Blade (1998) is the first installment in the Blade film series, starring Wesley Snipes in his signature role as the iconic vampire hunter. The film kicked off not only the Blade franchise but Marvel’s incredible run translating their iconic stories to the big screen.
Adapting the comics character created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan in 1973, Blade was written by David S. Goyer and stylishly directed by Stephen Norrington. Snipes plays a dhampir, a human with vampire abilities, who fights evil vampires led by Stephen Dorff, with Kris Kristofferson starring as Whistler, Blade’s mentor.
Mark Isham was asked to score Blade with a combination of influences from hip-hop (Snipes’ preference) to English electronica (favored by the director). A jazz trumpeter who excelled in film due to his uncanny sense of cinematic mood, Isham blended those genres with synthesizers, orchestra and choir into what is, by comic book film standards, an unusually subtle yet powerful and dramatic score.


Varèse Sarabande released the original Blade soundtrack in 1998 as a 7-track, 33-minute album. This Deluxe Edition vastly expands the sequence into a 45-track, 72-minute program, with new liner notes by Daniel Schweiger.