At this point, Dragonforce had become more of a joke band than ever, which made it difficult for some listeners to take them even remotely seriously, let alone stay engaged with their already long songs.Īfter the release of Ultra Beatdown – or even before, as some may argue – Dragonforce was in need of a long-overdue return-to-form sound. While Dragonforce had always placed overall fun as a high priority in their music, Inhuman Rampage and Ultra Beatdown featured more ridiculous sounds, elements, and effects, including both from the obvious guitar work but also from the keyboards and synthesizers from Vadim Pruzhanov, which took an even more drastic turn into the reminiscence of old-school, 8-bit Nintendo sound effects. Their following albums however, Inhuman Rampage and especially 2008’s Ultra Beatdown, clearly showed the songwriting had become much less serious. The songs on this album, as well as their 2004 sophomore album Sonic Firestorm, were written much more as symphonic power metal taken to an level of extreme speed and cheesiness. Prior to the release of The Power Within, it was clear that Dragonforce had undergone a rather drastic evolution in their sound since their first album, 2003’s Valley Of The Damned. After recruiting new vocalist Mark Hudson, Dragonforce released their latest full-length album The Power Within in April, 2012.
Even with the loss of such a signature and well-fitting vocalist, the remaining members of Dragonforce persevered with writing material for their fifth studio album. Finally in early March 2010, it was announced that founding vocalist ZP Theart was departing from the band due to musical differences. Dragonforce’s popularity, at least in the U.S., began to fall as their novelty wore off, playing smaller venues with subsequently smaller ticket sales. This fame came after the initial North American success through their 2006 album Inhuman Rampage, and after the release of two more previous albums. Whether a metal fan or not, hearing this song on this video game, not to mention trying to constantly master playing such a challenging song in the game, made Dragonforce a household name for a time. The Guitar Hero fame was the point that seemed to divide people most on how they felt about Dragonforce. But the most notably successful point of their career – or infamous, depending on your opinion – was their song “Through The Fire And Flames” being featured in the third installment of the highly popular video game franchise Guitar Hero.
Impressively written signature dueling guitar solos from Herman Li and Sam Totman allowed the band to gain international attention to the point where they toured on many big-name festivals including Ozzfest and The Mayhem Festival. Their constantly fast playing and over-the-top fantasy power metal sound can be understandably too much to take in if not completely ridiculous to some. If you listen to metal, or even if you don’t, you’ve probably heard Dragonforce before and head them enough to know how you feel about them. There are few metal bands around today that conjure immediate, strong polarized reactions at the very mention of the name as much as Dragonforce.
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