FLASH GORDON (OST)

I have to admit to being a fan of the film so I went and bought the film soundtrack.This has a lot of decent moments.My favorite part starts with Vultans Theme (attack of the hawk men) and then goes into some awesome proggy style metal on Battle Theme.Queen could rock with the best of them! The Wedding March is quite hilarious as well! One to pick up in the bargain buckets.2.75 stars

This is a good follow up to the abismal Game, which was terrible. This one the other hand is pretty good, and totally trashes the Game. Whereas in their early days, Queen always boasted that no one played Synths, but on the game they did. They continue it on this album, however this is more prog/space rock heavy metal type stuff. All instrumental by the way, except for the memorable first and last songs. All the other songs sound good as you listen to the whole thing, but the best is Vultan's Theme (Attack of the Hawkmen), and Battle Theme. Great riffs. However, one thing that would have improved this album is taking out some of the boring dialouge from the film (which is entertaining- you should rent it). But this is a good space metal album, with its slow moments. Easily the best movie soundtrack of all time made by a mainstream band (non-orchestra). Highlights of this album are Flash's Theme, Ming's Theme, Football Fight, Arboria, VUltan's Theme, Battle Theme, Flash's Theme reprise, and The Hero. The only thing this album lacks is a bunch of Freddie's vocals, however when you take it as a film soundtrack it is almost perfect.

I do not think one single group has ever fallen this low, given the fact that they had done such masterful albums. even Yes and Genesis did albums that were not quite that bad in the 80's. What was queen thinking when making such an atrocious album? Raking in the bucks? They were doing that from the first album onwards, so this must not be the reason. Freddy Mercury doing his coming out, was certainly part of the explanation , but there is much more than that! The whole band seems to be going along in such atrocious tracks (even Taylor and May), and clearly the buck are all that matters for this group. MTV and the video had already ruined the band by The Game and Hot Space, but here, the are digging their own grave at the bottom of the Marianna Trench (Lowest point in the Earth's crust)

And if it was just one track being bad, but noooooooo!!!!!! The whole albums stinks just the same Avoid at all cost

Had to do it on this one. I just gave it a pretty serious listen and I'm going to be peeling cheese off the speakers for weeks. Given that the inclusion of Queen on this site has given rise to no little amount of controversy, I am going to add to it by saying that I think Flash Gordon is the most progressive thing Queen ever did and they didn't do it very well. Whatever they were going for, they didn't get it.

Great soundtrack album by Queen that even includes loads of dialogue from the film! This album is just so different to any other by Queen and I must admit, I smile when I hear it. Just close your eyes and relive the movie, its great, with plenty of keyboards and instrumental sections. If you like the main theme "flash" with its pounding beat, here it is in all its extended glory! Do you get the impression that I like this album in all its "cheesy" glory? I do!

No, no, no!!! For once, I agree with with the crowd and have to say this was almost a complete waste of time!!! There are maybe 5 tracks here that are pretty decent and I would have been quite happy with an EP release, but an entire album is too much.

Songs like "Flash" and "The Hero" are still decent songs, and I really enjoy the guitar version of "The Marriage Theme." Apart from that, I think maybe "Football Fight", "Vulcan's Theme", and "Battle Theme" are the only things worthy of listening to more than once!

Interestingly, in 1981-82 they played only 4 of these tracks (no Marriage Theme or Football Fight) "Vulcan" and "Battle" they only played several times while "Flash" and "The Hero" actually made it through 1982. By 1984, the songs were all gone from the setlist, and we all breathed a sigh of relief!

Don't get this unless you are a completist!!

If you have seen the movie Flash Gordon, listening to this album will make sence, cause than you can relive the movie through this recording, and it's a fun ride, with some text's from the movie added, so the story is clear.

