the purpose of its heroic secondary theme, for the primary motif itself becomes bloated with overbearing, bass-pounding greatness by the end, too. Though Balfe intends these themes to span a broader range from traditional nostalgia to contemporary zeal, all of these ideas end up sounding like they're overcooked meat floating in the same boiling soup of blazing hot indigestion.

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Generally, Balfe conceived of the Black Adam theme as an extension of an American high school marching band because of Johnson's football past. His description of this material as a "menacing, dark force" and "dark and bombastic" extended not out of the Black Adam persona but rather Balfe's impression of Johnson as "The Rock." This decision doesn't make sense in the confines of this picture, and not much personality from a marching band is exuded from the percussion applied. The composer also states that the Adam material builds slowly and only provides a finished presentation at the end of the score, which would be a smart move if it was actually obvious this technique was happening in the movie; instead, the theme's parts all pound away early and late, taking a hiatus to allow the Justice Society themes to dominate the middle. When not defined by overwrought brass and electronic bass enhancement, the theme uses awkwardly whispering vocal effects and manipulated African singing, sometimes laced with metallic scraping noises, and while this effort is admirable in concept, the execution is more annoying than anything else. Structurally, the five parts of the theme include the opening rhythm, its oft accompanying bass riff of coolness, a main bad-ass theme, a choral interlude of historical epicness, and a heroic ascent for the character's better inclinations. The five parts never really become comfortable with each other in the score proper, which is probably what Balfe was alluding to in his interviews about only providing the theme in full in the suite. The main bad-ass fanfare is introduced at 0:56, 1:42, and 2:49 into "Black Adam Theme" and consists of pairs of 5-note phrases. It's more ethnically focused at 0:56 into "Teth-Adam," which is largely just a copy of the suite, thus returning multiple times. This cue's poor combination of modern percussive grooviness and vague Middle-Eastern tones, especially in the vocals, is a disappointment. It's reduced to a solo string at 2:43 into "Kahndaq," fuller at 4:21, and ominous at the end, but the choppy, manipulated vocals over this theme's later statements are insufferable. The idea continues to dominate early cues, brutal on brass at 0:40 into "The Awakening" under obnoxious synthetic effects and repeating endlessly through ridiculously masculine variations of force. For a theme that Balfe claims was not to be defined early, it certainly explodes prematurely.

After the initial cues of Black Adam, the bad-ass fanfare for the titular character becomes increasingly unbalanced. It's somewhat muted at 1:43 into "Our Only Hope," filled with oppressive hate at 1:04 into "Change Your Name," and shifts back to powerful, overbearing tones at 0:24 into "Is It the Champion?" over the bass riff. The theme is barely enunciated late in "Your Enemies" over an awful, manipulated riff and vocal effects, joining the battle at 3:20 into "Just Say Shazam" over the riff once more. It's hinted at 0:24 into "Ancient Palace," again with the riff underneath, returning late, and stutters near the end of "Release Him." The idea interjects into the action around 1:44 into "Fly Bikes," bursts electronically with terrible distorted effects at 1:10 into "Through the Wall" (before stomping later), struggles against the rhythm and choral interlude in "It Was Him," and then takes a break until the outset of "Prison Break" on growling brass and a striking moment over the choral motif in the middle of "Slave Champion." Intriguingly, this main identity for Adam is largely absent from the concluding cues, that void filled by the other parts of the theme. Integral to this theme is Balfe's tandem of underlying rhythm and bass riff for the character, the latter often complimenting the main theme harmonically. The rhythm opens "Black Adam Theme" on cellos, a simple octave-hopping idea with occasional anticipatory notes, and it is joined by the powerful bass riff at 0:34 that continues throughout. The bass riff is the arguably coolest part of the score and could have been the main theme itself. The rhythm opens "Teth-Adam" with annoying choral layering and percussive slapping, while the bass riff again joins the suite's clone at 0:34. It opens "Kahndaq" with a little more subtlety, the bass riff again aiding briefly, and informs the dull thumping at 0:23 into "The Awakening." The rhythm develops at 0:25 into "Shaza-Superman" out of ethnic vocal wailing with rock-like attitude (the bass riff at 0:49 is subtle and dissolves as the cue meanders into nothingness), is reduced to a single octave decline at the start of "Our Only Hope" and later in the cue, opens "Change Your Name" with significant distortion (adding a slow bass riff), and becomes a bit tribal and distorted at the outset of "Is It the Champion?" The rhythm is barely recognizable in the electronic mayhem at the outset of "Your Enemies," though the riff joins the ruckus for one statement.

