© 2010 Lawrence Tuczynski

Title: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Japanese Title: Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidora: Daikaijű soukougeki
CD Label: Toho Music Corporation
CD Number: G-025
Music by: Kow Otani
Number of tracks: 51
Running time: 75:48
Number of discs: 1
Year of release/manufacture: April 25, 2010
Year Movie Released in Japan: Dec. 2001
Year Movie Released in U.S.: 2003 on DVD

REVIEW

May 25, 2010

The following review courtesy of Matti Keskiivari

The second disc in the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box contains the soundtrack of "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (or GMK), composed by Ko Otani, who previously worked with director Shusuke Kaneko on the Heisei Gamera trilogy. This score is not quite as good as his work on the aforementioned trilogy, but it is really entertaining none the less.

The fact that Otani utilizes a lot of synthesizer effects in his music may turn some people off. However, a lot of fans have shown appreciation for this score. Otani has created a number of memorable themes for the movie, and that does lead to some repetition, although not to an irritating amount of it. The new theme of Godzilla is really foreboding. The tracks “Main Title”, “The God of Destruction Appears” and “A Desperate Crisis” are among the ones where the theme gets the most effective use. The second primary theme is the one of King Ghidorah, which is usually accompanied by an eerie male chorus, especially in “The Sleeping Three-Headed Dragon”. Mothra also gets her own short theme motif, which is actually a new variation of her original song, as you often hear “Mosura ya, Mosura ya” being sung. Otani has composed a new military march too, which seems to be a tradition for him as he created a different military march for each of the Heisei Gamera movies. The final new theme is usually referred to as the track it’s used the most in: “Determined to Protect the Future”. This theme is really beautiful, and the track itself is one of the highlights of the score. Other brilliant cues are “Confrontation of the Two Giant Monsters”, “God of Sky: King Ghidorah” and “Godzilla’s Rage”, which are among my favorites. Akira Ifukube’s classic Godzilla theme and Great Monster War March are used in the “End Roll” track.

Now, the disc is quite a big improvement over the previous release of this soundtrack. The entire score is finally available for the first time on CD. All the cues that weren’t previously included are here. The bonus tracks are also brand new. Most of them are edits of certain cues as they’re heard in the final movie. The first edited version of “God of Sky: King Ghidorah” (track 46) is perhaps the most significant of these, as the middle section uses the Godzilla theme instead of the Ghidorah theme, like the original version does. Unfortunately, the quality of these tracks isn’t the best, as the volume level goes up and down constantly in most of them, which is most likely because the tracks were pulled from a 5.1 channel film source according to the booklet. The last three bonus tracks are demos from Otani. They’re all interesting to listen to. Two of them contain early versions of Otani’s themes for Godzilla and Ghidorah, and he even uses a bit of Ifukube’s Godzilla march in the third demo.

The booklet has a pretty “frightening” picture of Godzilla’s face on the front cover, if I may say so myself, and pictures of Chiharu Niyama, Kaho Minami and Ai and Aki Maeda. Aside from the usual track notes and other stuff, there’s also a profile of Ko Otani and an interview with him.

In the end, the GMK disc is one of the primary reasons to get the sixth box. It doesn’t contain the separate Ifukube tracks and the sound effects that were included on the previous CD release, those can be found on other discs. The complete score and the new bonus tracks really make this one a winner.

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Also check out this great review at the Toho Kingdom website at http://www.tohokingdom.com/cd/gb6_gmk.htm.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Track listing courtesy of the Toho Kingdom website at http://www.tohokingdom.com/cd/gb6_gmk.htm

  1. Call to Arms (M1)
  2. Main Title (M2)
  3. Village Spirits (M3)
  4. The Huge Fang (M4)
  5. The Menacing Claw Mark (M5)
  6. Protection: The Legendary Sacred Beasts (M6)
  7. Incident at the Lake Shore (M7)
  8. Premonition (M8)
  9. The Mysterious Old Man (M9)
  10. The Giant Foot (M10)
  11. Cries of Sorrow (M11)
  12. The Arcane Stone (M12)
  13. The Sleeping Three-Headed Dragon (M13)
  14. Cruiser Aizu (M14)
  15. Dark Vision (M15)
  16. Revived Legend (M16)
  17. God of the Earth: Baragon (M17)
  18. The God of Destruction Appears (M18)
  19. Terrifying Landing (M19)
  20. The Forgotten Horror (M20)
  21. Confrontation of the Two Giant Monsters (M21)
  22. The Sacred Beast's Ambush (M22)
  23. Signs of Revival (M23)
  24. The Giant Cocoon (M24)
  25. God of the Sea: Mothra (M25)
  26. Unleashed Spirits of the War Dead (M26)
  27. Attack Preparation (M27)
  28. A Tense Moment (M28)
  29. God of the Sky: King Ghidorah (M29)
  30. GMK (M30)
  31. D-03 Missile Salvo (M31)
  32. Godzilla's Rage (M32)
  33. Determined to Protect the Future (M33)
  34. Mysterious Power (M34)
  35. The Miracle of the Three Sacred Beasts (M35)
  36. A Desperate Crisis (M36)
  37. Escape from Godzilla (M37)
  38. A Salute to the Spirits of the War Dead (M38)
  39. End Roll: Godzilla Theme - Great Monster War March - Main Title (M-End)

    40. Bonus Tracks

  40. The Giant Foot (M10 Edit)
  41. God of the Earth: Baragon (M17 Edit)
  42. The Forgotten Horror (M20 Edit)
  43. The Forgotten Horror (M20A Edit)
  44. Confrontation of the Two Giant Monsters (M21 Edit)
  45. The Sacred Beast's Ambush (M22)
  46. God of the Sky: King Ghidorah (M29)
  47. GMK (M30)
  48. God of the Sky: King Ghidorah (M34A)
  49. Demo I
  50. Demo II
  51. Demo III