'I am Bear, hear me roar': Emmy-winning composer trades Hollywood scores for headbanging riffs

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Set us as preferred Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary has taken a reverse road to symphonic rock.Prog rockers have traditionally integrated symphonic elements; other rock bands have done orchestral versions of their songs.

McCreary began creating television and film scores, discovered his inner metalhead, and has since bridged those worlds with his “Singularity” project.It all adds up to a different take on that time-honored formula.The second of the two albums, “The Singularity: Ekleipsis,” is out Friday and features contributions from guitarist Steve Vai, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump and McCreary’s younger brother Brendan, who sings on half the tracks.

The multifaceted album feels like “I am Bear, hear me roar.”“I love that quote,” he says, laughing, during his two-hour interview with The Times.“I want to put that on the posters.

I feel like ‘The Singularity’ is a temper tantrum of a record from someone who had been writing music for other people for 20 years, then all these ideas exploded out.” Two years after the release of the first “Singularity” album, “Ekleipsis” feels more focused and personal to him.The first “Singularity” double album — which featured guests like Serj Tankian, Corey Taylor, Rufus Wainwright and Joe Satriani — tied into a graphic novel about a man who repeatedly experiences loss and death at the hands of a villainous character in his every life across their multiverse.This leads to a major revelation at the end.

Although McCreary says that “Ekleipsis” is not disconnected from that universe, it is not strictly tied to a narrative.“I wasn’t setting out to write a concept album again,” McCreary admits, “but there’s something immediate in all the lyrics.Half of them are specifically ...