#epica — Public Fediverse posts

Les invitamos: mañana, martes 8, continúa nuestra #lectura en voz alta, completa, de la #ODISEA. Será a las 21:30, hora del centro de México. ¡Acompáñennos!
https://youtu.be/PAVzsHF_GWE

#libros #LibrosRecomendados #poesía #épica #LecturaEnVozAlta

Les invitamos: mañana, martes 8, continúa nuestra #lectura en voz alta, completa, de la #ODISEA. Será a las 21:30, hora del centro de México. ¡Acompáñennos!
https://youtu.be/PAVzsHF_GWE

#libros #LibrosRecomendados #poesía #épica #LecturaEnVozAlta

Les invitamos: mañana, martes 8, continúa nuestra #lectura en voz alta, completa, de la #ODISEA. Será a las 21:30, hora del centro de México. ¡Acompáñennos!
https://youtu.be/PAVzsHF_GWE

#libros #LibrosRecomendados #poesía #épica #LecturaEnVozAlta

Les invitamos: mañana, martes 8, continúa nuestra #lectura en voz alta, completa, de la #ODISEA. Será a las 21:30, hora del centro de México. ¡Acompáñennos!
https://youtu.be/PAVzsHF_GWE

#libros #LibrosRecomendados #poesía #épica #LecturaEnVozAlta

Les invitamos: mañana, martes 8, continúa nuestra #lectura en voz alta, completa, de la #ODISEA. Será a las 21:30, hora del centro de México. ¡Acompáñennos!
https://youtu.be/PAVzsHF_GWE

#libros #LibrosRecomendados #poesía #épica #LecturaEnVozAlta

Past days I've been enjoying again this old gem from #Epica. I like a metal #ballad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMf80HnwIq4&list=RDSMf80HnwIq4&start_radio=1

#music #symphonicmetal #musicchannel #songoftheday

Well, here we are again! One of the longest, most eventful years in recent memory comes to a close. After all of the hardships my family, friends, and I endured at the end of last year, it was difficult to imagine what life would be like. For quite some time, it took everything in us just to continue our day-to-day existences, to reestablish or refresh our routines, and to build our lives back up. But we had tons of support, and we got through it. In fact, I’d say that we came out of everything with a better understanding of who we are, what we want out of life, and a greater drive to live more fully, more intentionally, and without regrets. Personally, I learned the value of asking more questions, making fewer assumptions, and embracing the mess of being human in today’s world. With practice in these areas, in time, I’ll grow into a better person, a better friend, and a better partner to my loved ones.

Musically, I experienced a bit of a shift. I don’t know exactly when this shift happened, but I could feel my desire for unfamiliar or less-traveled territory build. I desired weird, long, or messy records that called to me on a more personal level above all else. I craved pieces that showcased artists who wrote what they wanted (or needed) to, regardless of what others might think or say. Authenticity, creativity, memorability, imperfection, and artistic integrity became my core values when approaching new music this year.

Aside from all of that, the thing I want to do most is offer my deepest heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s stuck by me and been my support system this year. To Alex, a wonderful and gorgeous man who continually shows me more love, patience, and attention than I ever dared to ask for—and who challenges me to grow with every passing day. To Ally, Thea, Kaja, Ashe, Sophie, Chris (both of them), Sean, Malachi, Brandon, Michelle, and Jeff for being the best meatspace friends a guy could ask for, and who also show me more love than I ever dared to ask for. To new meatspace friends (Jhierry, Adrien, Forest, Logan, Nick, Zach, Brett, Blue, Brian, and Shawn) who further enrich my life with each interaction, I am excited to see how our relationships develop! To my therapist, Clint, who has helped pull me from the brink more times than I can count. To my family, Mom, Dad, and Kathy, I don’t know what I would do if they were not here with me. To Lise and Victoria, who have been and continue to be the best supervisors—and all-around cool, brilliant, creative, and inspiring people—I’ve ever known. To AMG Himself, Steel Druhm, Dr. A. N. Grier, and Sentynel for running the greatest blog on the planet and being an invaluable resource for my continued growth as a writer and contributor. To all of my fellow writers and editors, both active and inactive, who make this blog the wonderland it is and whose contributions and company continually uplift and motivate me. To the readers, our Discord members, and the metal community writ large, we wouldn’t be here without you!