Musically it isn't very good, mainly produced by Brian May, but unlike their later moviesoundtrack (A Kind Of Magic) the songs aren't fully developed to be stand alone songs. So on a song by song basis, it isn't very good, but as a whole it's actually a very enjoyable listening, with spacy music in the typical Queen style, short melody lines, quickly shifting tempo, with good guitar orchestrations and some rocking moments between the orchestrated and partly synthesised sounds.

Best songs on the album are Flash Theme, Footbal Fight, Vultan's Theme, Battle Theme and the closing The Hero. Hardly any really bad moments, and in a way it's their best work since A Day At The Races, if only they spend a little more time on the production of this album, and work the songs out a bit further to stand on themselves.

As an album I like it very much, enough to warrant 3 stars, just don't listen to the songs as individual tracks for than it will loose it's appeal.

This album has been ridiculed all over the net. It's definitely not one of the best band's efforts, but it's undounbtly among one of their most progressive works, simply because is spacey soundtrack.

The most annoying thing on this album is stupid inclusion of dialogues of the characters from the motion picture ("Flash, I love you buy we have only 14 hours to save the Earth!"), and that makes this album much less enjoyable, not to say less listenable. I heard somewhere that the version of this album without dialogues exists, but I was never able to trace it.

However, if you can mentally erase these unnecessarities in your head and focus on the music itself, you might be pleasantly surprised because there are some quite nice musical moments. The most recognisable is the main theme called "Flash's Theme" - actually the one that everybody knows is slightly remixed and labelled simply "Flash". You can find it on numerous compilations, but it isn't inclued on the album itself.

"Footbal Fight" is nice up-tempo tune, and "Attack Of The Hawk Men" is probably the best, nice, catchy, it deserves to be called epic although is not very long (almost all the tracks are very short). There's only one line of dialogue worth mentioning: Vultan's battle scream:"Who Wants To Live Forever!!!". What a prophecy, the same words will label a song from the second Queen's soundtrack, half a decade later.

It seems that other reviewers love to skip a few tracks that I really like: "The Kiss", beautiful chords from May's guitar, equally gorgeous string arrangements and high pitched Freddie's voices in a role of another instrument, giving very spacey mood. Brilliant. "Execution Of Flash" is also worth mentioning, it sounds like a impressive sound vignette and really reminds me of execution.

The song that is closing the album, "The Hero" is along with the opener only track that have lyrics. It's realy rocking, on a heavy metal edge, with orchestral break and main theme repetition in the middle, and the track is ending with a colosal explosion. Nice.

The rest of the tracks are just a soundscapes, Mercury and May were playing with Oberheim synthesizer producing dissonant sounds, to be very honest, not very imaginative. And there is "The Wedding March", which is basically just a brief adaption of the famous classical piece (Richard Wagner was not credited though). Hm...adaptation of a classical piece = prog!? OK, but the result is hilarious.

At the end of the day, this album provides a few VERY enjoyable progressive moments, but the 50 % of material is simply not up to the job. Sound effects are good enough for a movie background, but the vinyl is different media with a different dimension. Too bad the boys from the band weren't aware of that. An extra disadvantage are the obnoxious dialogues. Alright guys, this was your first effort, hopefully next time will be better. Here are few spare stars for you. You ended a chapter in your career with an experiment. And now, beware. The eighties are about to begin!

I have to say of all Queen's releases and soundtrack contributions Flash Gordon is by far their worst moment. As bad as ELO doing Xanadu. Even Queen's songs on the Highlander were awesome but Flash Gordon is simply dismal. No wonder this is a bargain basement giveway. The buying public do not lie to be honest and the few reviews this album has received gives you a good indication. Opinions respected of course. Leave this album well alone and you will not then be disappointed.What were they thinking?

So now the Flash Gordon Soundtrack. This is my favourite Queen album and after so many years i still genuinely like this album. In a matter of fact i really think this is the only real progressive rock album from Queen. To understand this album you really should view this as a one piece of work and listen to this from beginning to end like a unique track. Overall to understand Flash Gordon you just have in mind that this is a film soundtrack album and not a "normal album". This is one of the best soundtrack´s ever and it´s a shame that Queen dont have continuing to develop this type of sound in the next albums. 4.5 stars.

