DragonForce
| DragonForce | |
|---|---|
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 Dragonforce live at the Reload Festival 2018 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Power metal , speed metal |
| founding | September 6, 1999 |
| Website | dragonforce.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Marc Hudson (since 2011) | |
| Herman Li | |
| Sam Totman | |
| Gee Anzalone (since 2014) | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
Steve Scott |
Electric bass |
Diccon Harper |
Electric bass |
Adrian Lambert |
Keyboard |
Steve Williams |
Drums |
Didier Almouzni |
Singing, percussion |
ZP Theart (until 2010) |
Drums |
Dave Mackintosh (until 2014) |
| Vadim Pruzhanov (until 2018) | |
| Frédéric Leclercq (until 2019) | |
DragonForce is a power metal band from London . Noise Records markets the band under the genre name "Extreme Power Metal" because of their fast game.
Band history
DragonForce was founded in 1999 by singer ZP Theart, bassist Steve Scott, guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li (both ex- Demoniac ), drummer Matej Setinc (also with Demoniac) and keyboardist Steve Williams, initially under the name "DragonHeart". Under this name the group produced their first demo recording Valley of the Damned in 1999 and published it on MP3.com . The demo was a great success: it was number 1 on the Power Metal charts for two years and was downloaded about half a million times. A promotional video featuring live recordings of their tour in Europe was released with Valley of the Damned . Shortly after the demo was released, keyboardist Steve Williams and bassist Steve Scott left the formation to form the band Power Quest . They were replaced by Vadim Pruzhanov on keyboards and Diccon Harper on bass. Shortly thereafter, the band changed their name to DragonForce.
In 2003 the musicians from DragonForce signed a recording deal with Noise Records and began recording their first studio album, Valley of the Damned . The following tour lasted until 2004. While the reviews in Europe were a little more restrained because DragonForce was accused of a lack of originality, the reactions in Asia, especially on the tour through Japan, Thailand and Taiwan (in the opening act for Helloween ), were much more enthusiastic.
Sonic Firestorm was released in 2004. The single Fury of the Storm was released . This was the first album with Adrian Lambert on bass and Dave Mackintosh on drums. DragonForce toured supporting WASP and Iron Maiden . Because Dave Mackintosh sustained an elbow injury, some of the performances were performed with a drum computer . Shortly thereafter, they began touring for their third studio album, Inhuman Rampage , a few months before the album was released in 2006. However, Adrian Lambert got out again and was replaced on the tour and on the following album by Fred Leclercq.
In 2005 DragonForce were nominated as a candidate for best UK group at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards . The group did not win this award, but guitarist Herman Li received the "Shredder Award" for his guitar skills.
DragonForce released their third studio album, Inhuman Rampage, in 2006 after signing a deal with Roadrunner Records . Lindsay Dawson (Lis and Totmans Demoniac) took part as a background singer on this album. The song Through the Fire and Flames was released as a bonus song in the video game Guitar Hero III and makes the band known outside of the metal scene , with the group often only identified with this song. On the following European tour, the group played in the opening act for Edguy . The group only takes on the position of headliner for the tour in the UK. Then they play at the Ozzfest .
DragonForce toured with Disturbed , Turisas and Slipknot in 2008 at the Rockstar Energy Metal Mayhem Festival. In the fall they released their fourth studio album, Ultra Beatdown . On December 3, 2008, the first song and the first single from the album, Heroes of Our Time , was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance . However, they lost to Metallica and their song My Apocalypse . Heroes of our Time can also be found in the video games Skate 2 and NHL 10.
The song The Last Journey Home was released to the Xbox Live community on January 22, 2009 , a week before it was released online. DragonForce toured Latin America , North America and Europe. The band played at festivals such as Wacken Open Air and Graspop Metal Meeting around the world . After the festival season, DragonForce embarked on a tour of North America with Sonata Arctica and Taking Dawn. They then played in Germany from October 16 to 30 , followed by a gig in Luxembourg on October 31. From November 6th to 14th, Dragonforce toured South America. The tour ended in the UK , where they played from November 19th to December 12th.
