It's not clear how Trustkill was charged with the task of releasing the soundtrack to Saw VI (all the previous soundtracks had been released on Warner Bros.), but it seems plausible that certain steps were taken to ensure that despite the label's general inclination towards hardcore and metalcore, the collection be able to capture the interest of the Saw/Hot Topic community with an inclusive array of dark music.

Whether or not the task of song/artist selection was bestowed upon Trustkill is not known. While there are indications that it may have been so (Memphis May Fire, Outbreak, It Dies Today), there are plenty of artists here who have nothing to do with the type of music Trustkill usually puts out (Kittie, Mushroomhead, Nitzer Ebb). In the end, it doesn't really matter who assembled this hodgepodge collection because it's what we have to work with.

To make one thing clear at the outset, this soundtrack actually does an okay job of balancing the hardcore inclusions one might expect from a Trustkill release with the generic dark hard rock Saw fans enjoy, regardless of how intentional it was. Nevertheless, over 50 percent of the music here "from and inspired by Saw VI" is bad, unlistenable, or would otherwise be classified as garbage to the majority of the independent music community. Mushroomhead's track "Your Soul Is Mine" sounds like Godsmack on an emo binge, while the James Brothers' insipid saunter "More Than a Sin" is a snooze and a half. Nitzer Ebb goes for some sort of sinister industrial style, but ends up just sounding silly, while Kittie's "Cutthrout" isn't quite as convincing as it would have been 10 years ago.

Among the standouts are Outbreak's "The Countdown Begins" off their latest LP, and Converge with the rip-roaring "Dark Horse" from Axe to Fall. Hatebreed has a surprisingly enjoyable contribution of "In Ashes They Shall Reap"--enduring its cringer of an intro--and Type O Negative sounds decent with "Dead Again" despite the cheesy lyrics.

While the Saw VI soundtrack comes up short for fans of hardcore and punk rock, there's more than enough crappy metal and hard rock to satisfy fanatics of the series of gory mainstream thrillers it represents.