Usually considered as one of Queen's weakest efforts. I think though that this is a pretty decent release.

This is actually the soundtrack for the movie Flash Gordon, and thus there are also a lot of sounds (even dialogs) from the movie in the music. Other than the Flash Theme and the Hero song (and the spoken dialogs) this disc has no vocals, which is unique in Queen's discographie.

This is not a real prog disc, but the music is fairly decent and if you know the Flash Gordon movie, this can be a great listen.

A flash in the pan

This is of course the soundtrack to the 1980 film of the same name. Consideration was reportedly given to inviting Pink Floyd to provide the soundtrack, but all the music here is composed and performed by Queen.

The album consists of no less that 18 tracks in total, although the only one which will be familiar to those who have not seen the film is the opening "Flash theme", which was released as a single. The track paints a fine picture of the comic book hero with suitably dynamic bursts of his name.

The album is liberally sprinkled with excerpts from the film, with spoken word introductions to many of the tracks. These narratives are largely superfluous as they are not sufficient to provide the listener with a detailed synopsis, simply serving to disrupt the flow of the music. We also have a proliferation of futuristic sound effects, the sleeve notes on my cassette version not explicitly ruling out the use of synthesisers (as Queen would usually do on their albums around this time).

Apart from the title track, the music is not typical of Queen, clearly being composed with the intention of being complementary to the on screen action. Put simply, this is soundtrack music and should be approached a such. Do not expect to hear a "Bohemian rhapsody" or a "Radio gaga" here, much of the content is instrumental, sometimes orchestral in nature, devoid of Freddie Mercury's vocals which normally define the band's sound. Even Brian May's guitar is significantly under used, only appearing for the occasional brief burst.

All the band members contribute to the song writing, with Brian may also producing the album. We should recognise their ability to turn their hand to such a challenge with apparent ease. In prog terms, it is perhaps perverse that this is actually one of the band's most progressive efforts. Do not however come to this album expecting to hear a Queen album, as stated, this is at the end of the day nothing more than a soundtrack.

This is not a Queen album !

This soundtrack is just a joke! One of the poorest of course! Not only this album features loads of excerpts of the "movie" which only weakens this "work" but most of the "songs" featured here are just disgusting.

I can only advise one technique before you listen to this "album". Just relax, think of something nice : a girl, a beach, a wave, Copacabana, Cancún etc. Meditate for a while and deeply breathe. Are you ready? OK. Be prepared 'cause I warned you!

One of the least useful part of your body will be seriously working throughout this album. Relax again and breathe deeply.Now, move all of your fingers, concentrate and seriously press a continuous next key on your comuter mouse. From start to finish; After eighteen of these experimentations, you are done. One of the most dauting task has been achieved. You made it!

The joke lasts for about forty minutes. The problem is that unlike "Snow Dog" I can't find any moment to laugh while listening to this bunch of crap. Awful, almost all the way through. Zero star I guess.

"Queen" has produced some extremely good albums (up to and including "A Day at the Races"). This crap left me breathless (and still does).

I have heard that most of the people who purchased this album were sent to the asylum, committed suicide or were sent to Pluto. Before this, they all destroyed their "Flash Gordon" CD or vinyl. Most of them revert to "Flesh Gordon" before dying. It was more fun and sexier.

It is even said that the master tapes burned during an assault and are now completely destroyed. So, our children are safe. They won't be able to review such a miserable album while getting older.

One star is waaaaaaaaay too much for this ignominious album. Is it necessary to tell you that you shouldn't expect any prog in here. Maybe for their next album?

Its the 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' of rock soundtracks!

The much maligned 'Flash' album is not as bad as many here portray it. Yes, it was a huge cash in at the time to use a major rock act as super group Queen to promote the shallow kiddie flick with appalling acting and mediocre special effects, but in some way the Queen soundtrack was quite endearing. It was strange to hear Queen in the background of such scenes as the rocket blasting out into space, the awful Quaterback sequence and the attack of the castle but it is still ironically appropriate in its quirky bombastic style.

