The Predator Badlands Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Rocks!

I just came from watching the block screening of Predator Badlands at SM Lanang Premier Cinema 1 and man that movie rocks. The soundtrack totally rocks!

That’s about it. I’m not gonna spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.

One thing I will talk about is the killer soundtrack attached to the film.

From start to finish, the scoring was apt for the scenes that needed music to depict a certain mood.

Usually brooding.

Frenetic.

This Film Should Be Watched as a Group so We Made it A Davao Bloggers Society Event.

I was with the Davao Bloggers Society with this one and we came in full force. We were informed days in advance that we would be watching the Predator Badlands Movie so I went head and reviewed all the other previous Predator films from the original Arnold Schwarzenegger to the most recent Killer of Killers which are all on Disney+.

Even the Aliens Vs Predators franchise are in Disney+ so you won’t really have an issue tracking all the films down.

And now I can say I’m truly caught up in the Predators’ storyline.

Predator Badlands is the kind of film that you go and watch with a bunch of other people because it can be a shared experience that you can talk about after the movie.

Let me emphasize that: after the movie.

It’s too bad that there were a lot of people talking while the film was going on which was a bummer but I guess there were some who were just trying to figure out who was who in the movie and what the Predator lore was about.

Oh well… can’t complain too much about it I guess…

The Hu Inspired Soundtrack

The beginning scenes had me straining to hear the music and try to recognize who the artist was and my initial guess was the Hu. i’ve been a fan of the band since 2020 and this movie looked and sounded like something up their alley.

If I had my way, this band would’ve been the soundtrack to our wedding. Why? Because it’s metal and it sets a certain kind of mood. But because it’s sang in a language other than English so no one would really know what it’s all about…

Anyway, back to the Predator Badlands soundtrack…

Each time music came up, I kept thinking to myself, “These guys are musical geniuses!”

I was deeply disappointed to find out in the end that it wasn’t them.

Although, the band should still be proud though that 5 years after they managed to get everyone’s attention, music producers are already trying to capture their ethnic sound and incorporate it into movies as big as these.

The Hu has managed to share the stage with the biggest names in metal and have impressed them all with their musical take on metal. They should, they’re highly accomplished musicians who studied at the Mongolian State Music and Dance Conservatory who were hand-picked by Dashka for being the best of the best in that school.

If it Wasn’t the Hu, then Who Was it?

I took note of the names listed as the ones who provided the musical score and as soon as I got home, googled them. I was really hoping and preying (hehehee) that they weren’t just lucky amateurs who were picked out of the blue to create the awesome soundtrack.

What I found out was that both composers had great achievements and they’re still very young. The ones who provided the soundtrack were Sarah Shachner and Benjamin Wallfisch.

Sarah Shachner

Sarah Shachner is a 37 year old Berklee College of Music musician/composer. She has worked on films like The Expendables, Iron Man, Now You See Me and just recently, Prey which is part of the Predator collection of films.

Benjamin Wallfisch

Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch has been more involved with the Predators and Aliens franchise since he had provided the score for Aliens: Romulus and Predator: Killer of Killers. He’s also the one who provided the score for Twisters, the Flash and Kraven the Hunter.

So, he’s got a pretty impressive list of accomplishments.

These two combined made the totally awesome soundtrack that I am now listening to on Spotify as my current mood music while I write this article.

Do We Have Any Bands Like the Hu?

Yes we do. We have Kadangyan.

One band that I could argue are representatives of our tribal music is Kadangyan.

https://youtu.be/QWP2A02PGOc?si=X5pZ459BAPZ7NQtE

But I will have to admit that I only got to know about this band because, the bassist, Agit Sustento, was a friend of mine. Was, because he has joined our creator when Yolanda (Typhoon Haiyan) struck Tacloban City.

He was able to save his wife and child before the unimaginable happened.

He was a really good guy and we’d always hang out at Cubao Expo. He kept trying to explain his music to me there but I never really got it until I saw them in person, all dressed up (or dressed down), to play tribal music giving us an audio visual experience that I could only hope for my own band to have.

Anyway, Kadangyan’s music is hypnotic, soothing, mesmerizing, uplifting, inspiring, there are so many words I’d like to use to describe it but you’d have to see it to believe it.

Kadangyan, like the Hu, should get a shot at providing music to a larger audience. A global audience.

Their music is all-encompassing, all-inclusive.

They were featured in the Trese Soundtrack so yeah they’ve been listened to by filmgoers all over the world.

But we need more exposure.

Who knows… maybe in the next Predator film, some scout will go and make the effort to gather all the notable world music groups from every corner of the earth and give us an immersion into that genre via an all-out action film that refuses to give anyone any quarter.

Oh Wait… There’s Tatot Music!

Yeah Sandino Libres just released their music video for Binhi which is really awesome. This is just scratching the surface of how awesome he and his band is onstage.

Think of it as your gateway music to the band. And then if you have the time, go watch them live. They’re mostly everywhere these days from small intimate gigs in Davao to full-on, all-out, large crowds.

I’ve only had the privilege to share the billing with him and his band once and he was super cool. It was at Gio’s Crib and he also acted as the sound tech that night so yeah super cool and zero ego. An artist fully deserving of getting to the top of the charts.

Binhi is haunting with the way he sings it and the repetitive lines over the tribal drum beats. The first time I heard it, it gave me chills.

And as I am writing this, it gave me the same feeling again and my goosebumps have yet to subside.

Sandino Libres and his band needs to be featured in some local films. Their music should reach a larger audience. And you can do that now by subscribing to their channel and liking them on Facebook.

After Much Digging, The HU is involved in the Predators Badlands Movie!

So I wasn’t totally hallucinating or hearing things when I said that the music in the soundtrack reminded me of the Hu.

Back in May 24, the HU posted on their official timeline that they were a part of the teaser trailer for the Predator Badlands with their song Wolf Totem.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense because in the movie… oh wait… you gotta go and watch it for all these things to make sense.

Bring a friend. Make sure you do some research if you’re not that familiar with the Predator franchise. Go through the old movies, the comics, the books if you have access to those and really immerse yourself so that you’ll truly understand the beauty of this horrific creatures called the Yautja.