Herman Li announced that DragonForce would not play any more shows after the Ultra Beatdown tour ended. The band wanted to concentrate fully on working on their fifth studio album. On March 9, 2010 it was announced that the band had separated from their front singer ZP Theart due to "musical differences" and was looking for a new singer.
On September 13, 2010, their first live album Twilight Dementia was released . The album contained 13 live versions of DragonForce, which were recorded on the Ultra Beatdown tour.
On March 2nd, 2011 the band announced on their website that they had found a new singer: Marc Hudson. To give an impression, a short video has been uploaded to your YouTube account. A new song was introduced on February 20, 2012, and on April 15, 2012 the new album "The Power Within" was released.
style
DragonForce polarize the metal scene. The group plays melodic Power Metal combined with the high speed of Speed Metal . What stands out about her music are the numerous complex guitar solos , which are praised by music critics. Drummer Dave Mackintosh also occasionally uses blast beats , which are otherwise more common in Death Metal .
The group uses a tempo of 200 bpm comparatively often , as in most of their most famous songs Through the Fire and Flames . The band had almost exclusively, with a few exceptions, published songs longer than five minutes, which changed fundamentally with the release of their album The Power Within .
Particularly striking features of DragonForce solos are the mostly extremely high speeds, combined with shred techniques such as sweep picking and tapping , as well as natural and pinched harmonics. Also frequently Wah-Wah - and pitch-shifting pedals used to decorate the individual solo characters who rarely go beyond two bars. Furthermore, large parts of the solos, which often last several minutes, are often played in two parts, sometimes by both guitarists, sometimes individually using overdubbing (as in many metal bands with several lead guitarists, the order of the soloists is indicated between the lyrics of the CD booklets). Keyboard solos also appear in DragonForce songs, but are significantly less common.
In particular on the album Inhuman Rampage there are numerous sound effects created with special guitar techniques, some of which are reminiscent of video game music . One of the most famous effects can be found on Guitar Hero's famous song Through The Fire And Flames , in which guitarist Herman Li creates Pac-Man- like noises by sliding an unplugged vibrato lever across the strings near the pickup .
The clichéd melodies and lyrics and the lack of innovation of the band, which plays on a high technical level, but neglects the song structures in the opinion of the critics, are often criticized. In the majority of power metal bands such as Sonata Arctica and Rhapsody of Fire , many critics believe that the band can hardly set new accents.
controversy
Discussions about the musical arts of DragonForce began in 2006. The band performed under the influence of alcohol at the Graspop Metal Meeting in the summer of 2006 . In addition, they had many technical problems with their guitars. In an interview with Herman Li, he said:
“Well, the Graspop Metal Meeting of 2006 was another total disaster. The technician we had back then didn't even tune the guitar, and no monitoring was done properly. We didn't hear anything, but hey, fuck, you have to get onstage now. This is the festival. "
“The Graspop Metal Meeting in 2006 was another disaster. The tech we had didn't even tune the guitars and the monitoring wasn't done right. We couldn't hear anything, but hey, shit, you gotta get on stage now. this is the festival. "
He also noted that the entire Inhuman Rampage tour was bad, as the band had technical problems almost everywhere. The performance at Graspop 2006 was probably the worst of DragonForce and it caused them to lose many of their fans because it gave them the impression that the band couldn't play live. Rumors circulate on the Internet to this day that DragonForce would technically accelerate their guitar solos in the studio.
