Crush 40 (originally Sons of Angels) are a Japanese-American rock band who are best known for making music for the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Currently, the band consists of Johnny Gioeli on vocals, Jun Senoue on the guitars and Takeshi Taneda on the bass. From 1997 until 2005 Katsuji was on drums for the band. Later, he was replaced by Toru Wakumora. However Katsuji was drummer at the 2014 concert, 2 Nights 2 Remember (In the Live 2N2R version of Watch Me Fly…, Johnny Gioeli says “Katsuji on the drums”).

When Norwegian/Swedish rock band Sons of Angels got back together, the name of Crush 40 was changed, in order to avoid confusion. At the Summer of Sonic 2010 convention, Johnny explained how himself and Jun came up with the name Crush 40; Johnny didn’t want to turn 40 years old (He was 30 years old when the band formed in 1997) and Jun likes Crush Soda. The band released only one album under the name Sons of Angels: Thrill of The Feel. This album contained vocal and instrumental tracks used in the 2000 racing game NASCAR Arcade, and was only available in Japan. They later released what fans call an international version of Thrill of The Feel, a self-titled album called Crush 40, released in 2003. This was the first album they releaed under the name. The record omits the instrumental tracks from Thrill of The Feel and contains two tracks not created by the band, It Doesn’t Matter from the 1998 game Sonic Adventure and Escape from the City from the 2000 sequel game, Sonic Adventure 2.

Crush 40 have released five studio albums; Thrill of The Feel (2000), The Best Of Crush 40 – Super Sonic Songs, Rise Again (2012), Crush 40 Live! (2012) and 2 Nights 2 Remember.