Gregson-Williams' score for this 2005 film is more likely to be found on the shelves of classical music collectors than heard in European discos, as Gladiator was, and that attention to authenticity in Kingdom of Heaven in many ways would serve its film to a better end. That is, if Scott had actually used it in the picture as intended. Unlike parts of Gladiator, the music in Kingdom of Heaven won't blow you over with any single cue; as a matter of fact, it'll take several of them for its respectful sense of gravity to really begin to sink in. The primary theme by Gregson-Williams is very consistently utilized throughout the work, but rarely pronounced with great clarity and self-importance. Its smoothly flowing chord progressions are often shifted between different layers of the chorus and the orchestral ensemble in such a fashion as to remain distantly elusive. No explosive brass statements truly define its boundaries, but its effectiveness is ensured by the composer's ability to use it as counterpoint to any meandering choral or string moment of restrained underscore. The religious qualities of the score cannot be missed, on the other hand, with the nearly constant wordless and occasionally Latin-chanting chorus making a strong presence known in nearly every cue. Sometimes solo and at other times with the resounding backing of a diverse percussion section (Turkish musicians from Istanbul, in fact) and a full orchestral ensemble, the 100+ member chorus weaves in and out of the major key, keeping the score necessarily hopeful even during its darkest moments. The surprising level of even consistency in quality is evident in Gregson-Williams' ability to provide suspense and drama without relying much on the bombast of the brass section, instead tightening the percussion and his central elements of the electric violin and electric cello. While orchestral purists may not be thrilled to hear those electronic string instruments in the mix, Gregson-Williams utilizes them well as extensions of woodwinds in an effort to address the Muslim and other ethnic portrayals in the film. Some may confuse the electric strings with a duduk, in fact, the result of outstanding performance emphasis by the players. Along with every solo instrument (and Gregson-Williams does seem to have done his homework here), nothing in the ensemble is ever able to overpower the chorus, however, and it's the Howard Shore-like moments of beauty from The Lord of the Rings trilogy that make this score shine.

Very slow movements of thematic progressions (such as the seemingly Zimmer-like opening chords to "A New World") never seem to bore if simply because of the masterful choices of instrumentation and choral integration. In light of that consistency, the Kingdom of Heaven score has no single weak cue as presented on its album release. Perhaps the most important aspect of Gregson-Williams' work here is that it remains extremely respectful in the face of religious fanaticism, and as Lee Holdridge manages to accomplish in his own scores for religious persecution and war, Gregson-Williams doesn't succumb to stereotypical levels of overblown religious hysteria. The chorus borders on this territory a few times, almost building up the kind of rhythmic momentum that Don Davis fans heard in the latter scores in The Matrix trilogy, but the electric violin and cello, and especially the vivid percussion section, keep the score rooted in its time and place. The spirit of "To Jerusalem" skirts the boundaries of Middle Eastern stereotypes without sounding contrite. The fact that the percussion in Kingdom of Heaven is genuine and not synthesized rings out with power in the score, elevating cues like "The Battle of Kerak" and "Wall Breached" to outstanding levels of sword-clanging authenticity. Those action sequences do expose some similarities to Gregson-Williams' score for the animated flop Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (as well as James Horner's stock 2000's action sound in the latter cue and "The Pilgrim Road"), but they are rather short in duration. Among the more memorable moments of the score will be the "Terms" cue, with outstanding layers of Muslim vocals, and the lovely "Ibelin" character theme. This secondary theme is heard in fragments throughout the score but is condensed to two concert-format presentations in "Ibelin" and "Light of Love." These cues offer the percussive base of Brian Tyler's Children of Dune and eventually add the enticing vocals of Natacha Atlas (whose performances here, similar to those in the end titles of Gabriel Yared's needlessly rejected music for Troy, ring with an appropriate twist of ethnicity that never sounded quite right in her duties for Danny Elfman's The Hulk). Speaking of Children of Dune, much of Gregson-Williams' use of percussion throughout this score is reminiscent of Tyler's landmark television score, but, once again, there is no sense of royalty to be clearly heard in Kingdom of Heaven.

The hour-long commercial album presentation will take 15 minutes to really establish itself (despite the solemn religious beauty of "Burning the Past"), though after another half hour, its consistent quality will lure you into a level of comfort that is surprisingly pensive for a film containing the scale of conflict and brutality of violence of the Crusades. Gregson-Williams accomplished this same consistency in his score for Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas a few years prior, and while you may be able to argue with the merits of that score in the context of its genre (and the terrible film), Gregson-Williams started showing in the early 2000's an ability to infuse his music with a level of intelligent quality that you often only hear in the highlights of comparable scores. Some film music collectors will point to the composer's works like the previous year's Man on Fire and disagree (and, indeed, his thriller music is often challenging to tolerate), but you can also go back to Spy Game and, of course, his popular collaborations with the likewise talented John Powell, to hear the roots of this ability. Unfortunately, Scott apparently decided otherwise at some point in the post-production process of Kingdom of Heaven, and much of Gregson-Williams' score was replaced by other film music and classical pieces for the final cut, sometimes to distracting ends. Odd insertions in the film include Jerry Goldsmith's "Valhalla" from The 13th Warrior, Marco Beltrami's "Family Feud" from Blade II, Patrick Cassady's "Vide Cor Meum" from Hannibal, Graeme Revell's "The Crow Descends" from Crow: City of Angels, and a few classical and source pieces ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Muslim chants. The placement of the Goldsmith Viking music during the final siege in Kingdom of Heaven is the most oddly distracting of all these choices, and the director was appropriately ripped by film score collectors for these insertions. Perhaps not coincidentally, Gregson-Williams did not work with Scott again, another of Zimmer's in house associates, Marc Streitenfeld, becoming the director's regular collaborator henceforth. Fans didn't take long to get hold of the recording sessions contents and pass around enough of Gregson-Williams' music for this project to occupy three CDs, however. And that's not particularly surprising, because Kingdom of Heaven is an intelligent and respectfully restrained powerhouse of a score, in many ways a definite improvement over Zimmer's Gladiator for the director.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download