Lastly, I’d like to give a shout to all the bands who released awesome records this year that fought valiantly for a spot on my list/HMs, in alphabetical order: 1914, Ancient Death, …and Oceans, Astronoid, Aversed, Blind Equation, Bodybox, Buried Realm, Cave Sermon, Changeling, Death Whore, Gloombound, The Halo Effect, Havukruunu, Helms Deep, Inoculation, Maud the Moth, Mutagenic Host, Nephylim, Pedestal for Leviathan, Proscription, Rothadás, Sarastus, Serenity in Murder, Structure, Tower, Tribunal, Vittra, Yellow Eyes. Despite these gems losing a place on my list proper for any number of reasons, I know I’ll return to them with great relish.

With all of that said, I invite all of you to bear witness to my absolutely unhinged Top Ten(ish) selections for 2025. May the rabble commence!

#ish. Epica // Aspiral – Epica is my favorite symphonic metal band. It’s no secret. They’ve been at the grindstone churning out quality records for almost 25 years with a remarkably stable lineup, and there’s every reason to expect Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™ to catch up with them someday. Today is not that day. Aspiral is easily my favorite record since The Quantum Enigma, full of memorable songs and standout performances. It may be hookier and poppier than anything they’ve put out in the past, but accessibility looks great on Epica.

#10. Citadel // Descension – Every time I thought I knew how I felt about this record, I’d go back to it and discover more reasons to love it. Descension follows the same school of melodic death metal with long-form constructions that bands like An Abstract Illusion practice, but there’s a smoky, gothic twist to it that embodies darkness and light as a merged entity. It’s a delicate balance that Citadel treads with grace and athleticism. That feat is what ultimately elevated Descension to my Top 10 proper.

#9. Depravity // Bestial Possession – Depravity really fucked around with my cutoff for list consideration, coming in clutch one week before Turkey Day. But I am the one who found out. Riffs made to break bones and minds alike, Bestial Possession is lean, mean, and bloodthirsty. And yet, it’s smooth, refined, and streamlined. This is the work of a band that understands exactly what they want to write, and knows how to execute that vision with devastating precision. It’s death metal as we know and love it, weaponized for mass destruction.

#8. In Mourning // The Immortal –The Immortal surprised me. I fully expected it to be good. After all, In Mourning haven’t released a bad album to date. But against all odds, they managed to capture lightning in a bottle here, with songs that are impossible to resist and even harder to forget. It represents everything I love about the sadboi side of melodic death without skimping on hooks or on teeth. The Immortal might just be the pinnacle of In Mourning’s career. Who would’ve expected that after 25 years?

#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City – In recent years, I often found myself gravitating towards concise, to-the-point records. I wanted hooks. I wanted brevity. I wanted unrelenting intensity. In 2025, that shifted. The long form became my home away from home. Epic yarns and gentle movements brought comfort and warmth to my listening schedule. With The Sleeping City, An Abstract Illusion managed to capture both the intensity I craved before and the sweeping arcs that I look for now. That it is beautiful without compromising either of those traits is nothing short of awe-inspiring. And so, here we are.

#6. Igorrr // Amen – When I look at my Top 10ish, I notice two things. Firstly, a fair number of these selections are, in some shape or form, weird or niche. Secondly, the gaps that separate one album from the other at this point are paper-thin, aside from my AotY. For French wild cards, Igorrr, accessibility ultimately put Amen here with my faves of 2025. Whimsically weird, savagely smart, and wholly unpredictable, Igorrr achieved a buttery smoothness and an unflinching confidence with these 12 absolute bangers that they’ve never shown before. A high-water mark for an act with an established reputation for excellence.

#5. Tómarúm // Beyond Obsidian Euphoria – My relationship with Beyond Obsidian Euphoria followed much the same trajectory as my relationship with its predecessor, Ash in Realms of Stone Icons. I felt confident in my score, then I started doubting its accuracy, then I’d revisit the record and feel vindicated in my original evaluation—rinse and repeat. It’s a vicious cycle, but at the end of the day, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria was always destined for my Top 5. Its epic, sprawling constructs demand so many of my spoons; emotionally, physically, and spiritually. But it gives just as many back, plus just enough extra to compel me to spin it again. It’s one helluva journey, but that’s what makes it excellent!

#4. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World – In the world of symphonic death metal, Qrixkuor is singular. Nobody else sounds like them, and I’m convinced nobody else could. Dramatic, violent, and grotesque, but at the same time possessing a disturbing beauty, The Womb of the World sets a new standard for lushly orchestrated death metal. It’s not for the faint of heart, nor for those looking for a quick fix. But once it’s infected your mind, you belong to it. An album to be feared as much as it is to be adored.

