Rock for Japan



Rock for Japan is a compilation album that was released on the 29th of April 2011 and is produced by Georg Siegl. The entire album is a charity project to collect funds to send to those who survived the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which struck the country on the 11th of March 2011. The album was only released on CD and not in digital form due to contractual reasons.

The record label AOR Heaven came up with the original idea and it included donating all of the profit for this record sale to Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, which is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. They started sending out e-mails to bands and within 24 hours they had gotten over 20 responses from different bands and artist who wanted to contribute to the record with previously unreleased material each. The first payment of 5,000 Euros was wired to Deutsches Rotes Kreuz on the 5th of August 2011.

Bulletrain first announced that they were a part of this record on the 3rd of April 2011. They contributed with their then unreleased song "Take Me to the Sun", which was recorded in June 2010. This contribution makes Rock for Japan the full-length album debut for the band.

Quote
Musically we have an assortment of melodic rock and metal songs that mainly though go in the line of rock music and it is surprisingly cohesive for being an album of so many artists. What it also is, is two and a half hours long, which is quite long. It is hard to say anything more unifying about it than that it is melodic rockin’ music that is all released especially for this occasion which is a good thing, and the bands are many of the AOR- or Metal Heaven signed bands but also some other bands as well. I would say it constitutes a healthy mix of bands and songs [...] [I]t can be said to be good value for money in terms of minutes of music per money spent and how many of your good albums can you also say is a good deed?

CD I

 * 1) FM – "Kissed by an Angel" – 5:30 (previously unreleased in Europe)
 * 2) Tommy Heart – "And I Know" – 3:22 (previously unreleased)
 * 3) Grand Illusion – "Yumi's Eyes" – 5:02 (previously unreleased; recorded during the Brand New World sessions)
 * 4) Harlan Cage – "Sinner's Groove" – 4:10 (new recording)
 * 5) Fiona – "Love Along the Way" – 3:31 (new recording)
 * 6) Dan Reed – "I Don't Mind" – 4:21 (previously unreleased; recorded during the Coming Up for Air sessions)
 * 7) Tony Harnell – "One Way Ride" – 4:32 (previously only released on a digital, self-released EP)
 * 8) Grand Design – "Love Will Shine the Way" – 4:03 (new recording)
 * 9) Doogie White/Pontus Norgren (as White/Norgren) – "Message of Love" – 6:09 (previously unreleased cover of the Journey song with the same name)
 * 10) Hartmann feat. Tobias Sammet (as Hartmann feat. T. Sammet) – "Brother's" – 6:28 (recorded live at the Colossaal, Aschaffenburg, Germany in 2009; this version is previously unreleased in Europe)
 * 11) Brian McDonald – "In Too Deep" – 4:45 (new recording)
 * 12) Shotgun Symphony – "The One" – 4:21 (new recording)
 * 13) Brett Walker – "Good Enough" – 5:00 (new recording)
 * 14) Peter Beckett – "Too Many Reasons" – 4:16 (new recording)
 * 15) Poison Sun – "Russian Racketeers" – 4:15 (previously unreleased; recorded during the Virtual Sin sessions)
 * 16) Big Nature feat. Chandler Mogel and Talon (as Big Nature) – "One Way Ride" – 4:04 (previously unreleased)
 * 17) Legs Diamond – "Missing a Part" – 4:13 (previously unreleased; recorded during the Diamonds Are Forever sessions)

CD II

 * 1) Soul Doctor – "You're All That I Want (Single Remix)" – 5:29 (2011 shortened remix of the song which originally appeared on the album Soul Doctor; this version is previously unreleased)
 * 2) Crown of Thorns – "I Won't Wait" – 3:50 (previously only available on the compilation album Crown Jewels; recorded during the Crown of Thorns sessions)
 * 3) Harem Scarem – "Easier" – 3:21 (previously unreleased song)
 * 4) Robin Beck – "The One" – 4:19 (previously released on the 2011 album The Great Escape)
 * 5) Torben Schmidt – "Run Away" – 4:14 (previously unreleased on CD)
 * 6) Mark Spiro – "Say Your Prayers" – 3:30 (previously unreleased)
 * 7) House of Lords – "Spirit of Love" – 4:33 (previously released on the album Demons Down)
 * 8) Mitch Malloy – "Anything at All" – 5:12 (recorded live at Firefest 2008; previously unreleased on CD)
 * 9) Dogface – "Fired" – 4:31 (previously unreleased)
 * 10) Kane'd – "Rock Against the D.J." – 2:55 (previously unreleased)
 * 11) Royal Hunt – "Back to Square One" – 6:04 (recorded live in Atlanta, USA in 2009; previously unreleased)
 * 12) M.ill.ion – "What I Want" – 4:30 (previously unreleased; recorded during the Kingsize sessions)
 * 13) Johnny Lima – "Nowhere Left to Go" – 4:16 (previously unreleased)
 * 14) Tommy Denander feat. Mikkey Dee and John Leven (as Tommy Denander) – "Where Is the Fire" – 6:02 (previously unreleased on CD)
 * 15) Chris Laney – "Coming Home" – 4:32 (previously unreleased)
 * 16) Bulletrain – "Take Me to the Sun" – 4:16 (previously unreleased)
 * 17) Subsignal – "Wingless" – 6:10 (previously unreleased demo version)

Criticism

 * Kate Lynn, the lyricist for the song "In Too Deep" by Brian McDonald, acknowledged the fact that neither the lyricists nor the composers for any of the songs are mentioned in any way on the album. She also stated that "legally songwriters have to be mentionned [sic] next to the work".

Personnel

 * Georg Siegl – executive producer at AOR Heaven
 * Ingo Ertl – artwork and graphic design at Designstudio Ertl
 * Birgitt Schwanke – promotion, marketing and liner notes
 * Chris Lyne – sound engineering, pro-tools operator and mastering at Dr. Soul Studio
 * Louis Sesto – Japanese translations