"Love, freedom, conviction, brotherhood, integrity, fear, death and glory, are only a few of the words that encompass the dynamic range of Zack Snyder's 300. Set in 480 B.C. with one of history's most significant events as its premise, filmed in a cutting edge visual style destined to reshape cinematic standards, 300 embodies the richness of a biblical painting. That's quite a bit on! Music... What is the music for this movie? Surely not your typical sword and sandals fare. Thankfully I scored a few action/horror films in advance to 300, beginning with Zack Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD, because they positively build composing muscle while pollinating the mind with musical possibilities.

Zack involved me in the earliest stages of the film's conceptual development. He asked me to score an animatic created directly from the pages of Frank Miller's graphic novel as part of the presentation he took to Warner Bros, garnering their support in making the film. After all shook hands, Zack directed a live-action test shot to clearly illustrate the style and content of the film he intended to make. His application of slow motion and sped-motion cinematography within a single shot was prominent. This gave me a leg up in considering how to musically address this technique, which draws the viewer into a given character's headspace during battle sequences; resulting in a marriage of action and drama unlike anything I had worked with before. Although the picture called for a driving force within the music, it became apparent that rapid melodies of any sort tended to out race the on-screen action. Percussion was naturally my weapon of choice for this task, which ultimately served as an effective foundation for much of the score."

My intent was to support the physicality of the actors, while maintaining the heart and soul of the film. The orchestra and choir were recorded in London at Abbey Road studios in three days time, serving as the emotional canvas for the many colors of Azam Ali's haunting voice.

I had worked extensively with Azam over the years – performing on her records and ultimately writing and recording and album with her titled Roseland. Immediately upon seeing the graphic novel, I thought of Azam's incredible range of technique and expression as an integral ingredient of the score. I felt it was important to avoid literal comment on the dramatic text of the film with actual words, yet to be bold and confident with voices throughout the film. In lieu of this, Azam's vocal melodies, steeped in Bulgarian and Persian culture, were written in a phonetic within the film's music, while the ambient sound design was hand crafted from organic instrumental performances of voices and eclectic instruments recorded specifically for this film.

The greatest challenge in writing and producing the music for 300, was to bead a musical thread throughout the ever-changing visual landscape and its ominous, horrific and mystical beings, while sustaining the epic and emotional qualities from which this film was made. The score employs the application of orchestra and operatic choir with dark ambient atmospheres, colored with soloist expressing Middle-Eastern and Eastern European folk music culture, then blown to bits by rock music embodying the blunt crudeness of Spartan shields. Truly a logistical nightmare as vivid as the Uber Mortal himself! But what the hell, anything less just would not have sufficiently told the musical story of Zack Snyder's 300.

At the end of the day, I am very pleased with the way it turned out, but in wouldn't have been possible without the help of the many talented people who assisted me along the way. As always, my inimitable associate Wolfgang Matthes, brilliantly expanded the atmospheric scope of the music. Tim Williams, who as orchestrator and conductor, not only interpreted my intentions in regards to the orchestra and choir with great accuracy, but also did a phenomenal job conducting them in dramatic fashion. Robert Carranza and Peter Cobbins recorded and mixed the score with the precise understanding of its intent, which at times is a bit obtuse. I cannot fail to mention my music editor and part-time therapist, Darrel Hall, in sincere appreciation of his brutally honest objective opinion of my work. Most importantly to create this body of music was possible because of Zack Snyder, whose unparalleled verve and creativity made 300 a seriously awesome ride!"

Tyler Bates