DragonForce

DragonForce are an English power metal band formed in London in 1999. The group is known for its fast paced songs, twin guitar solos, and incorporation of electronic sound effects into their music.

History

DragonForce was formed in 1999 from the remnants of the band Demoniac under the name of DragonHeart, but they changed their name to DragonForce before releasing any commercial albums due to possible issues with Brazilian band Dragonheart. Their career began with the publishing of their early songs on the first incarnation of MP3.com, claiming the top of the site's heavy metal charts. The hit song "Valley of the Damned" reached over 500,000 downloads in the first few months. Two of the original members, Steve Williams and Steve Scott, left the band to form the power metal outfit Power Quest. Sam Totman also started a side project called Shadow Warriors featuring himself and ZP Theart. Sam has confirmed many times that Herman Li was not involved with Shadow Warriors.

The band's first successful song was "Starfire" off of their debut album, Valley of the Damned. It was most noted because it starts off with a light piano intro, which is atypical among DragonForce songs. DragonForce have released three albums and toured extensively while supporting Helloween, W.A.S.P. and Iron Maiden. Their 2005 tour in support of the Sonic Firestorm album included support from Angra and Mendeed during their passage through the UK. On October 28, 2005 bassist Adrian Lambert announced his departure from the band in order to focus more time on raising his young son^[1] (Lambert later revealed in an interview that he had left due to musical differences with Herman Li and Sam Totman^{citation needed}). Less than a month after Lambert's departure, on November 23, 2005, DragonForce were signed to Roadrunner Records in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand, who released their most recent effort, Inhuman Rampage on January 9, 2006. Lambert was replaced in 2006 by Frédéric Leclercq, who was made an official member after a performance on tour.

The song "Through the Fire and Flames" is featured in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and is generally considered to be the most challenging track in the Guitar Hero series^[2]. The developers used the song to demonstrate the game at E3. After Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released, the band's music sales reportedly increased dramatically. Their song being featured in the game has successfully placed the band into mainstream performances.^[3].

A new DragonForce album, titled "Ultra Beatdown" has been announced to be released for August 25, 2008. This will be followed by an extensive United Kingdom tour through October with Turisas and then followed by a tour of Australia.

July 4th saw the release of DragonForce's next single, "Heroes of Our Time" released only on their MySpace page and is available on iTunes. The video for it was released on the band's official YouTube channel on July the 9th.

Musical style

Although the band takes their musicianship seriously, they do not embody the themes in their music. In an interview with Metal Hammer, guitarist Herman Li has stated "Oh no, it's completely serious, we have fun doing it...".^[4] DragonForce's influences are drawn from various kinds of metal such as melodic styles of rock, and in particular video games such as "Wonder Boy in Monster World", and the Final Fantasy series,^[5] with lyrics comparable to themes present in fantasy games.

The band have frequently referred to their style not just as power metal, but as extreme power metal. Herman Li commented on descriptions of the band's style in an interview with Guitar World: "'Nintendo metal,' 'extreme power metal', 'Bon Jovi on Speed,' 'Journey Meets Slayer,' ...people are always coming up with weird labels for us." ^[6] The band has often been labeled speed metal^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] due to the fast tempos present in their songs.

Tours

Band members

Current members

Former members

Discography

Music sample:

Soldiers of the Wasteland (sample)

A brief sample of the sixth track on the Sonic Firestorm CD.

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Studio albums

References

^ Metal Hammer, November 2006, pg 40 "DragonForce interview"
^ Saltzman, Mitchell (2007-10-19). "The Hardest Guitar Hero Song Ever?". GWN.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
^ Snider, Mike (2008-02-14). "Band's sales are feeling the 'Guitar Hero' effect". usatoday.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
^ Metal Hammer, November 2006, pg 35 "DragonForce interview"
^ Metal-Temple.com Herman Li (Interview)
^ Guitar World, Holiday 2006, pg 72 "Hotter Then Hell"
^ http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-02-14-guitar-hero effect_N.htm
^ http://www.pe.com/entertainment/stories/PE_Ent_Guide_D_soundtracks.204707.html
^ http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=OC&p_theme=oc&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=112D1F2A8F30E698&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
^ http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/music/hottickets/article_1223269.php
^ http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=19752
^ http://www.thegauntlet.com/bio/1157/Dragonforce.html
^ http://heavymetal.about.com/od/dragonforce/p/dragonforce.htm

Contents