Balfe and his team manipulate the rhythm and bass riff more extensively later in the Black Adam score, relying upon it as a blunt instrument of pounding force at times. The rhythm opens "Not Interested" and mingles with the choral interlude motif, the bass riff barely intact in the treble at 1:05 in an intriguing shift, and it is full of wrath at the start of "Just Say Shazam" on guitars, slammed drums; the battle with the Society theme here leads to a defiant riff statement at 1:39. The rhythm is distorted badly at 1:10 into "Ancient Palace" (returning to form at 2:20) while the bass riff alone at 0:52 into "Fly Bikes" is pushed outside of its normal boundaries, mingling fairly well with the Justice Society material. Blasting at 0:17 into "Through the Wall" with a Terminator-like riff is the rhythm once again, peppered throughout this cue. The rhythm and thematic fragments struggle after about a minute of "It Was Him" and under tentative thematic phrasing late in "It Was Him." It explodes early in "The Doctor's Destiny" and joins the Society theme nicely at 0:20 into "Slave Champion," while the riff offers some sleek tone to the middle of "Legions of Hell" and absolutely takes over at the start of "The Man in Black." The rhythm thumps in an awkward mix at the start of "Adam's Journey" and subtly closes the cue with little satisfaction. The other two parts of the Black Adam theme are more standalone applications, the choral interlude representing the epic historical element with repeating descending phrases of less-manipulated singing. It's featured at 1:19 into "Black Adam Theme," where it continues as a counterpoint line to the main theme, and is reprised at the same time point in "Teth-Adam," where it receives a different mix. The choral interlude is faintly present under the Justice Society's heroic identity in "Introducing the JSA," is presented at 0:24 into "Not Interested" over the rhythm for an interesting pairing, and opens "Release Him" without much variation. Balfe's team takes it in different directions from there, urgent and lower in pitch at 2:02 into "It Was Him" (and returning at 4:54), opening "Wet Rocks" in more troubled layers of dissonance, and sped up throughout "Not a Hero," the vocals oddly mixed in the soundscape but strings carrying the motif for a nice change in the latter half. It proceeds with a dose of agony at 0:51 into "Slave Champion" over the main theme, opens "Legions of Hell" with more badly manipulated or muted choral layers, and mingles with the riff violently early in "The Man in Black" before obviously dissolving.

The final portion of the Black Adam theme is that representing the character's potential as a protagonist and thus accompanies his more heroic acts. This portion of the theme is its typical culmination, its two-note phrases of ultra-cool chord shifts at 2:04 into "Black Adam Theme" devolving into an unlistenable motif of manipulated nasal sounds at 2:26. The ascending portion up front is teased at 2:04 in "Teth-Adam" as a three-note alternate to this heroic mode, but it flourishes at 2:18 into "The Awakening" in overblown fantasy with noble trumpets, the nasal choral part at 2:47 adding a short crescendo of irritation. It returns at 1:22 into "Ancient Palace" with slapping contemporary percussion, the modern elements ruining the choral majesty of the moment and the motif building to its usual obnoxious choral climax. The idea is referenced slightly late in "23 lbs of Eternium," slows in tempo at 0:34 into "Prison Break" with the rock percussion (the nasal choral climax in this performance is still highly annoying in its vocal distortion), and takes a greater role at 0:56 and 1:55 into "Adam's Journey" over the Adam rhythm with increasing intensity. Again, the nasal choral climax to the motif here is hideous. On the flip side of the score is the two-part identity for the Justice Society. The main theme for this group is what Balfe calls "contemporary" but with "nostalgic roots," which doesn't really have much meaning in the final product aside from reduced electronic manipulation and a longer-lined melody. It is, though, a more traditionally lyrical identity and closer to Balfe's usual tonalities and progressions. The theme is summarized at 0:11 into "The Justice Society Theme" after its own chopping introductory rhythm, repeating several times in thicker layers of instrumental and choral action, taking almost a soft electronic dance turn at 2:18, and lighter keyboarding closing out the arrangement without discernable purpose. In the actual score, the theme debuts at the start of "Introducing the JSA" after a softer opening string rhythm, with contemporary coolness at 0:38 sounding like a failing computer hard drive in the vocal effects, a technique that returns distractingly at 3:34. The theme shifts to brass force and fuller strings in the middle and at the end of the cue, establishing honorable personality at 2:43 without electronic layers in an overly noble presentation. The Justice Society theme opens "What Kind of Magic?" in low shades of brooding but builds confidence throughout, while the rhythm and angry thematic fragments occupy the middle of "Black Adam Spotted."