#3. Cam Girl // Flesh & Chrome – Deciding where to slot this was a difficult process for me. The people-pleaser that lives in my brain—who is jacked, devastatingly handsome, and incredibly charismatic—tried to move Cam Girl’s sophomore LP down a couple of notches, purely to protect me from those who would (and likely will) tell me this kind of record is undeserving of such high placement here. But the reality is I don’t fucking want to. Flesh & Chrome is a staggering improvement on Cam Girl’s already winning formula, with an invincible selection of super-sticky and subversive tunes that haven’t left my brain since the first half of 2025. It’s among the most fun records I’ve had the pleasure of covering on this site. Above all, Flesh & Chrome earned its rightful place in my Top 3. So it is, so it shall be.

#2. ByoNoiseGenerator // Subnormal Dives – This was not on my bingo card for 2025. I used to despise everything about ByoNoiseGenerator’s brand of brutal jazzgrind. After spinning Subnormal Dives roughly 10^230049 times in the span of a few short months, with a mind-broken grin plastered permanently on my face, something snapped. It wasn’t a gradual affinity borne of a studious and painstaking process. It was a total, implosive disintegration of everything I held true. The result? BYONG is now one of my favorite bands, and I’ve come to love their previous work, too. Not many albums wield that much power. Subnormal Dives does.

#1. Flummox // Southern Progress – This is easily my biggest surprise of 2025. I never heard of Flummox before seeing this cover art on my Bandcamp feed, and I was thoroughly bamboozled by my first spin. The mix was bizarre, the songwriting highly unorthodox compared to anything I’ve heard this side of Devin Townsend, and Flummox’s refusal to settle into any one style was confounding. Yet, I simply could not stop spinning it. All year long, Southern Progress was my go-to, even on days when I just felt so numb that I didn’t want to listen to anything at all. With that commitment came understanding. Southern Progress is, simply put, a fully realized and inspired work of art, complete with relevant societal commentary. Steeped in messaging that spotlights systematic and social prejudices that plague the queer, and particularly the trans/nonbinary/gender-fluid, community (especially in the American South)—and deftly integrating branched subplots that exhibit the wide-reaching complications that neurodivergence, late-stage capitalism, and religion-based upbringings contribute to that experience—Flummox’s fifth LP greatly affected me on a personal level. More so than any other record released this year, Southern Progress feels important, not just to me, and not just to Flummox. I strongly believe everyone could learn something from this bizarre, wild, and untamable barnstormer and have a blast doing it. For these reasons, and so much more, I gratefully award Southern Progress my 2025 Album o’ the Year. Thank you, Flummox, for this wonderful gift!

Honorable Mentions

• Barren Path // Grieving – Deathgrind never sounded this good, or felt this vicious.
• Bianca // Bianca – The beauty and the beast returns, reimagined and rekindled.
• Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss – Fiercely creative and vividly memorable, this is what happens when artists use neurodivergence and cultural diversity as assets.
• Dagdrøm // Schauder – Passionate melodic black metal for those who are looking for something a bit outside convention.
• Dawn of Ouroboros // Bioluminescence – The best vocal performance of the year meets some of the coolest progressive death songwriting I’ve heard in a minute.
• Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar – The gritty, twisted, sprawling city-dweller with a shady story to tell, and yet it glitters like the purest gold.
• Messa // The Spin – Emotive, sultry, and nuanced doom, compelling enough to seduce even the coldest heart.
• Psychonaut // World Maker – Thoughtful and deeply personal, but still crushingly heavy, post-metal from one of the best acts in the scene.

Songs o’ the Year

• Cam Girl – “Flesh & Chrome” – Simplicity and a curated collection of razor-sharp hooks will win my heart faster than anything else, and few songs this year upheld that virtue better than “Flesh & Chrome.” I haven’t been able to stop singing it to myself literally every single day since I first got my hands on this promo half a year ago, and yet the serotonin production it generates in my burned-out brain almost overwhelms me still. From the white-hot brightness of its lead melodies to the soaring brass of its addictive1 chorus and tight writing, “Flesh & Chrome” just makes me happy. Simple as.

• Citadel – “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death” – I didn’t expect to include this song on my list, but something happened once I started revisiting Descension more often. I found myself completely blown back by the artistry, the expressiveness, and the fluidity exhibited by Citadel’s epic “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death.” This unexpected emotional response completely shifted my perspective on what I was looking for in my Song o’ the Year candidates. Once I contemplated those requirements more deeply, it became clear in short order that “Sorrow of the Thousandth Death” was worthy and then some. Incredible.

