Ares’ Will Have Nine Inch Nails at Their Most Industrial Rock

More than anything, folks are excited for Tron: Ares because of its soundtrack. In a first for the duo in their time as film composers, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are going by “Nine Inch Nails” for their work on the threequel, and that means they’re leaning fully into their rock band history.

Speaking to Empire Magazine, Reznor said the Ares soundtrack features “not one second of orchestra.” In fact, he went so far as to call the music not just different from the first two films (respectively scored by Wendy Carlos and Daft Punk), but one that “takes a bigger swing for what music can do in cinema without sounding fucking pompous.” This was an active goal for the pair, who’ve previously worked on Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Soul, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and Naughty Dog’s upcoming sci-fi adventure Intergalactic: The Lost Prophet.

What type of sound are the two cooking up? According to Reznor, the Tron: Ares score will be “precise and unpleasant at times” without falling “atonal and punishing” territory. He and Ross wanted to focus on the undertones of the film’s story, which centers on Jared Leto’s Ares leaving the digital space for the human world. As such, the duo keyed in on “artificial characters” like Ares and Jodie Turner-Smith’s Athena “being infused with feelings and emotions and a sense of questioning their purpose and their replaceability, their lack of soul, in some ways.”

Sounds like a lot, and given Disney’s recent track record, we’ll probably get to hear some of it before Tron: Ares arrives in theaters on October 10.

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