As demanded by the plot of Black Adam, the Justice Society's main theme comes to dominate the middle of the score. Its rhythm is full of wrath at the start of "Just Say Shazam" on guitars and slammed drums before the theme proper at 0:52 into that cue offers a sudden break from the hard attitude; the rock anthem rendition at 1:56 sonically battles the Adam material. A super-cool rendition opens "Ancient Palace" with choral weight over contemporary loops, the rhythm then informing the propulsion of "Little Man." The Justice Society theme remains a little uncomfortable amongst the Adam theme parts in the middle of "Fly Bikes," further fragmented early in "Nanobots" before consolidating with uneasy tension later. It dwells in suspense early in "Is This the End?," trying to escape the bass region without success. An important shift happens with the lighter moment at 1:05 into "Lake Baikal," the theme taking its own turn as a heroic identity at 1:57 but then shifting back to the interlude sequence dedicated to that purpose. It's teased early in "Capes and Corpses" and is stoic but stoked early in "Hawkman's Fate," building Terminator Genisys tonalities. Slowed to melodramatic, ultra-action mode in "The JSA Fights Back," the theme erupts into a rowdy, manipulated rendition with its rhythm thereafter, and it goes to battle early in "Slave Champion." Like the main Adam theme, this one disappears at the end of the score as well. Taking up more oxygen by this point is the interlude sequence to the Justice Society theme, which is more brazenly heroic in attitude, though the rock percussion doesn't jive well with the rest of the identity. In the summary suite, this motif builds its ascending phrases at 1:13 and goes full hero mode at 1:33, by which point it sounds a bit like a vintage Trevor Rabin idea. It's softer at 2:40 until a terrible hero mode strikes at 2:59 with awful electric slurring, concluding with Rocky aspirations on trumpets at 3:41 in almost humorous doses of overblown parody. Within the score, the heroic interlude for the group is introduced at 0:58 into "Introducing the JSA" with a little subtlety but becomes brassier at 3:40. The underlying chords alone occupy the middle of "What Kind of Magic?" with snazzy intent while the melody influences "Time to Go" but never really gets established. It opens "Through the Wall" lightly and overcomes the Adam material's menace at 0:49, battling even more brazenly later in the cue. An anthemic performance at 1:14 into "Lake Baikal" for brass and choir repeats several times in the crescendo at the end of the cue for lofty power

As the score for Black Adam concludes, the heroic interlude sequence for the Justice Society theme experiences an interesting variety of emotional variants. It's dramatic in its bassline late in "Hawkman's Fate," makes a cameo late in "The JSA Fights Back," becomes softly ethereal in a great, angelic choral application in "A Bad Plan is a Good Plan," joins victoriously with choir at 1:52 into "Prison Break," and partly informs the momentous sacrifice cue in "The Doctor's Destiny." The final significant motif in Black Adam represents the relationship between Adam and his son, an idea slightly related to the Black Adam theme in harmonics and progressions. Debuting at 3:54 into "Kahndaq," this theme meanders early in "Our Only Hope" without resolution and makes an angry allusion at 1:50 into "Ancient Palace." The theme is summarized mostly in "Father & Son," however, heard at 0:07 on solo strings and building to sizeable choral lament; the percussive elements in this cue are more organic and easier to digest. This family theme opens "Lake Baikal" with urgency and culminates with oppressively dark force at 0:24 into "Adam's Journey" and again later in the cue, pounding away repeatedly in shades of the main theme to close the cue. The only other motif of interest in the score is one for Doctor Fate, dissonant warping and descending three note phrases accompanying the character's mystical capabilities. This idea is heard best at the outsets of "Hawkman's Fate" and "Dr. Fate." On the whole, though, the multitude of thematic parts for Black Adam and the two distinct motifs for the Justice Society present an overcomplicated narrative, especially with each idea conveyed independently to yield six or seven thematic attributions. More damning in Black Adam is the mind-numbingly brutal and overbearing tone that dominates so much of the score. It's a persistently angry work, the ethnic elements drowned out and the electronic manipulation obnoxious more often than not. Balfe has proven himself better than this lowest common denominator kind of style. On album, the 109-minute presentation, sans Williams' Superman cameo, is laborious and includes two remixes at the end that only serve to crank up the synthetic aspects and will not appeal to film score collectors. A 2-CD option with the same contents followed the digital release. The first half of this score will hammer you into submission and make you wonder if your speakers are damaged. The latter half strives to compensate for that suffering, but the highlights in these parts can be better appreciated in more accomplished Balfe works like Black Widow. There are effective moments here, but ready the pain pills. @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: ***
Music as Heard on Album: **
Overall: **

Bias Check:

For Lorne Balfe reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83 (in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.86 (in 23,478 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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