Gears of War Sonic Melee - Epic shooter scores with an equally epic soundtrack

Gears of War was clearly one of the standout titles of last year's holiday season. While the eye-searing graphics may have been the biggest draw, gamers found themselves treated to equally brilliant sound design, tight, visceral gameplay, and a compelling world to claw their way through. Tying all the elements together was the dynamic musical score by Kevin Riepl - a score that will finally see a commercial release on July 31st.

"The soundtrack CD was always something we wanted to do for Gears," Riepl told IGN recently. "It was put on the back burner for a bit until the game was released, but soon thereafter we started getting the ball rolling in finding the right distributor, mastering house, and a lot of legal issues that needed to be addressed when dealing with a soundtrack CD release."