Exclusive Premiere: Listen to Gavin Brivik and Cecile Believe’s “Ur Mad” from FACES OF DEATH — ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
The chilling soundscape of Daniel Goldhaber’s reimagining of Faces of Death is set to receive its official release, with Lakeshore Records scheduled to launch the Faces of Death – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack this Friday, May 22nd. Ahead of the digital release, Daily Dead is offering an exclusive early listen to the track "Ur Mad," a collaborative effort between composer Gavin Brivik and songwriter Cecile Believe. The song, which plays a pivotal role in the film, particularly during Barbie’s infamous Train Video sequence, offers a profound glimpse into the thematic and sonic intentions of the film’s score.
A Deep Dive into "Ur Mad": Thematic Resonance and Sonic Innovation
Gavin Brivik shared illuminating details about the genesis and execution of "Ur Mad," highlighting its integral connection to the film’s narrative and its innovative production techniques. The core concept, Brivik explained, was to meticulously recreate the auditory experience of a VHS tape playing at an accelerated speed, a deliberate choice aimed at evoking a sense of decay and distortion. "The entire concept of the song was to make it sound as if it were playing on a VHS tape, being sped up in Fast Forward," Brivik stated. This sonic ambition was directly inspired by the experimental work of William Basinski, particularly his seminal Disintegration Loops, a series of ambient works created from decaying magnetic tape loops.
"We were inspired by the Basinski’s Disintegration Loops," Brivik elaborated, "and our idea was, ‘what would this song sound like if were being played so fast that the vocals were distorted, and the song was slowly being destroyed while the VHS disintegrates?’" This conceptual framework underscores a commitment to using sound not merely as accompaniment, but as an active participant in the storytelling, mirroring the film’s exploration of themes related to mortality, memory, and the degradation of media. The intention was to create an auditory manifestation of the film’s title itself – a sonic representation of breakdown and the inevitable passage of time.
Furthermore, "Ur Mad" incorporates a unique and thematically significant element: a direct sample from the original Faces of Death movie. This inclusion was not arbitrary; it served a crucial narrative purpose. "We also were fortunate enough to get sampled from the original Faces of Death movie in our song. It was important that the old movie was constantly haunting our protagonist," Brivik revealed. This direct sonic link to the source material serves as a potent reminder of the film’s legacy and its unsettling subject matter, weaving a layer of meta-commentary into the soundtrack. The original Faces of Death, released in 1978, was a controversial documentary that presented graphic footage, purportedly real, of death and dying, sparking widespread debate about its authenticity and ethical implications. Brivik’s use of these samples in the new score directly engages with this history, suggesting that the specter of the original film continues to influence and perhaps haunt the modern interpretation.
Gavin Brivik: A Composer’s Ascent in the World of Film Scoring
The release of the Faces of Death soundtrack marks another significant milestone in the burgeoning career of Gavin Brivik, a composer increasingly recognized for his versatile and impactful contributions to contemporary cinema. Brivik has been lauded by the Society of Composers and Publishers as one of their "Film Composers to Watch," a testament to his growing influence. His accolades are extensive, including the prestigious World Soundtrack Award for "Best Composition by a Young International Composer," the ASCAP Jimmy Van Heusen Film Composer Award, the Alan Menken Composer Award, and the Elmer Bernstein Film Scoring Award. These honors reflect a consistent dedication to crafting scores that are both artistically resonant and technically sophisticated.
Brivik’s recent work demonstrates a clear affinity for collaborating with visionary directors on projects that push genre boundaries. His scoring for Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death follows their previous successful collaboration on Neon’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a film that premiered at TIFF in 2023 and garnered critical acclaim for its tense narrative and innovative approach to environmental activism. The partnership between Brivik and Goldhaber appears to be a fruitful one, with both artists sharing a commitment to exploring complex themes through distinct aesthetic sensibilities.
Beyond his work with Goldhaber, Brivik’s filmography showcases a remarkable breadth of experience across various genres and platforms. He recently composed the score for the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Warner Bros/Max series The Pitt. His other notable credits include Russell Goldman’s Sender, which premiered at SXSW in 2026, and Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.’s Wild Indian, which debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and earned Brivik a World Soundtrack Award nomination for its score. He has also contributed to A&E’s documentary series The Secrets of Playboy, Paramount/Blumhouse’s The Visitor, Vertical Entertainment’s The Seventh Day, and the 90th Academy Award-nominated short My Nephew Emmett. Brivik’s involvement with Netflix is also significant, having scored the Emmy-nominated original series Living Undocumented and the Netflix/Blumhouse Productions film Cam, another collaboration with Daniel Goldhaber that premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2018.
