Dragonforce!! Teh Rulez??

Dragonforce, the name on everyones tongue, admittedly on some for the wrong reasons. We all know them from the internet videos of kids playing 'Through the Fire and Flames' on Guitar Hero, but does anyone know much about them?

In order to assuage any derogatory comments I decided to review their new album 'Ultra Beatdown' and decide once and for all.

I personally love a bit of power metal, something about the falsetto screams and guitars on speed that make me ecstatic. The first 30 seconds of the album were no letdown for me, and indeed the first 3 songs are fantastic. Although the highlight of the album is in the second last song, 'Inside the Winter Storm' when the solo kicks in, all of this excellence comes at a great cost.


Listening to the album the second time round I was struck by how badly laid out their songs are. Computer game like sounds are thrown into each song, for no discernable reason, and they seem to find it easier to throw stops into songs to designate each section rather than make music to link the sections. By their own admission Dragonforce have tried to take the emphasis away from the guitars and concentrate more on vocals, but this doesnt work either. The backing vocals sound almost weak and suffer from the poor layout of the rest of the 'extras.'

Overall the album was disappointing but did yield some rather interesting insights, what other band has recently had huge overhype for an album, prominently features computer game sounds and have played in my hometown?? Not only this but have carried out acts of violence towards members of the public (see below)? None other than CC. Are Dragonforce the new Crystal Castles?

Big B

Dragonforce makes HMV Rec Section :O

Hey net homies,

On my way to college, i decided to browse HMV since i hadn't done it in so long. And what did i find in the rec section you ask?





The new Dragonforce album!!!1!

For a band i strongly dislike, they seem to have played an unusually large part in my life over the past few days. I could just blame other people, but i prefer to do it in person and not through the best music blog ever. HMV wrote up a bias, we-think-we're-the-hot-press-news-section piece on it too.



In it, they threaten us the public, saying that Dragonforce are back to give the 'Ultra Beatdown to the unsuspecting public'. Watch your backs readers :O Dragonforce are lurking...

We here at FTCZ (i changed it, i know) will be posting that long promised Dragonforce review soon. I'm sure we'll be back to posting musings on proper music soon too.

DRAGONFORCE!!! Teh Rulez??

Wasnt Saturday a terrible day? Not Darfur starving orphan bad, more college student bad. So i tried to cheer myself up the only way I know how, Power Metal!

Dragonforce are playing here soon so they were on my mind, just lurking there having an awesome name. Im sure many of you are more familiar with them from Guitar Hero, and the multitude of Youtube videos of people playing their song, 'A Flame To the Ground Beneath.'

Their new album 'Ultra Beatdown' starts off on that kinda level. The first 30 seconds of 'Heroes of Our Time' cheered me up, there finally were the ball shreddingly fast guitars and heroic sounds I craved all day. The song only gets better, with deep harmonising voices and falsetto main vocals. The second song 'The Fire Still Burns' starts off with some mandatory snyth string sounds, and the synth theme carries on throughout.

Dragonforce mania

Hey internet peeps,

There doesn't seem to be any topic hotter in cork at the moment than Dragonforce. For those of you that don't hate music, it's these assholes:

I hear them mentioned at parties ("have you heard the new dragonforce single?"), in town ("wanna go see dragonforce?"), in restaurants ("my 12 year old cousin is going to that") and outside my front door ("i'm gonna make them sign my guitar hero guitar").

While most of those instances revolved around a single person, it's clear that there is a real buzz about Dragonforce, abeit from one person (Big B himself).They even managed to swing a 71 rating on metacritic (not exactly a 73 like crystal castles/ladyhawke, but still respectable). Not that metacritic is any good, really.

Anyway, due to the overwhelming hype, a review of the new album is coming to FTC in the very near future. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone gullible enough to buy the album. After all, everyone hearts hard rawk (except me).