Remember techno?

I'm not talking about your modern-day European electro dance pop, as many now define the genre. I'm talking about the hardcore, guitar-heavy, screaming industrial sound of the mid-1990s.

As unimpressive as the movie itself may have been, the soundtrack to the 1995 video game film adaptation of Mortal Kombat sports a musical cornucopia of hard driving techno beats and riffs that disappeared out of the pseudo-mainstream that the genre almost attained in its heyday.

From the moment the movie starts with a flaming Mortal Kombat logo, "Techno Syndrome," the infamous Mortal Kombat theme, helps kick the movie into high gear.

We can feel our adrenaline pumping, knowing we're in for a good hundred minutes of bad acting, plot holes and, most importantly, lots of good ol' butt kicking.

And how boring would Sonya's clash with Kano be without the catchy guitar riffs and outer space sound effects of KMFDM's "Juke-Joint Jezebel"? Alas, the film version only uses an instrumental version of the tune, leaving off half of what makes the song great -- gravel-eating vocalist Sascha Konietzko.

Other vocals that could give KMFDM a run for its money are Fear Factory's on the track "Zero Signal," heard during Scorpion and Johnny Cage's brawl. This primal and guttural track also sports some great percussion elements that have really lost a place in the new era of techno.

Laughable? Maybe. Head bang inducing? Assuredly.

Of course, the vocals on "Twist the Knife" by the happily-named Napalm Death pretty much blow both of the former tracks out of the water. I'm pretty sure Satan himself sung the vocals, since listening to it for too long and trying to make out the words start to make my ears bleed -- literally. But that's beside the point.

The best fight in the flick is that between Liu Kang and Reptile and certainly adding to the mise-en-scene (whoever thought I'd use that term about the stage setting in Mortal Kombat?) is "Control" by Traci Lords -- yes, that's right, the porn star. The beat may get a little repetitive, but you won't notice once Liu pulls out his patented bicycle kick and beats Reptile into oblivion.

Other tracks of note include "Unlearn" by Psykosonic, which hints at the coming evolution of trance music as the world knew it, and "Burn" by Sister Machine Gun, one of the album's slow but heavy pieces.

Remember Gravity Kills? "Goodbye" is the musical forebearer of the eventual one-hit wonder's only successful single, "Guilty."

My personal favorite track is "Halcyon + On + On," by the British duo Orbital. At nearly 10 minutes in length, "Halcyon" is an ambient journey of synthesized proportions through old school dance beats, deep trance-inducing tones and beautifully layered female vocals that help drift you to sleep. Thankfully, it's used at the film's conclusion in one of the movie's only well-executed dramatic moments. Alas, an awful cliffhanger ending mars its use.

I've always scoffed at DVDs touting a "score only" version of the film, which allows viewers to see the movie minus all sound except the soundtrack. However, in the case of Mortal Kombat, I think the film would improve exponentially if it had come with this attribute.

Perhaps, it might've even been ... dare I say it? A "flawless victory."