We all loved the soundtrack main title when it first blitzed the charts and its become a sort of classic of kitsch 80s at its lowest ebb. In many ways the soundtrack enhanced the film and vice versa but its not really a Queen album, unlike the soundtracks that Pink Floyd produced for the respective films.

Unquestionably the album is not the best that Queen could offer but it still has merit, even if as a curio. It is fun and has some great dialogue such as Gordons Alive! (Brian Blessed overacting again) or the evil sinister Kala's Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back his body...). The synthesizer sequences are innovative at times and theres some cool guitar from May.

Not the best soundtrack but certainly not the worst either - impossible to ignore and hated almost universally. Its the 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' of rock soundtracks. People love to hate it! In other words Grab a copy now!

Is "Flash Gordon" one of the great Queen albums? No.

Is "Flash Gordon" a brilliant, rocking soundtrack to a totally nuts movie? Yes.

I think some prog fans take this album too seriously or miss the point of what its supposed to be. It isn't "Foxtrot", its a soundtrack album to a mess of a film, excessive in almost every aspect and Queen were about the only band who could have written the soundtrack . If you've never seen the film, or don't like the movie, then clearly the album isn't going to make any sense with its disjointed musical cues and sound effects. But if you love the film then this is like an audio movie for the ears. Any album that features Brian Blessed, Max Von Sydow or Peter Wyngarde is worth a punt - if Yes had added them to 'Tales From Typographic Oceans Eleven", if would improve it 200%. But then so would taking a lump hammer to it.

Flash! A-ah!

x

Not too flashy

Flash Gordon is a soundtrack album for the film with the same name and should be listened to as such. There are only two songs that feature vocals and thus resemble Queen's regular output. The rest are shorter instrumental tracks with lots of dialogue from the film.

This music is by no means poorly made and it is indeed a fun listen. There are several good instrumental moments here, with Football Fight as my personal favourite, but the spoken word passages distract too much from the music to make this truly enjoyable as a Rock album. When we come to the rating it is inevitable to compare this with other Queen albums and other albums in general and then it is evident that this is a one star album.

Only two sorts of people need this album: hardcore fans of the band and hardcore fans of the movie. For such people (myself included) Flash Gordon is, as I have said, a fun listen but not more than that.

When considered as real movie soundtrack, it's average work. Compare it with some of these big composers and you get result of nonsense. But this is bad approach. This movie is some kind of homage and I think that Queen were enjoying this very much.

And you can't judge it from prog point of view at all, it contains maybe 10-15 minutes of rock music. Movie speeches are combined with film music. Don't forget that this movie is some kind of cult movie. There are specific rules. What may look like "bad" movie needs "bad" music too. But it's not bad, you just have to tune yourself to different kind of waves.

2 stars and I regret nothing.

THIS ISN'T A QUEEN ALBUM!

Except for Flash's Theme this album is not a Queen album. Flash's Theme is a good Queen style song with good Heavy Rock, Operatic chorus, Operatic arrangements. In definitive Flash's Theme is a pure Queen song. For the rest this O.S.T. isn't a Queen album because without Queen spirit. Ok, the production is perfect and the perfection of Queen is all present. But I don't think that this music is Queen music (also if composed by Queen). Flash's Theme refrain is present in various moments but this fact ruin the perception of the final result.

Only for die hard Queen fans!

"Flash! Savior of the Universe!"....Quite a divided album... I see everything on this site from 5 stars down to just 1 star! Well, I'm gonna have to fall into the 1 star camp. Most of this album is just plain annoying and laughable. The spoken lines from the movie butt in where they are not wanted. Possibly 2 or 3 songs are worthy of listening to. The opener and main theme song that was released as a single is actually sort of decent but it couldn't save the album from the trash bin behind my house! 1 star. If you are a Flasg Gordon movie buff or a rabid Queen fan- get this. Otherwise, forget it...

