And that'll probably end off a streak of records/videos because I'm going to have company this weekend (spoilers: Imogen Heap video might be delayed until next week or Sunday, because I'm exhausted). Still pretty pleased with how it turned out, though. Well, regardless, it's Imogen Heap and then finally I'll talk about Ariana Grande like all of you have gone on about. Stay tuned!
You won't find many metal bands with a worse reputation within their own genre than DragonForce. And really, it was inevitable the instant 'Through The Fire And The Flames' popped up as a track on Guitar Hero and DragonForce was vaulted into stardom thanks to a focus on their blazing, gratuitously fast riffs and ludicrously overblown lyrics and sound. Even though conceptually they weren't many steps away from many common topics in traditional power metal and speed metal, they were the ones who got popular and their completely sincere embrace of their material became an easy target for backlash. It didn't help matters that the more one dug into DragonForce, the less substantial and well-written the lyrics were, to the point where the speed and occasionally solid melodic progressions were the only things saving the band from being a borderline parody of itself, especially after less-than-favourable live reviews started coming in. Nevertheless, DragonForce continued on with Ultra Beatdown in 2008, which tried to showcase more experimentation and progressive elements and did contain some solid enough songs, but at this point the lyrics were becoming a much more noticeable problem, demonstrating less and less cohesion and elements that were starting to actively repeat themselves. After that, lead singer ZP Theart left in 2010, replaced by Marc Hudson, and they released The Power Within in 2012, which wasn't a bad record by any stretch but the more I listened to it the more I began to think the band was missing their mark. Sure, the fast-paced speed runs were impressive, but DragonForce could write some really solid well-textured melodic grooves at a slower pace, and considering the lyrics of DragonForce were always pretty much interchangeable, I didn't want to see the band become just a gimmick. In any case, I had no high expectations with their newest album Maximum Overload, featuring new drummer Gee Anzalone after Dave Mackintosh left to pursue progressive rock projects. So what did I get?