• In Mourning – “As Long as the Twilight Stays” – While songs like “Flesh & Chrome” make me happy beyond all reason, others like “As Long as the Twilight Stays” break my bleeding heart. Every time the lyrics “Breathe and open your eyes / When darkness falls, a new dawn will rise / Reveal the secrets you keep / There is still hope as long as twilight stays” pierce through my eardrums, something deep from within my soul surges. That pull, strong enough to rip my heart from its bony cage, and further strengthened by weeping, layered tremolo harmonies, melts me. This is power; it is magic. I am helpless to resist.

• Flummox – “Long Pork” – Southern Progress is swimming in great songs, all of which make a strong claim for inclusion here. Ultimately, “Long Pork” won the blue ribbon for its unhinged songwriting, bizarre vocal acrobatics, harrowing instrumentation, and metamorphic storytelling. The cutting and clever lyrics may seem whimsical at first blush, but the critique they level at humanity’s gross exploitation, not only for the vast overproduction and dysfunctional distribution of food—and the systematic abuse of animals to meet that unsustainable demand—but also to the gluttony of late-stage capitalism and the chasmic wealth divide it perpetuates, sends chills through my nervous system. Sensational!



• Messa – “The Dress” – Of all the great songs 2025 had to offer, “The Dress” was the first one I felt earned a nod here. It is classy beyond all comprehension, sultry and sophisticated without being busy or especially complex. Moreover, it captivates my attention completely. An unqualified success of songwriting prowess, excellence in execution and performance, and spirited delivery, “The Dress” flows between melodies, moods, and modes as mana from otherworldly realms. I would not be surprised if, ten years from now, I still feel its magic as strongly as I do today, immune to the eroding force of time.



Non-Metal Album o’ the Year:

• Lady Gaga // Mayhem – I am absolutely obsessed with this album. I’ve been a fan of Lady Gaga for a long time, but never before did I feel so wholly ensnared by one of her records. This absolute triumph of modern pop explodes with energy, killer hooks, and an unfuckwithable vocal display that makes not singing along to each and every track entirely impossible. Mainstream though it is, Mayhem is a force, and I’ll be listening to it with glee for years to come.

Shakes Fist at Cloud Album of 2025

• Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation – There will never be a day when I don’t rue how late I encountered this record, and how lame it felt to realize it had been self-released months before I picked up a December promo for it. It is listworthy, and that I treated it as if it missed my yearly cutoff because of a simple lack of awareness makes me want to shake my fists at the clouds!

New post: Festival Review: Hellfest 2025 Day 2 – Clisson, France (20th June 2025) https://www.moshville.co.uk/reviews/gig-review/2025/07/festival-review-hellfest-2025-day-2-clisson-france-20th-june-2025/ #AmiraElfeky #Årabrot #BurningWitches #Epica

AMG Goes Ranking – DragonForce

By Eldritch Elitist

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and n00bs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if multiple aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography, and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet some kind of dark magic to produce an official guide to, and an all-around definitive aggregated ranking of, that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would look something like this…

If you’re a regular around these parts, you might have seen this article’s title and thought to yourself: how the hell could something like this come from the fortress of snobbery that is AMG? You might have then seen the author of said article and thought to yourself: Oh, THAT’S how. My involvement in this endeavor might be a given for those who know my musical diet, but should there really be any surprise that I managed to wrangle two extra participants through mild coercion and weaponized nostalgia? For a certain generation of metal fans, whether they loved or hated them, DragonForce was a big deal. Thanks to the popularity of “Through the Fire and Flames” in the then-phenomenon that was Guitar Hero, guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman were practically household names. For me, DragonForce was so much more than a one-hit-wonder. Inhuman Rampage (which I discovered months before “Through the Fire and Flames” debuted in Guitar Hero 3, thank you very much) marked my very first exposure to power metal, an instant obsession that blew open the gates to the underground in pursuit of more music that could make me feel like that. It is by no means hyperbolic to state that without DragonForce, I might have never had enough interest to write about metal music at all.

