LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dragonforce
built 155 days ago
The debut album from U.K. power metal giants Dragonforce is a polarizing affair. Valley of the Damned could be construed as a bloated, Spinal Tap-style tribute to early-'80s fantasy-metal, and in many ways it is; ... it's so well played and so joyously executed that it could very well reignite the entire genre. For a band that collectively cites video game music as one of its major influences -- the nine blistering tracks do, on occasion, conjure up images of greasy-haired teens h...[ read more ]
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Dragonforce is pretty much an unheard of band unlike say Sex Pistols. The genre Dragonforce is in hasn’t seen a lot of chart toppers these past few years unlike the era in which Headbangers Ball was a mainstay of mtv late night.
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If you are at all annoyed, frustrated or wound up by Dragonforce, you have completely missed the point of their musical contribution to the world. In fact, presupposing an open mindset, Dragonforce should easily make a Top Of The Pops appearance due to their multi-faceted appeal. You see, to the Bill Bailey, middle-aged Judas Priest fan they are a chance to relive the glory days, while their kids can dig the "retro" feel of '80s metal come full circle.
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Dragonforce's style is constituted by a power metal combination, both traditional and modern, of fast palm-muted riffing, twin harmony leads and sweep-picking. Guitarist Herman Li ... tends to incorporate a technique which emulates the electronic sounds of classic video games, including Pac-Man.
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The most interesting thing about Dragonforce is their consistently kickass octave solos where the two guitar players basically play with each other to make for a bitchin’ sound. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish from keyboard music, but that doesn’t make it kick any less ass. Even if it is excruciatingly optimistic.
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You could waste a lot of energy disparaging Dragonforce for creating substance-free Celine Dion metal. You'd be right, but you'd ... be missing the point. Dragonforce isn't going to top any critic shortlists, and is isn't innovative in the least bit, but the members' grandiose, solo-centric live show brought something that's been missing from live metal for a long while: fun. It's not hard to grasp what the band members are trying to do, and once you accept what they are and what they aren't, you can just sit back and bask in the digestibility of their sappy melodies and overblown musical heroics. Dragonforce walk that sincere/tongue-in-cheek split so well that it's impossible to listen to its music without either vomiting or falling in love. From the sound of hundreds of fans pogo-ing so forcefully that the Wiltern balcony sounded like it was ready to collapse, you could tell that the audience had chosen the latter.
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