Before anybody complains: there are no spoilers you can’t pull from the trailers.
Empire has the entire soundtrack for The Dark Knight Rises posted, and it’s actually worth a listen for soundtrack geeks. And there is some insight into the movie itself.
The score itself isn’t nearly as stripped down as The Dark Knight, which represented Batman with two tones of brass and the Joker by that troubling, ear-bleeding keening note that constantly distorts. Then again, James Newton Howard was also contributing to that score, so it had both his and Hans Zimmer’s fingerprints all over it. Listen to the score of, say, Signs and The Dark Knight back to back.
But it’s still some pretty good stuff, especially considering that Zimmer can really phone it in when he doesn’t feel like doing a job. But he’s definitely going full on with this one. I especially like how the “Rise” chant from the trailer is subtly incorporated throughout.
As for potential spoilers, as I said, the track titles are pretty light on them. Most arresting among the titles are “Why Do We Fall?”, which is a callback to Batman Begins and “Death by Exile”, which confirms what the press materials have all but shouted: Bats is being sent to a prison hellhole.
You can listen to the full soundtrack over at Empire, but for the busy, here’s the track I liked best:
https://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
image courtesy Warner Brothers