However, since Dragonforce's Ultra Beatdown tour, the band's live performances have improved. As the reason for this, Herman Li stated that the secret of the success of this tour was a great crew, who got the equipment and monitoring in good order and set everything up correctly. He said in the same interview:
“Since touring 'Ultra Beatdown', we can even hear the monitors now, and that makes pretty much hundreds, hundreds of difference in terms of our playing. (...) Not hearing and playing guitar is very difficult; you play guitar out of key and sometimes you just can't hear it. Since we've had in-ear monitors, our playing has gone through the roof. "
“Since we toured for the Ultra Beatdown album , we've finally been able to hear the monitors and that makes a hundred times more difference when we play. (…) Not hearing and playing the guitar is very difficult; you're playing wrong and sometimes you just don't hear it. Since we've had in-ear monitoring , our game has improved a lot. "
Band members
- DragonForce live at Rockharz 2019
Singer Marc Hudson
Lead guitarist Herman Li
Rhythm guitarist Sam Totman
Drummer Gee Anzalone
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
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| 2003 | Valley of the Damned Noise Records ( Sanctuary Records ) |
- | - | - | - | - |
First published: February 25, 2003
|
| 2004 | Sonic Firestorm Noise Records (Sanctuary Records) |
- | - | - | - | - |
First published: May 11, 2004
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| 2006 | Inhuman Rampage Roadrunner Records ( Warner Music ) |
- | - | - |
UK70  (1 week)UK |
US103 (23 weeks)US |
First published: June 20, 2006
|
| 2008 |
Ultra Beatdown Roadrunner Records (Warner Music) |
- |
AT62 (1 week) AT |
- |
UK18 (3 weeks) UK |
US18 (5 weeks) US |
First published: August 26, 2008
|
| 2012 | The Power Within Roadrunner Records (Warner Music) |
DE45 (1 week) DE |
AT53 (1 week) AT |
- |
UK40 (1 week) UK |
US74 (1 week) US |
First published: April 17, 2012
|
| 2014 | Maximum Overload earMusic ( Edel SE ) |
DE20 (2 weeks) DE |
AT46 (1 week) AT |
CH44 (2 weeks) CH |
UK44 (1 week) UK |
US62 (1 week) US |
First published: August 19, 2014
|
| 2017 | Reaching into Infinity earMusic (Edel SE) |
DE27 (1 week) DE |
AT34 (1 week) AT |
CH24 (2 weeks) CH |
UK69 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: May 19, 2017
|
| 2019 | Extreme Power Metal earMusic (Edel SE) |
DE34 (1 week) DE |
AT42 (1 week) AT |
CH29 (1 week) CH |
UK93 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: September 27, 2019
|
Live albums
- 2010: Twilight Dementia
- 2015: In the Line of Fire
Compilations
- 2016: Killer Elite
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
|
US
|
|||
| 2006 | Through the Fire and Flames Inhuman Rampage |
US86  (5 weeks)US |
First published: August 3, 2006
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More singles:
- 2003: Valley of the Damned
- 2004: Fury of the Storm
- 2007: Operation Ground and Pound
- 2008: Heroes of Our Time
- 2009: The Last Journey Home
- 2009: Reasons to Live
- 2010: Strike of the Ninja
- 2012: Cry Thunder
- 2012: Seasons
- 2014: The Game
- 2014: Symphony of the Night
- 2019: Highway to Oblivion
- 2019: Heart Demolition
- 2019: Razorblade Meltdown
demo
- 1999: Valley of the Damned (as DragonHeart )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ DragonForce, Revolver Magazine, January 2007 ( Memento of August 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d DragonForce at laut.de
- ^ Metal Hammer Award Winners Announced. Metalunderground.com, January 14, 2005, accessed August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ Guitar Hero 3. Dragonforce doesn't want to hear about it anymore. Gamezone.de, October 8, 2008, accessed on August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ The rock and metal Grammy results in full. Kerrang , February 9, 2009, accessed August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ espyrock.com
- ↑ nme.com , 03/2010
- ↑ dragonforce.com
- ↑ DragonForce Reveal New Singer. YouTube.com, March 1, 2011, accessed June 21, 2011 .
- ↑ Hear A New DragonForce Song! (No longer available online.) February 20, 2012, archived from the original on February 23, 2012 ; accessed on November 6, 2015 .
- ^ DragonForce New Album. Retrieved March 27, 2012 .
- ^ Herman Li video game guitar effects. Youtube
- ↑ Review of Inhuman Rampage. Metal.de, accessed on August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ Mike Borrink: Review of Inhuman Rampage. In: Rockhard.de . Retrieved August 9, 2013 .
- ^ Frank Trojan: Review of Sonic Firestorm. In: Rockhard.de . Retrieved August 24, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c DragonForce: Live Playing 'Through The Roof' Since Having In-Ear Monitors. (No longer available online.) Ultimate-Guitar.com, October 10, 2010, archived from the original on November 20, 2012 ; Retrieved August 24, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
