This Friday, HBO MAX premieres the reboot/revisioning of Mortal Kombat — a piece of IP that has been thoroughly ingrained in the American pop culture headspace for nearly 30 years.
Twenty-six years ago, the original Mortal Kombat film walked into the wasteland of summer movies (August) and kicked the film world in the teeth; it sat atop the box office for nearly a month and grossed $122 million in the U.S. (on an $18 million budget no less). It spawned numerous sequels (that we’d like to forget) and bolstered the legend and lore of the video game franchise and the film world with fans demanding new, and hopefully better, content.
The debate rages that this is one of the better video-game-to-big-screen adaptations of all-time. It’s not a great debate because let’s face it, the video game movie subgenre is rife with hot garbage and very little to brag about.
Yet, there is a piece of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film that many forget about — the soundtrack.
For those who are too young to remember, or just might’ve forgotten, the ’90s were teeming with amazing film soundtracks. There were soundtracks that were certified platinum juggernauts like Titanic, The Lion King, and the two-disc classic rock nostalgia trip for Forrest Gump. There were also innovative soundtracks like Judgment Night, which boldly featured collabs between alternative/metal bands with hip hop artists like Slayer jamming with Ice T, and Faith No More tearing it up with Boo-Ya T.R.I.B.E. Some soundtracks even breathed life into long-forgotten genres like Pulp Fiction did with surf rock and the music of Dick Dale.
Then there was the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. While many fans of the film may solely remember The Immortals rendition of the iconic theme song, they’re forgetting that the album as a whole was actually a massive, groundbreaking record.
Early on, the film’s producers knew they wanted the soundtrack to represent the newly burgeoning electronic music genre at the time — a choice that perfectly complemented the intense, supernatural, and high-energy nature of the video game adaptation. However, according to the film’s producer and score composer, that idea cost them two major label deals as music executives at the time had much different ideas about what would make a successful record.
Eventually, Canadian electronic label TVT stepped in and the result was historic. Mortal Kombat‘s soundtrack was the first ever Electronic Dance Music (EDM) record to ever go platinum in the United States and became a Guinness World Record holder for “the most successful video game spin-off soundtrack album.”
So yes, EDM fans, you can thank the 1995 Mortal Kombat soundtrack for all those big bass bangers you’ve loved at factory-inspired raves and big outdoor musical festivals for the three to four decades
If you’ve never listened to the Mortal Kombat soundtrack before — and you’re a fan of the nebulous techno/electronica/industrial/
Bile and Napalm Death — as their names would obviously suggest — bring that 90s headbanging, black T-shirt mosh pit friendly brand of throat shredding thrash. Meanwhile, Fear Factory, who were still new-ish to the scene at the time, scored one of the album’s best tracks with their remix of “Zero Signal.” This move would later dictate the band’s infusion of metal and electronic music for the best part of their career (and some could argue their downfall after their cover of “Cars,” which landed them on MTV). Type O Negative would drop one of their all-time greatest tracks “Blood Fire” on the record — and the gothic vocals of the late Peter Steel fit perfectly with the darker, magical elements of the martial arts film.
On the electronic side of things, Gravity Kills — a band that definitely never gets the respect they deserve for intensely marrying electronic and metal — delivers an absolutely dance banger with the demo version of their sound “Goodbye.” (If you’re looking for a better GK song, go out of your way to find the song “Guilty” — a staple in ’90s movies and TV). Tracks from Orbital and Traci Lords (remixed by Juno Reactor) definitely capture the mid-to-late ’90s rave/electronic vibe that would be the progenitors for the EDM of the decades to come.
However, the absolute granddaddy of songs on the record (minus the title track) is that inimitable techo track “Juke Joint Jezebel” from German techno outfit KMFDM. The track was not only a pillar of this genre but also hit it big in the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence classic Bad Boys and even an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. Crunchy guitars mixed with thumping beats and gothic vocals gave a weird peek into the world of goth industrial/technical/dance for mainstream audiences.
On a personal note, this was the album that changed the damn game for me — musically speaking. After my best friend dubbed his bootleg copy of the album (which was definitely mixing tracks), this became the album that was in heavy rotation in my Walkman. The wild blend of electronica and heavy metal blew the mind of a 13/14 year old who was only used to his parents’ love of doo-wop and light FM … and was just dipping his toe into metal after hearing White Zombie on the Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls soundtrack.
This was the record that inspired me to hit the radio dials for the first time on my own and discover a station like Seton Hall University’s 89.5 WSOU — one of the premier destinations for all things metal in the United States. I would hear everything I heard on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack played on this station, but it was also the station that opened me up to everything from the ’70s to the present (the ’90s at the time) for heavy metal, hair metal, industrial, hardcore, and punk rock. This record was my gateway drug to all things music for me.
So, while you’re hyped for HBO MAX’s reboot of Mortal Kombat, go to Spotify or Apple Music or wherever and find the Mortal Kombat soundtrack (it’s probably a playlist) and listen to an absolute piece of music history that many have long forgotten about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O07FnB6Agoc
