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Crush40Logo

Logo of Crush 40 since 2021.

Crush 40, originally known as Sons of Angels, are a Japanese-American hard rock band who are best known for producing music for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

History[]

Crush40

The two prominent members of Crush 40; Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli.

Jun Senoue (the band's guitarist) was first hired by Sega to write two songs for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. After this, he recorded more songs for other Sega games, including songs for Sonic 3D Blast. He eventually contacted singer from Hardline, Johnny Gioeli, and recorded the song "Open Your Heart", which would later be featured in Sonic Adventure (the band was then known as "Sons of Angels"). They soon released their first album, titled Thrill of the Feel.

Later in their career, the band hired Katsuji and Takeshi Taneda on drums and bass, respectively. Together, they recorded many songs, the first of which was "Live and Learn" for Sonic Adventure 2. Sonic Heroes featured two new songs by the group, the theme song, "Sonic Heroes" (a "bright, melodic song"), and "What I'm Made of..." (a "distinctly dark, hard rock song with metal sensibilities"). When Shadow the Hedgehog was released, they recorded "I Am... All of Me" and "Never Turn Back". For both these songs, Katsuji was replaced with Toru Kawamura.

The band also contributed to Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), recording a cover of "All Hail Shadow", previously performed by Magna-Fi, and recorded a version of "His World", the latter only presented on the soundtrack. They later covered "Seven Rings in Hand" (originally performed by Steve Conte). They also recorded several songs for Sonic and the Black Knight, including its main theme "Knight of the Wind", the ending theme "Live Life," "Through the Fire", "Fight the Knight", and their own version of the theme "With Me". The band also recorded a cover of "Sonic Boom", a remix of the theme for the North American version of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, created in cooperation with Cash Cash.

The Best of Crush 40 - Super Sonic Songs

The front cover of Crush 40's The Best of Crush 40 - Super Sonic Song album.

Some of their material was eventually released onto iTunes, including The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs and Song of Hope, their new charity single which is dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami incident. The iTunes edition of The Best of Crush 40: Super Sonic Songs contains three bonus tracks, "Free" (a cover of the Sonic Free Riders theme, originally performed by Chris Madin), "With Me -Massive Power Mix-" and "Seven Rings In Hand". Later, in June 2012, three songs which were intending to be released on an EP scheduled for July 4 were leaked onto iTunes. The songs were "Sonic Youth", "One Of Those Days", and "Rise Again".

On 13 May 2015, Crush 40 released their second EP 2 Nights 2 Remember, containing the songs "2 Nights 2 Remember", "Big Mouth", "Down & Dirty" and "Light of the Day".

On 11 June 2018, it was announced that Crush 40 would be contributing a new song called "Green Light Ride" to the-then upcoming Team Sonic Racing. This was the first time Akht. had performed as drummer for the band on a new track, replacing Toru Kawamura. In 2021, Crush 40 also performed during and for the Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Symphony.

List of members[]

Crush40 Tokyo 2011

Entire Crush 40 band at Tokyo in 2011. (flanked left-to-right): Jun Senoue (guitar), Toru Kawamura (drums), Johnny Gioeli (vocals), Takeshi Taneda (bass).

Current[]

Former[]

  • Naoto Shibata – bass (1998-2001)
  • Hirotsugu Homma – drums (1998-2001)
  • Katsuji Kirita – drums (2001-2005)
  • Mark Schulman – drums (2003)
  • Toru Kawamura – drums (2005–16)
  • Bobby Jarzombek – drums (2009)

Discography[]

Studio albums[]

EPs[]

Live albums[]

Compilation albums[]

Credits[]

Soundtrack[]

Albums[]

Trivia[]

SonicMovieRobotnikDances2Crush40Cameo

References[]

  1. FTA tells Crush 40 how they got their name!. YouTube. FTCR (18 August 2010). Retrieved on 18 August 2021.
  2. T-Bird (28 August 2010). What Happened to Getting Crush 40 on the Rock Band Network?. The Sonic Stadium. Archived from the original on 18 July 2015. Retrieved on 18 August 2021.
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