SONS OF ANGELS
Thrill of the Feel
| Track Listing 1. The Star Spangled Banner 2. Dangerous Ground 3. Into the Wind 4. Fill It Up 5. Revvin' Up 6. Rush Into the Crazy World 7. In the Lead 8. Watch Me Fly... 9. On the Road Again 10. Fuel Me 11. When the Sun Goes Down 12. All the Way 13. Open Your Heart 2000 Victor Japan |
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| More Sons of Angels: their only disc. |
Related Releases (Johnny Gioeli): Hardline - Double Eclipse (1991) Axel Rudi Pell - Oceans of Time (1998) Axel Rudi Pell - The Masquerade Ball (2000) |
| Metal often shows up in strange places, and has had a history of
droning in the background of many a video game. Who remembers the Motley Crue themed
pinball game for the Sega Genesis or grooved to the synthesized Deep Purple music in the
Super Nintendo "Rock N Roll Racing"? More recently a Y&T-ish style track
plays on the 'rock station' on the stereo in the popular PC game "The Sims",
while in days long past, the band Journey was digitalized and made into rock star
superheroes, fending off hordes of cameras and rabid fans in the arcades and on the then
state of the art, Atari 2600. Sons of Angels is simply a project put together by Sega to
showcase music from an arcade game that was titled "NASCAR: Rubbin Racing", and
while the soundtrack has been out for over a year, the game itself has not seen the light
of day. ex-Hardline and the current pipes for Axel Rudi Pell, Johnny Gioeli, lays his
vocals down while ex-Loudness and now Sega employee, Jun Senoue provides a Satriani-esque
style instrumental backdrop. It's not their first time doing music for Sega, as both were
featured on the Dreamcast "Sonic the Hedgehog" title, most notably in the main
track, "Open Your Heart". "Thrill of the Feel" should not listened to or even reviewed as a full length release. There was no thought to album flow and such that comes into play with band albums. Each song was written as being the background for a video game in mind, and taken in such a context, comes out much stronger that could be expected. The music has a fluid, summery feel that captures the heart of racing beautifully, and shows Jun's skills in developing music that suits its ultimate purpose, but is also pleasing to listen to on it's own, a feat that is extremely difficult to pull off and maintain this kind of consistant quality. |
| While some of the songs seem to be lacking heart, and the tracks
with vocals often seem like they were tacked on instrumentals at the last minute, do keep
in mind that this is music for a video game you are listening to and things will suddenly
slide back into perspective. Some of the notable Gioeli-less tracks include the breezy
"Fill It Up" and the short, sweet and heavily reminiscent of the in-game DC
"Sonic" game music (which Jun also wrote of course) "When the Sun Goes
Down". "The Star Spangled Banner" is cool to hear in the heavy rock feel
its recorded in, but comes off sounding like the band is going through the motions and
following the formula by the numbers. It's the stuff with Gioeli, however that makes the disc worth looking into and merit Sega wanting it put into a soundtrack format. "Into the Wind" is a straightup rocker with a smooth chorus, acoustic ringing pleasantly in the background and guitars searing through the entire song in a very Satch-like manner. The solo blazes up into a whirlwind fire that puts the finishing touch on the track. It's the kind of material that never gets boring no matter how many times you listen to it - in a row for that matter. "Dangerous Ground" has a very rough-n-tumble yet polished early 90s sound, and sounds so good that many bands from that era would have been proud to have had this on their record. "In the Lead" borrows alot from Motley Crue's "Kick Start My Heart" in song structure and the growling guitars alike. "Revvin' Up" is along the same lines, flawless vocals, tons of rhythm guitar, fiercely likeable sing-along chorus, and the cherry on the top solo. "All the Way" feels much like everything else on here, 80s styled European hard rock with an American edge. It seems a little too contrived and is obviously not meant to stand on it's own but manages somehow. As a bonus track, they threw in the theme song for "Sonic Adventure" called "Open Your Heart" which has kind of silly lyrics blatantly styled for the game, but Johnny sounds superb once again and makes it worth listening to. |
Sons of Angels "Thrill of the Feel" instrumentals may become mindnumblingly similiar after awhile, much like some of Joe Satriani's material for that matter, but Gioeli's vocals on the rest makes the ride worthwhile. As would be imagined, this is a very energetic album, and all the lyrics are styled around racing (as the titles would suggest of course). For trivia's sake, "Sons of Angels" was also the title of another Sega racing song, for the Saturn's "Daytona CCE" and was performed by Eric Martin of Mr. Big fame. This one is for Loudness fans (the disc also includes the band's rhythm section!), those that can't get enough of Gioeli and fans of the genre that can appreciate wild and free music that seems tailor-made for Sunday drives flying down the highway. Roll the windows down, crank it up, and let the wind blow through your hair! Ratings and Wrap Up: |
