FLASH GORDON (OST)

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