The Flash Gordon remake was a calculated exercise in creating a deliberately cheesy movie, and it demanded a similarly cheesy soundtrack. Luckily, by this point in time Queen had become the masters of cheesy pomp-rock anthems, so who better to do the soundtrack? Aside from a few songs (such as the iconic opening track) Freddie restricts himself to keyboard work this time around, with snippets from the film providing the only vocals in many tracks, but the fact is that whilst the movie is goofy fun and the title track might be a good track to play when your sports team comes onto the field the album itself isn't really pleasant or interesting to listen to from beginning to end. Even Queen fans will struggle to sit through this one.

4/10

They could not be good forever.

In retrospect, I can say that all that the Queen had hitherto been to my liking. But that's not here. Sorry Queen, but her marriage to Flash Gordon failed.

This album is the soundtrack for the film of the same name, based on the classic series. But he seems to fail as both a soundtrack and as an album within the standards of the Queen. The sound here is ... hum ... what can I say? Pop? Synth? "Avant-Garde?" Or all together? I think the latter is more likely. There are some orchestral sections and other metal where you can see the band working, but overall the songs here (18 in total, from a few seconds and 3 minutes) are just a lot of terrible effects created by synthesizers and, worse, dialogues from the film. A combination of at least disastrous.

All is not lost, however. There are some songs here that manage to stay above the average low for this album. Included Flash and The Hero (which serve as the opening and closing for the album, and in my opinion is complete), In The Space Capsule, Footbal Fight (although this seems more the theme of Super Mario Bros. Or some game Nintendo's race...), Execution of Flash and Wedding March (an interesting reinterpretation of the classic theme). The highlight here, however, is Battle Theme with some of the most powerful guitars that May has given us! In fact it is the highlight of the album here at times when the band actually appears, since most of the time they are hidden behind synthesizers.

Anyway, this album represents my first real disappointment with the Queen. Although they have always made some silly songs, which should not be taken seriously, I could bear, but a whole album? No, not really. Nor is a progressive work, because although there is a general concept of the songs are mostly disconnected. But as there is a reasonable amount of memorable songs or the regular minimum I give 2 stars.

Queen's eighth record The Game proved to be a massive success, primarily due to the popularity of the funk/dance single "Another One Bites the Dust." While this song (and the album, for that matter) saw Queen showing a less-bombastic side to their sound, the traditional campy sound of their old records at least remained somewhat intact. So when they got called to do the soundtrack to the 1980 sci-fi action movie Flash Gordon, it seemed like a match made in heaven. A bombastic rock group playing for a cheesy science fiction thrill ride? What could possibly go wrong with that? Well, almost everything went wrong.

This is nearly the opposite of what you'd expect from a Queen record; Freddie Mercury only sings on two tracks, and the other members are barely involved when it comes to instrumental contributions. Much of the record consists of desolate, eerie synthesizer arrangements that are frankly awkward and boring to listen to. When that isn't going on, we get laughably outdated synthpop songs that wouldn't even make it on the worst Depeche Mode or Erasure album. To be fair, there are some great tunes on here; the most memorable track is the popular "Flash's Theme." You know the one: the pounding piano/bass buildup that leads to the harmonized vocal chant, "FLASH!!! AAAAHHHHH!" The dialogue clip in the song's intro is wonderfully devious-sounding, and every time a climactic moment with Brian May's harmonized guitar work comes in, it just sounds so triumphant and sublime. "The Hero" is also a fun number, providing listeners with a hard rocking epilogue and being the most "70s Queen" song on the entire record. It's a great throwback to their previous decade of work and integrates a reprise of the Flash Theme into its runtime splendidly.

