Tyler Bates (born June 5, 1965) is an American musician, producer, and composer for film, television, and video game scores. Much of his work is in the action and horror film genres, with films like Dawn of the Dead, 300, Sucker Punch, Halloween I and II, and the John Wick franchise. He has collaborated with directors like Zack Snyder, Rob Zombie, Neil Marshall, William Friedkin, Scott Derrickson, James Gunn, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. In addition, he is also the former lead guitarist of the American rock band Marilyn Manson, and produced its albums The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down. He's currently Jerry Cantrell‘s touring/studio member. Biography Early life and film scoring Bates was born on June 5, 1965, in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in Chicago, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career in music. He began his career in the 1990s scoring low-budget films like Tammy and the T-Rex, The Last Time I Committed Suicide, and Denial. In the meantime, he was a member of the alternative rock Pet alongside Lisa Papineau; the band released their eponymous debut in 1996. His breakthrough into the mainstream arguably came in the early 2000s, when he worked on higher-profile projects like Get Carter, Half Past Dead, and Baadasssss! The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead was significant, as he would maintain long-term collaborations with its director Zack Snyder, and writer James Gunn. Bates scored four of director Rob Zombie's films, beginning with 2005's The Devil's Rejects. For Zombie's remake of Halloween and its subsequent sequel, Bates adapted John Carpenter's original themes and motifs in order to fit the darker, grittier, and more contemporary atmosphere of the films. It was around 2007 that Bates began working regularly on big-budget, blockbuster films; including 300, Doomsday, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sucker Punch, and Conan the Barbarian. This did not, however, dissuade him from composing scores to smaller, independent films like The Way, Killer Joe, The Sacrament, and Flight 7500. The soundtrack for 300 was controversial due to its heavy borrowing of themes from film scores by Elliot Goldenthal, amongst others. On August 3, 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures acknowledged this in an official statement. The matter was settled amicably with the soundtrack credits being subsequently described as adapted from material by Elliot Goldenthal. Bates composed the score for Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Having worked with