Review Summary: This is an exhilarating mixture of great guitar solos and an epic sound.
In my early days of Sputnikmusic.com I heard people talking about a band named DragonForce. Of course then I was opinionated and loved one or two bands. As I grew up in Sputnik I started broadening my tastes. I remembered those people talking about them so I checked their profile and they had mp3s. I checked out
Through the Fire and the Flames and I thought I was in love. It was so fast and unstoppable. I wasn’t used to this kind of thing so I downloaded
Inhuman Rampage.
Around listen number 5 or 6 I started to drastically lose interest. Why you ask? The reason is that there isn’t much diversity. This really is a one sided album. I’m not saying that they are Nickelback type sellouts, but each song seems like it is a clone of the other. They don’t exactly have the same chords and riffs but they have the same structure. That fact makes this album boring and very repetitive.
Something that DragonForce is accused of is being very corny. I won’t deny it. This is extremely corny. That can make or break interest in a band. For me personally that didn’t affect me. I feel that it actually added how epic the music. Besides when you listen to Power Metal you’re supposed to fell how epic it is. For people who don’t like that, I can see why they despise this band. It seems that every song has that on top of the world, larger-than-life feel. The only part where the corny part hurts them is
Trail of Broken Hearts. It’s a ballad that sounds like Bon Jovi hair metal type song. It’s really just a bad way to close an album. I said before that this album doesn’t get different. This song does, but it is a bad way to do it. Power Metal and Hair Metal makes one ugly baby.
One thing that you can expect out of DragonForce is an outstanding solo or two from either Herman or Sam. One song with unbelievable soloing is
Through the Fire and the Flames making great use of harmonics and the whammy bar. The thing that makes them so unbelievable is the epic feel like I said before, and how fast they are. Usually fast doesn’t mean rhythmic but this one is a double whammy (no pun intended). The chemistry of them switching from rhythm to lead back and forth is nothing short of the chemistry between a pilot and his wingman. Another great song with an amazing solo has to be
Cry For Eternity. It has the same amazing qualities of the
Through the Fire and the Flames.
As for the filler factor I’d say these are all solid songs. But I do disapprove of
Trail of Broken Hearts like what I said before. It is a predictable Hair Metal ballad with a lame chord progression with a slow simple drumbeat. That’s basically it. But the rest of the songs are very consistent and forceful. I say the best song on the album that really defines the album is the opener. Every component is perfectly in synch. The keyboard kicks it off and just an explosion of sound takes over. With exhilarating high pitched vocals that take you into another world.
This album is a mixture of euphoric vocals, lightning fast solos and a huge pack of epic outbursts. That is really all of the good things I can say about it. While there are good things, you’ll find bad things. This album gets boring after a little while from lack of experimenting with other genres, this isn’t a big deal for me but for people who hate corny music will despise this album, and the last song is just a sad way to end an album.
Recommended songs:
Through the Fire and the Flames
Storming the Burning Fields
Cry For Eternity
If you want a pump album before a game than this album will be perfect but if you want an album to last a long time than I don’t think that this is for you.
3.5/5
