Hellraiser - Soundtrack | Technology Trends

Soundtrack

Clive Barker originally commissioned a soundtrack for Hellraiser from the industrial band Coil. The music they supplied was rejected, and Christopher Young provided a more traditional orchestral score for the finished movie. Coil's score, which was apparently described by Barker in a complimentary manner as being "bowel churning", has been released in isolation as The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser and as part of the compilation Unnatural History II (CD) (1995).

Coil's original theme was later covered by the Italian black metal band Aborym on their debut album Kali Yuga Bizarre.

Christopher Young went on to contribute the soundtrack to the first sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Music. Subsequent movies in the series used music by different composers.

The Swedish death metal band Entombed recorded a cover version of Young's score (along with sample quotes from the film) and released it on their EP Hollowman.

American Progressive/Thrash band Wrathchild America uses a sample from Hellraiser II, "We have such sights to show you." and the song titled "What's Your Pleasure?" is also completely about Hellbound.

UK black metal band Anaal Nathrakh sampled Frank Cotton's final words and used in the track "Tractatus Alogico Misanthropicus". Canadian band Skinny Puppy also sampled "Jesus Wept" in the track "Fascist Jock Itch", as did Belgian Industrial act Suicide Commando for their track "Jesus Wept" on their Mindstrip album. More recently, the EBM group "Project Rotten" sampled Pinhead's line "Oh, no tears please, it's a waste of good suffering!" in their track "Confessions of a Killer".

Various extreme metal bands have used audio from the film in sampling and as introductions to songs. The most common and famous sample is Pinhead's line "We'll tear your soul apart".