For those of us living on planet Metal, and who squealed with delight at the OC Remix Chaos Project’s renditions of tracks such as Malicious Fingers (a progressive metal cover of the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles boss theme) and Live at the Sandopolis, there is more lead-lined tunes coming your way!
Megadriver, a Brazillian based Megadrive / Genesis tribute band (as if their name didn’t give it away) should be familliar to those on the Sonic music remix scene – a few years back they did a rather thrashy cover of the Green Hill Zone tune. There’s also a couple of nifty videos floating about on youtube of Nino, the band’s founder, and his rather awesome (and unique sounding) Megadrive Guitar!
Well, not only has Nino gone and put together an entire band now, they’ve just released a new album, METALHOG, which is entirely Sonic the Hedgehog covers!!! The tracks are taken from a very wide selection of games, with a cover of the Scrap Brain Zone from the Master System featuring on the album, all the way up to their cover of Crush 40‘s power anthem theme for Sonic Adventure 2, Live and Learn. The band’s influences from the many worlds of Thrash Metal really shows though (with vibes of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate present) and gives a whole new fresh twist on some classic tunes, with some thundering kick-drumming and “interesting” manouvres on rhythm and lead guitars. Just like marmite though, I think there will be a real division in the community as to their verdict on the album; you’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.
You can download the entire album, for absolutely nothing, at Megadriver’s Homepage for the METALHOG Album; and I think you’ll agree, the album is an awesome tribute to Sonic music throughout the ages.
Now all you need to do is retune the air guitar, crank the volume up to 11, and press play…