My initial obsession waned, along with my interest in metal in general, as I moved on to college life. When I emerged four years later, I found myself with a revitalized passion for metal, which led me to apply at my favorite metal blog, but it took a while for that ol’ love for DragonForce to re-emerge. The band had long since parted ways with original singer ZP Theart, and their new material with Marc Hudson on mic duties lacked that undiluted rush of sugar bomb pyromania. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I delved into the Hudson era in earnest. Blame it on many of my musical pretenses falling away with age, but by god, DragonForce can still kill it when they really set their minds to it. They never have (and likely never will) recapture the thrills of their “glory” days, but a desire to highlight that disparity was not what prompted this ranking. Rather, it’s to shine a light on how the majority of DragonForce’s modern material is still really, truly good, and deserving of wider discussion than most fans and critics have afforded them in the last decade.

In short: With the impending landfall of their ninth LP Warp Speed Warriors, I’m here to report that rumors of DragonForce’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The fire still burns, proud and so glorious. Their soul and their spirit will go on, for all of eternity.

– Eldritch Elitist

Eldritch Elitist

#8. Extreme Power Metal (2019). I was more optimistic for Extreme Power Metal than I’d been for any DragonForce album since The Power Within. “Highway to Oblivion” was an excellent lead single that heralded the return of the dynamic songwriting and production panache that defined records like Ultra Beatdown. Turns out, this was just the result of DragonForce putting their best foot forward. “Troopers of the Stars” is a blast as a one-off novelty, and “Strangers” is a neat little slice of glam-power metal in the vein of Power Quest, but for me, the fun stops there. “In a Skyforged Dream” is DragonForce at their most phoned-in, “The Last Dragonborn” aims for bombast yet ultimately bores, and “Razorblade Meltdown” kills its momentum with a shockingly weak chorus melody. Extreme Power Metal’s choruses are disappointing in general, really, a chronic condition of their Marc Hudson era that comes to a head with this record. I’ll give credit where it’s due to DragonForce’s other albums, but for me, this one is strictly fodder for playlist harvesting.

#7. Maximum Overload (2014). The first half of Maximum Overload is the best A-side of DragonForce’s Marc Hudson era. “The Game” in particular is an experiment in modern melodeath that I’ve always felt worked brilliantly for the band, but “Tomorrow’s Kings” thrills as a driving force of no-frills power metal, and “Symphony of the Night” excels through a blistering, neo-baroque homage to Castlevania. Yet aside from the thrash-coded fun of “Defenders,” Maximum Overload’s back half disappoints. “The Sun is Dead” and “Extraction Zone” have great instrumentals yet totally uninspired vocal execution, “City of Gold” is a thoroughly lame closer, and the cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is a half-baked realization of its full potential. At final tabulation, Maximum Overload is still a record of mostly great material, but its whiffs signposted the end of DragonForce albums featuring wall-to-wall quality.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017). I was pretty harsh on Reaching Into Infinity upon release. I immediately felt that it failed to match the peaks of Maximum Overload, and for me, DragonForce just didn’t sound much like DragonForce anymore. Seven years on, I’ve come to the revelation that the distinct non-DragonForce-ness of Reaching Into Infinity makes it fresh. It’s still fast, furious fun, without overtly trying to ape the band’s fan-favorite material, the sole exception being the fantastic “Midnight Madness” in all its Sonic Firestorming goodness. The record’s sporadic experimental swings don’t always hit paydirt, as both “Silence” and “The Edge of the World” are divisive momentum killers, but the pure thrash thrills of “War!” and the Running Wild-on-stimulants rush of “Hatred and Revenge” proves that DragonForce can still find great success through large departures. Out of the band’s post The Power Within material, this is the album I’ve returned to the most, and I’d bump my review score up by a full point if I were to review it today.

#5. The Power Within (2012). “It is with great regret that DragonForce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart […] due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion.” These words hit seventeen-year-old Eldritch like a freight train. A foundational pillar of my musical tastes was now down one of power metal’s greatest vocalists, their musical direction uncertain. Enter Marc Hudson and The Power Within, something of a departure for DragonForce that lacks none of their signature spirit. The fantastic “Wings of Liberty” is the only cut that retains the lengthy structures of DragonForce’s earlier works; the remaining tracks are lean cuts of pure power metal, forming what is easily the band’s most riff-centric album. For all the gripes I have with Marc Hudson and his nowadays paper-thin delivery, he sounded pretty great on his first go around, with his intense delivery on tracks like “Heart of the Storm” being such a great fit that I can’t imagine ZP ever having sung it. The Power Within doesn’t quite live up to the records that preceded it in terms of sheer catchiness, but it’s very nearly as good and is easily recommendable to non-fans who just want a great slab of power metal.

