Speedy Speed Speed Metal
I was well aware of Dragonforce's talents after being subjected to a couple of tracks from their first album 'Valley of the Damned' many moons ago. I was impressed but found myself ignoring the vocals waiting for their quite amazing middle breaks and solos. I was interested to see if they were still chocking out the fast power metal with such crazy solos or had they tried to diversify. Of course they're still churning out the fast power metal with crazy solos; these guys know when they're on to a good thing.
I am sure Dragonforce are playing faster than ever as first track 'My Spirit Will Go On' sounds like the CD player is on fast forward. It is so ludicrously rapid a beaming grin appears on your face because you realise there's fast, there's very fast and then there's Dragonforce. My immediate reaction to this furious pace was to think how on earth do you write something like this never mind record it. It's a good thing metronomes are electric these days otherwise drummer Dave Mackintosh would have worn out at least fifty eight of them trying to keep time.
Standout track 'Fury of the Storm' follows and it sounds even faster than the previous song and another big beaming grin appears on my face. I remember buying Helloween's 'Keeper of the Seven Keys' and following the solo key working out who played which lead. Dragonforce not only up the ante but make Helloween's effort look a little feeble, for example in 'Fury of the Storm' the solo key is, Sam/Sam and Herman/Herman/Sam/Sam and Herman/Sam/Herman/Sam/Herman and Sam/Herman/Herman. This is ridiculous but an utter joy to listen to. Sam Totman and Herman Li's guitar work is not only technically outstanding it is all melodic and pleasant on the ears keeping the showy dive-bombing and random noise-making to a minimum relying on sheer talent and melody to shine. Vocalist ZP Theart equips himself well amidst the instrumental mayhem, but sometimes he loses out to the guitar duelling which is a shame as he has great set of pipes.
For all the great musical ammo at their disposal Dragonforce are flawed in a couple of areas. The first being seven of the songs on this album are at this mind-bending speed albeit for a couple of time changes. Even on first listen the shear pace gets repetitive and you wonder if they can actually write any other way. 'Dawn Over A New World' is the only let up being of a ballad style but this only counts for five minutes in a fifty six minute album. Some would say this is Dragonforce's style and they are playing to their strengths. Others, on the other hand, could describe the music's tempo as a novelty and also the tracks are unimaginative in the song writing process. Bands such as Korn were branded as one trick pony's relying on their usual one down-tuned riff style music constantly writing the same song over and over. Dragonforce aren't too far away from this description relying on their blistering speed far too much. This may seem harsh because Dragonforce are more than this but Iron Maiden and Metallica didn't become some of the biggest bands in the world by using the same idea over and over.
The second area I think Dragonforce could improve is the actual songs themselves. There is an aspect of, 'c'mon let’s get the vocals out of the way as quickly as possible so we can start SOLOING'. After several spins I asked myself what have you got left if you take out all the munificent guitar work? The answer I came up with is you're left with a bunch of average sounding power metal songs. The vocal melodies and choruses hardly set the ears racing and soon I was fast-forwarding past the vocals just to listen to the solos. I really want Dragonforce to succeed. This type of talent shouldn't go un-noticed and they already have a loyal following because no one plays power metal in such a way. I hope by their next album they can write catchier and more varied tunes instead of over using the aspects of music in which they so clearly excel.