Unfortunately, the rest of the tracks comprise a hit-and-miss -- and mainly miss -- affair. Most of this music is just too unpleasant and barren-sounding for a Queen record. Yes, it is indeed a soundtrack album, but this still sounds unusually dark and bizarre. "Ming's Theme" in particular exudes a very unsettling atmosphere with extremely wavy synthesizer sounds and a drawn-out ambient passage (with dialogue supplied over it) in the middle. "Arboria" also plays out in this vein; John Deacon's sole writing contribution is largely comprised of just one flute-sounding synthesizer effect and sparse dialogue. Stuff like this just doesn't flow well, especially when heard without the film. Then there are tracks which are completely unnecessary and ridiculous; despite the wedding scene that goes on in the film, the theme in the soundtrack could have easily been omitted. It's just a guitar variation of the traditional wedding song by Richard Wagner, and it seems completely unneeded despite the scene's importance in the film. On top of all this, the Flash Theme makes way too many reprises on this record. It'd be fine to possibly have a reprise near the end for a triumphant scene, but the soundtrack uses it at least three or four times after the original theme. One positive aspect of this record, however, is that some of the faster tunes help pick up the slack after so many disappointing tracks. The battle theme is suitably entertaining and layered in guitar work by Brian May, while the energetic "Football Fight" sounds like something out of an old-school shooter game like Mega Man. It's cheesy, but a hell of a good time.

Still, those aren't really enough to save this record. Synthesizers and drum machines would become the norm for this band during much of their 80s discography, and this appears to be the album that started the trend. Do yourself a favor and pick up the Flash Gordon movie instead of this weak soundtrack; the movie's a lot of fun, but the Queen record lacks the film's energy and sense of campy entertainment (with a few tracks being exceptions, of course). Of course then, we all know where Queen were headed with their next record... THE DANCE ERA!

Review Nº 663

"Flash Gordon" is the ninth studio album of Queen that was released in 1980. It was made for the soundtrack of a film released in the same year. It's the soundtrack to the science fiction film "Flash Gordon", and features lyrics on only two tracks. It was the first time that the band produced the entire soundtrack for a film. So, it's the first soundtrack made by Queen. Queen only produced two film soundtracks. The other soundtrack was produced for the movie "Highlander".

As I wrote before, "Flash Gordon" is a soundtrack album with only two songs featuring vocals and the rest of the album has short instrumental tracks with lots of the dialogues taken from the film and where the "Flash's Theme" refrain appears in various moments all over the album. The album makes extensive use of the synthesizers, which Queen used for the first time on their previous eighth studio album "The Game", although to a much lesser extent than in this case.

In short, we can say that "Flash Gordon" is a film based on the comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond, an American cartoonist, in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into movie serials, television series and the 1980 film. For those who aren't familiar with the comic strip and the film we can say that the story follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, a polo player and Yale graduate and his companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov. The three travel to the planet Mongo, to defeat Ming, the evil ruler of Mongo. Ming wants to destroy the planet Earth with natural disasters.

While writing and recording "The Game", Queen was asked by renowned movie director Dino De Laurentis to provide the soundtrack for his upcoming sci-fi epic "Flash Gordon". The band accepted and promptly began working on both albums simultaneously. The majority of the music is instrumental, with dialogue from the movie in place of Freddie Mercury's singing, with two tracks with lyrics. Still, the song writing is still unmistakably Queen. However, many fans criticized "Flash Gordon" since it was released as an official Queen release rather than a motion picture soundtrack. I agree that the main problem with "Flash Gordon" is that it was released as a studio album, and not as a soundtrack. The music made by Queen fits perfectly with the film, but the campiness of the band goes hand on hand with the silliness and comic vibe of the movie. But, if you take away the film, and you just listen to the music as a standalone experience, well it just simply doesn't hold up, really. "Flash Gordon" soundtrack album is pretty much like the film.

Yes, it has its moments, and some parts are even more memorable than most of the songs of many bands of the 80's and 90's. There are also some fun tracks, but they're just that, funny. Unfortunately there's too much audio from the actual movie, something very uncommon for a soundtrack, and it just ruins the music, that it's not great, but at least it would be salvageable. At the end of the day, "Flash Gordon" remains one of the lowest points in Queen's career, really.

