This album is the official soundtrack of the Gladiators TV series from the 90s. The bulk of the album is made up of classic pop and rock songs that were used on the show itself, such as Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero", Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" and Rainbow's "Since You Been Gone". This solid mix of classic tunes means that the album feels almost like a "Best of the 70s/80s" rock compilation disc, and it wouldn't be out of place in your car's CD changer.
The album also features most of the series' incidental music, which was composed by Muff Murfin and performed by an artist known only as "Storm" - one assumes, a pseudonym for a group of session musicians. For those who grew up in the 90s, tracks like "Duel", "Hang Tough" and "Swing Shot" will take you right back to those Saturday nights watching spandex-clad men and women knocking seven bells out of each other with foam batons.
I have only two complaints about this album: the first is that "Eliminator", one of the incidental music tracks, has been given a vocal accompaniment, when in the series it was always played as an instrumental over the climactic final event of the show. The lyrics are terrible, and wholly unnecessary to begin with; I would have preferred the bare instrumental! My second complaint is with two tracks that were, to my knowledge, never used in the series - "You are the Winner" and "There Are No Losers". Both of these are awful, sugary 90s feel-good pop ballads that contrast terribly with the rest of the album.
Aside from those two minor problems, Gladiators is a solid album that will provide a nostalgic kick for many people, as well as a good chunk of classic rock for everyone to fist-pump to.
