These days, the idea of a metal band adding EDM elements to their sound is commonplace. When the early pioneers of melding heavy metal with electronic beats are debated, it’s usually the same names getting the praise: Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Ministry, Pop Will Eat Itself.
But there’s a key, late-90s release that seems to have been forgotten and yet unquestionably played its part in metal and electronic music’s union: the soundtrack to the largely forgotten 1997 comic book adaptation, Spawn.
The lost sister companion piece to the cult Judgment Night OST of 1993, which paired the cutting-edge rock bands of the early 90s with their rap contemporaries, Spawn: The Album tried the trick again but failed to inspire the same level of reverence.
After the success of Judgment Night, which found the likes of Cypress Hill and Sonic Youth, Slayer and Ice-T, Helmet and House of Pain amongst others collaborating, its producer Happy Walters decided to give the idea another go. Having noticed that that year's Lollapalooza was filled with not just alternative bands, but the likes of Orbital, The Prodigy, Tricky and The Orb, he decided that late-90s rock royalty and state of the art electronic producers working together was the way to go.
For some reason, though, Walters couldn’t make lightning strike twice. It probably didn’t help that the Spawn movie itself was a train wreck, but that certainly didn't hurt Judgment Night, whose film equivalent was definitely a bit of a clanger. Plus, despite being awful, Spawn actually fared OK at the box office.
Perhaps it was the rushed, hurried release; where the Judgement Night soundtrack was meticulously planned, the Spawn album was quickly cobbled together with whoever they could get in to suit the time frame. The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett remarked that his collaboration with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello was finished in a mere three days, when he’d usually need at least a week to compose a track.
Meanwhile, Moby was due to work with upcoming industrial crew Gravity Kills, but when their immediate schedules failed to align, he opted to go with noise rock oddities Butthole Surfers instead.
There are also unquestionably some odd pair-ups that just don't work: DJ Spooky's remix of Metallica classic For Whom the Bell Tolls is a mess, while alt-rock superstars Incubus are teamed with, erm, long-forgotten producer DJ Greyboy. On the flipside, Mercury Prize-winning drum and bass icon Roni Size is stuck with grunge nearly-men Soul Coughing, long after their best days. Not great.
And yet, when Spawn: The Album hits, it’s more than a match for its Judgment Night predecessor. Whoever decided to marry the bleak drum and bass of Goldie with the dark presence of Henry Rollins on T-4 Strain is a genius. UK dance rock crew Vitro add throbbing synth to Silverchair’s groove metal. Filter and The Crystal Method both sound poised for their imminent mainstream assault om (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do and, in one of his two appearances on the album, Kirk Hammett’s guitar sounds amazing paired with Orbital’s hard hitting techno on Satan.
The highlight, though, is unquestionably the gloriously chaotic noise of German digital hardcore anarchists Atari Teenage Riot teaming up with thrash royalty Slayer on No Remorse (I Want to Die). Truly vicious, scathingly heavy and unlike anything you’d heard before, it sounded like the future of extreme music.
The album came out on July 29, 1997 and peaked at number seven on the US Billboard 200, remaining on the chart for a full 25 weeks. Its initial success was certainly helped by the inclusion some of the era's hottest artists: Korn and Marilyn Manson are amongst the other names present. It looked ready to obtain the same cult status as Judgement Night OST before it...expect eventually, much like the film it soundtracked, it became forgotten about.
Walters completed a trilogy of sorts, with 2002’s Blade II soundtrack binning off rock bands and instead focusing on hip hop and dance acts collaborating - including many of the artists that had appeared on his two previous soundtrack projects. Sadly, by that point, Spawn: The Album had already faded well out of the pop culture zeitgeist.
It’s a real shame that Spawn never... um... spawned the same sort of devoted fanbase and influence that Judgment Night produced. Almost three decades after its release, the very idea at its core has become a staple in heavy music. Its DNA looms large in everyone from Bring Me The Horizon to Electric Callboy to Enter Shikari. Maybe it’s time to give this forward-thinking project the props it deserves?
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