Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP | ||||
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Soundtrack album (EP) by Mastodon | ||||
Released | June 29, 2010 | |||
Recorded | Late 2009 and early 2010 | |||
Genre | Sludge metal, progressive metal | |||
Length | 32:46 | |||
Label | Reprise | |||
Mastodon chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
Decibel | 9/10 |
MetalSucks |
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP is the official score for the 2010 film Jonah Hex directed by Jimmy Hayward and starring Josh Brolin. The score was composed by American heavy metal band Mastodon and film composer Marco Beltrami. It was released digitally on June 29, 2010 through Reprise Records.
Jonah Hex: Revenge Gets Ugly EP received some minor charting success, peaking at number 15 on Billboard's Top Soundtracks, and at number 22 on Billboard's Hard Rock Albums.
In September 2009 it was announced that Mastodon were working on the film score to the DC comic adaption of Jonah Hex. While writing the film script, director Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!, Finding Nemo, Toy Story) was heavily inspired and influenced by the band's 2006 studio album, Blood Mountain. Hayward personally called Mastodon and asked them to contribute their music to the soundtrack. The film was on a tight budget and most of the cast and crew had agreed to take pay cuts. Mastodon were no exception as they agreed to record the album for, "basically nothing."
Mastodon had just returned from a European tour with Metallica, and immediately flew out to Los Angeles, California to begin work on the score. The group was shown various clips of the film and asked to write music that matched the scenes emotionally. According to bassist Troy Sanders, they were given "100% creative control in this movie." Writing the soundtrack to a film came natural for Mastodon, as many of their albums are concept albums. Sanders commented that since the start of the band, "we've always written albums thinking the music was the score of a movie. Then we'll create the lyrics or story line on top of that, as if we're writing the dialogue to match the movie's cinematography." In two weeks they created about an hour of instrumental music, with five full songs and "many smaller musical themes adapted throughout." The soundtrack was then handed over to composer John Powell (Bourne series, Jumper, Hancock) to add the music into the film.