Brivik’s unique compositional style is rooted in a diverse musical background. He studied contemporary classical and electronic music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he honed his skills by blending his origins as an indie rock and folk guitarist with orchestral and electronic instrumentation. This fusion of disparate musical worlds allows him to create scores that are both emotionally evocative and sonically innovative. He further refined his expertise by obtaining a Master of Music in Composition for Film and Multimedia from New York University, a program renowned for nurturing talent in the field of cinematic scoring. Brivik has also released his debut solo album, "Realms and Forms," under bitbird Records and MusicBed, showcasing his individual artistic voice beyond his film and television work.
The Faces of Death Soundtrack: A Curated sonic Experience
The release of the Faces of Death – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Lakeshore Records on May 22nd offers audiences an opportunity to engage with the film’s auditory landscape outside of the cinematic experience. Lakeshore Records, a prominent label in the film music industry, has a long-standing reputation for releasing high-quality soundtracks from critically acclaimed and commercially successful films and television series. Their involvement suggests a belief in the artistic merit and commercial potential of Brivik’s score.
While a full tracklist for the soundtrack has not been provided, the inclusion of "Ur Mad" and the detailed explanation of its creation suggest that the album will feature a cohesive and thematically rich collection of compositions. The soundtrack is expected to be available for purchase and streaming via the provided link: orcd.co/facesofdeath. This digital accessibility ensures that a broad audience can experience Brivik’s work.
Contextualizing the Faces of Death Reboot
Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death is a contemporary reimagining of a film that, for decades, has occupied a controversial space in cinematic history. The original Faces of Death was not a narrative film in the traditional sense but rather a faux-documentary that presented a series of gruesome and often staged deaths. Its impact was profound, sparking moral panics and debates about the limits of cinematic representation and the ethics of exploiting real or simulated suffering for entertainment. The film’s notoriety also stemmed from its underground distribution and the persistent rumors about the authenticity of its footage.
Goldhaber’s decision to revisit this controversial material in 2026 is, therefore, a bold one. The film likely aims to explore the enduring fascination with death and mortality in the digital age, examining how contemporary audiences engage with visceral content through new media platforms. The choice to employ a composer like Gavin Brivik, known for his innovative and thematically driven scores, signals an intention to imbue the reboot with a sophisticated artistic sensibility, moving beyond the shock value of the original to explore deeper psychological and societal implications.
The inclusion of "Ur Mad" and its deliberate sonic construction—emulating decaying VHS tapes and sampling the original film—suggests that the new Faces of Death is not simply a remake but a commentary on the legacy and cultural impact of its predecessor. By deconstructing and recontextualizing the sounds and aesthetics associated with the original film, Goldhaber and Brivik appear to be engaging in a dialogue with the past, questioning how we consume and interpret images of death in an era saturated with visual media.
Broader Implications and the Future of Film Scoring
The release of the Faces of Death soundtrack, and particularly the in-depth discussion surrounding "Ur Mad," highlights a growing trend in film scoring: the integration of conceptual and experimental approaches to sound design. Composers are increasingly being tasked with creating scores that are not only emotionally resonant but also conceptually linked to the film’s themes and narrative. Brivik’s work exemplifies this evolution, demonstrating how a composer can actively contribute to the thematic and aesthetic fabric of a film through innovative sonic choices.
The success of composers like Brivik, who are adept at blending technical skill with artistic vision, signals a promising future for film scoring. As filmmakers continue to explore more complex and challenging subject matter, the demand for composers who can translate these ideas into compelling auditory experiences will undoubtedly grow. The Faces of Death soundtrack, with its blend of atmospheric dread, thematic depth, and sonic experimentation, stands as a compelling example of this evolving landscape, offering a powerful auditory counterpoint to a film that promises to be as provocative as its infamous predecessor. The anticipation for its release, coupled with the exclusive insights into its creation, underscores the significant role that music plays in shaping the overall impact and reception of a cinematic work.
