While Columbia didn't spare any expense in securing the London Symphony Orchestra and a suitable choir for Horner's recording, the studio was less generous on its time frame for the completion of the music. Overwhelmed by the post-production schedule of a film already missing its target of opening with Return of the Jedi (by several months), Horner was tasked with writing 110 minutes of massive orchestral music in a matter of seven weeks, a job more daunting at the time than it would be with the help of software in later decades. Battling illness and a shortage of staff, Horner would eventually write a score that would both extend his previous stylistic expressions while also exploring ideas that would prove extremely effective in his scores of the following eight years. Despite criticism of rehash from many film reviewers, the Krull score is showered with praise from their film score counterparts, and most of those positive vibes are warranted. Many of Horner's early scores featured the same derivative structures in their attempt to glorify their fantasy elements. Without a doubt, Krull is similar to Battle Beyond the Stars, the two Star Trek scores from Horner's pen, Aliens, and Brainstorm. You hear the same harsh brass tones, rising figures, and static metallic rhythms in all of these scores, and Krull is equally guilty of that continuity. Themes for the heroic prince, evil slayers, and the relationship with the princess are all developed well in the score, each offered in lengthy, prominent fashion. The main title introduces the first of these themes with a choral accompaniment perhaps somewhat shallow in power, but combined with "Colwyn's Arrival" and "Slayer's Attack," the first fifteen minutes are explosive thematically and creatively. You'll immediately note that despite a well-rounded orchestration, Krull is absolutely dominated by its layers of brass. Trombones offer the title theme with trademark Horner resonance, though the French horns are restrained and the trumpets shrill at times. High strings perform a love theme that would share many characteristics with the composer's more elaborate successor for The Rocketeer.

As a highlight of Krull, the woodwind-conveyed love theme is provided with three full, unadulterated performances in the film and expanded albums, featured best in the cue "The Slayer's Attack" (which likely should have been split into two separate tracks on the albums to set this performance aside from the rambunctious action that follows it). In the final sequence of the film, during the track entitled "Destruction of the Black Fortress," the strings perform an awkward march with swishing percussion and wailing trumpets; its staggered rhythms could easily be mistaken for the final starship battle sequence in Star Trek II. Percussion in a few of the battle scenes echo the Klingon material in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, with conceptual hints of Aliens in its development as well. The frenzied volume of hysteria in some of these outrageously chaotic action cues, brutal in their brass tones, are a foreshadowing of Brainstorm. Conversely, the opening minutes of "Riding the Fire Mares" offer some propulsive adaptations of the score's heroic theme into far more unique and enjoyable harmonic forms. The expansive creativity in the handling of the ensemble is what makes Krull both interesting and, unfortunately, occasionally obnoxious. Horner's experimentation with grinding electronic sound effects would continue, though the score would use the choir in ways that the composer would not explore much further. This, along with the sheer attitude of the brazen, in-your-face brass performances, combine with a few frighteningly dissonant passages to make Krull a more difficult listening experience than some comparable scores. Much of the methodology in the handling of themes, unique percussion, and rhythmic explosiveness would reach maturation in Willow, still a far better score. While Krull remains a fascinating listening experience for any Horner collector, it is simply too derivative of the composer's other concurrent efforts, with most of its elements put to better use in later scores. By that time, Horner would also have jettisoned the overused motifs of his first five years and the sound quality of his recordings was destined to improve drastically.

Both the score and the film hold a distinct cult status, and the great desire of film music fans to experience Krull on CD led to three releases of it from 1987 to 1998. The Southern Cross Records specialty label offered a 45-minute album in 1987 with all the essential music before expanding that album to 75 minutes with two limited collector's pressings in the early 1990's (the second pressing was a "gold" CD). The short-lived Super Tracks label offered a limited 2-CD set of Krull with 93 minutes in 1998, effectively providing all viable music from the film. The original 1987 album offers a balanced presentation of the score and its sound quality isn't as archival as it could have been (bass strings are undermixed, though). The expanded albums would mostly concentrate on extensions of the battle music, often in the realm of irritating dissonance; some collectors held on to their original 1987 copies of Krull for its consistent flow. The only absolutely essential cue missing from this first album is "Main Title and Colwyn's Arrival," available on all the subsequent albums. Even completists were largely satisfied with the two limited SCSE editions. With superb sound quality and correct sequencing, the presence of these albums made the announcement of an even fuller Krull release in 1998 a significant surprise. For Horner fans, this 2-CD release of Krull is a fan's dream come true, and long after it disappeared from the market, La-La Land Records issued a re-pressing of the set that rearranged the tracks slightly and offered two album arrangements as new bonus cues to bring the total time up to nearly 100 minutes. The 2010 product was itself limited to 3,000 copies, and instead of really improving upon the previously released material, the focus of the set was to bring the music back into commercial availability. La-La Land re-issued the same contents on another pressing of 2,000 copies in 2015. The SCSE albums had sold at one time for $200, and the Super Tracks one retailed for $40 before selling out. The additional music on the 1998 and 2010 albums is interesting, but by no means exceptional. With no new performances of the primary or love themes in its contents, most listeners will not really need this material. Sound quality is a non-factor in this equation; it's about the same on the La-La Land, Super Tracks, and SCSE releases. Regardless of which product you choose, the score is outstanding for much of its length, but not worth unconditional love.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download