The Saw VI Soundtrack is a Reminder of Everything Good and Bad About Metal in 2009
2009 just called in the form of an email informing MetalSucks staff that the Saw VI soundtrack is now officially on all streaming services. This is a seemingly-random time to put the Trustkill-released soundtrack on streaming services—the movie is now over 13 years old—but a quick visit to the contents of the soundtrack is a quick reminder of what was going on in heavy music in 2009. Some of the choices make perfect sense, some are seemingly random and some make absolutely no sense in an ultra-brutal horror movie.
The soundtrack is classified into three categories: Chances, Lessons and Choices. If you’ve seen the Saw movies, it’s a logical way to sort the songs and it’s an interesting packaging for a release that doesn’t feature music specifically for the film. Unfortunately, that comes with the realization that there isn’t a ton of logical musical pacing. Still, with the heavyweight list of names on the soundtrack (scroll to the bottom if you want to read the full thing) it’s worth giving the soundtrack an autopsy.
Things start off with Hatebreed‘s “In Ashes They Shall Reap,” a track from their self-titled record that came out a month before Saw VI. That’s followed by Lacuna Coil‘s “The Last Goodbye,” followed immediately by a track from Buffalo metalcore outfit It Dies Today. The Chances section of the CD finds a bit of groove in its second half, tapping Mushroomhead, Chimaira and Danko Jones for contributions.
The Chances section of the album feels representative of what was going on in the more mainstream side of the metal scene at the time, even if putting Lacuna Coil in the middle of a New England hardcore band and a New York metalcore band isn’t the most pleasing choice.
The Choices section of the soundtrack is a little more cohesive, better representing the metal- and deathcore scenes that were undeniably popping off. Suicide Silence heads it up with a Saw-specific remix of “Genocide,” joined by fellow metalcore outfits Memphis May Fire and Shadows Fall. The other three songs come from Type O Negative, hardcore punks Outbreak and art-hardcore legends Converge, which gives the section a more logical ordering than its predecessor.
Choices feels the most like a grab bag, starting us off with Kittie before EBM group Nitzer Ebb. We then get Every Time I Die and My My Misfire, followed by The Flood, a horror-themed band whose music has 23 monthly listeners on Spotify and no other available information. The soundtrack proper ends with roots rockers The James Brothers, because every horror movie needs a lighter song to decompress to. There are also three bonus tracks from Miss May I, Ventana and The 69 Eyes on the new digital version.
The Saw VI soundtrack feels like a time capsule to a very specific period in American heavy music. 2009 was a big year for releases—World Painted Blood, Crack the Skye, Evisceration Plague, Wrath, The Devil You Know—but it also felt like a very transitional period for the 2010s, where heavy music would really come to redefine specific niches and scenes. The odds of a Lionsgate horror release getting an all-metal soundtrack complete with its own commercial feel pretty low these days, but if it happened, it’s interesting to consider who would be on it. Maybe this time, they’d get Lamb of God.
Saw VI is streaming now on Hulu. The soundtrack is available on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp.
Tracklist:
6 CHANCES:
01. Hatebreed “In Ashes They Shall Reap”
02. Lacuna Coil “The Last Goodbye”
03. It Dies Today “Reckless Abandon”
04. Mushroomhead “Your Soul Is Mine”
05. Chimaira “Warpath”
06. Danko Jones “Code Of The Road”
6 LESSONS:
07. Suicide Silence “Genocide / Saw VI Remix”
08. Memphis May Fire “Ghost In The Mirror”
09. Outbreak “The Countdown Begins”
10. Shadows Fall “Still I Rise / Saw VI Remix”
11. Type O Negative “Dead Again”
12. Converge “Dark Horse”
6 CHOICES:
13. Kittie “Cut Throat”
14. Nitzer Ebb “Never Known”
15. Every Time I Die “Roman Holiday”
16. My My Misfire “The Sinatra”
17. The Flood “Lethal Injection”
18. James Brothers “More Than A Sin”
BONUS TRACKS:
19. 69 Eyes “We Own The Night”
20. Ventana “Watch Us Burn”
21. Miss May I “ Forgive & Forget”