The opening track "Flash's Theme" was the only single to be released from the album, under the title "Flash". There are two versions of the opening track. The album's version "Flash's Theme" is the start for the film with the part of the dialogues from the first film scene. The single version "Flash" features parts of the dialogue taken from various parts of the film. "Flash" was written by Brian May and is sung as a duet between him and Freddie Mercury, with Roger Taylor adding the high harmonies. The track is noted for its pounding and repetitive bass line and where Brian May plays all of the music instruments, except for the rhythm section. "Flash" is an excellent song in the pure Queen's style. It's a great heavy rock song with the usual and unique operatic chorus and excellent musical arrangements. The other song that deserves special mention is "Hero" which closes the album. "Hero" is only a brief song, but offers us a final taste of the usual Queen's classic 70's hard rock bombast before they changed their formula up a bit for the rest of the decade. These are the only two songs deserving special mention. Sandwiched between these two songs are several instrumental tracks full of samples that make the album play like a musical re-enactment of the "Flash Gordon" film.

Conclusion: "Flash Gordon" is a very strange Queen's album. It has little to do with Queen's music, with the exception of the opening track "Flash Theme". I agree with those who say that we aren't in presence of a true Queen's album. And worst of all, "Flash Gordon" is a soundtrack for a silly and mediocre film. Yes, I was one of the victims that saw the film. However, we aren't here to review a film but an album. So, in the first place, I must confess that I never was a big fun of soundtracks made by progressive rock bands. Still, in this case, we can't consider Queen exactly one of the most progressive rock bands. In the second place, "Flash Gordon" isn't as bad as most of you consider. It's true that is very strange to hear this album as a Queen's album. The quality of the music isn't great, which is true, but it isn't also bad. I sincerely think that the worst on the album is hearing constantly the recordings of the scenes of the film, with its voices and the bombastic sounds of it. Anyway, "Flash Gordon" is one of the weakest Queen's albums. However, it isn't their worst musical work. Sincerely, their next tenth studio album "Hot Space" is even worse than "Flash Gordon" is, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Just six months after the release of their album "The Game", Queen surprises with a new work: the soundtrack of the film "Flash Gordon" (1980), based on the comic books of the 1930s in which a New York field marshal (Flash Gordon) embarks on an intergalactic journey with the female Dale Arden and the scientist Hans Zarkov to the planet 'Mongo' to save the earth from the evil tyrant 'Mingo'.

Queen recreates a cosmic and suspenseful atmosphere through the extensive use of synthesizers, interacting mainly with Brian May's guitar riffs and Howard Blake's orchestral arrangements. A scenario that parallels the timeline of the film, including some of the characters' dialogue, and which as a whole has less to do with the band's known dynamics.

Only two tracks sung by Freddie Mercury accompanied by the backing vocals of May and Roger Taylor are included on the album: the opening single, "Flash's Theme" and the closing "Hero", and in between, and beyond the unexpectedness of seeing Queen in this guise, there are a few tracks that are well worth picking up, such as the gloomy "Ring (Hypnotic Seduction Of Dale)", the very interesting harmonies created from the synthesizers in both the restless "Football Fight" and the spacey "Vultan's Theme (Attack Of The Hawk Men)", the orchestrated and dense "Flash to the Rescue", and above all, the last part of the album, starring May's guitars in the hard rocker "Battle Theme", the beautiful nuptial guitar solo in "Wedding March", the "Flash's Theme Reprise (Victory Celebrations)" and the already mentioned "The Hero" and its explosive ending, surely the best piece of the album.

"Flash Gordon" had no major commercial impact at the time and is remembered more for being 'the film with Queen's music' than for its intrinsic value, but over the years it has come to be considered a cult film linked like Siamese to the soundtrack of the band led by Mercury.

2.5/3 stars