#4. Inhuman Rampage (2006). If you’re one of those people who think DragonForce only knows how to write one song, Inhuman Rampage is probably the reason why. You would be correct to think so based on this album alone, which is exactly what makes it essential in power metal canon. Nothing else on Earth sounds like Inhuman Rampage, and it sounds like that for its entire runtime (closing ballad notwithstanding). Inhuman Rampage’s near-constant tempo of 200 bpm, layered with countless solos and electronic flourishes, is absolutely fucking bonkers. It’s the sound of the world ending via a joyous sugar bomb of metallic hellfire, and DragonForce is laughing their asses off the whole way through. The band clearly had the time of their lives coming up with this insanity, never once considering that they might have to play “Through the Fire and Flames” every night for the rest of their lives. It’s an entirely exhausting listening experience that borders on monotony, but Inhuman Rampage is so singular that I truly believe every metal fan should hear it at least once. If it clicks with you, good luck ever putting it down.

#3. Valley of the Damned (2003). If Inhuman Rampage is your sole exposure to DragonForce, and if you have even a casual appreciation for power metal, then you should be aware that their debut is mandatory listening. Valley of the Damned’s title track is as classic of a power metal song as has ever graced the genre, and between “Valley of the Damned,” “Revelations,” and “Heart of a Dragon,” the album sports three of my all-time favorite power metal tracks. Its standing in this ranking is only dragged down by a handful of relative weak points, namely “Evening Star,” and yet there are plenty of people out there who will swear that it is one of the best DragonForce songs. The magic of Valley of the Damned is that, as a debut, it’s less streamlined than other records from the ZP Theart era, meaning there are loveable oddities like “Evening Star” or “Disciples of Babylon” that could only feel at home on this album. But make no mistake; DragonForce still sounds righteously confident with their sound on this record, coming shockingly close to realizing their full potential at the starting line.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004). “Fury of the Storm” is probably the second DragonForce song people know if they know anything beyond “Through the Fire and Flames,” and for good reason, as it has one of the most iconic intros and choruses in all of power metal. And yet Sonic Firestorm is so incredible that I couldn’t justify ranking it in my top five tracks from the album. In a way, this sophomore offering represents DragonForce at their purest, an early career crystallization of their signature sound that isn’t distorted by the glossy production of their later efforts. As such, its songs feel straightforward, yet brilliant. “My Spirit Will Go On” and “Soldiers of the Wasteland” deserve extra special commendations, with the former acting as one of the best album openings in its genre and also my favorite DragonForce song, period. “Prepare for War” is the only weak link here (why this song didn’t swap places with the phenomenal bonus track “Cry of the Brave” will forever elude me), but otherwise, Sonic Firestorm is a virtually untouchable power metal powerhouse.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Valley of the Damned and Sonic Firestorm may have higher peaks than the band’s final album with ZP Theart on the mic, but in terms of consistency and sheer melodic quality, nothing beats Ultra Beatdown. This record offers uplifting major key excellence from its first second to its last, so much so that even its most predictable songs (“The Fire Still Burns,” “Heartbreak Armageddon”) feel downright monumental. But what really makes Ultra Beatdown DragonForce’s finest showing is that it’s an idealized version of their sound, combining the harmonic bliss of Sonic Firestorm with a tastefully reserved take on Inhuman Rampage’s massively bombastic production. It accomplishes this while also delving into the proggiest material of the ZP Theart era (“Reasons to Live,” “The Last Journey Home”), spawning DragonForce’s best and most underrated ballad (“A Flame for Freedom”), and still finding time to deliver the two best examples of the “stereotypical” DragonForce formula (“Heroes of Our Time”, “Inside the Winter Storm”). In short, this is the DragonForce album that truly feels like the best of all worlds, a collection of universally great songs that represent everything I have ever loved about the band and then some.

Kenstrosity

DragonForce was a force to be reckoned with for young Ken. As you’d expect for young teens like me who were just getting into metal, “Through the Fire and Flames” had my jaw on the floor faster than Herman Li could complete a full chromatic scale. Needless to say, I had to hear more, and one thing led to another and suddenly I was listening to all manner of fast, shreddy, cheesy stuff. To my great surprise, much of DragonForce’s discography held up quite nicely over the years. With greater knowledge of metal at large, both historical and current, I found only a deeper appreciation of what DragonForce do and how they do it. You might expect the opposite to be true, as I did when I embarked on ranking close to nine hours of supersonic wankery. Yet, here I am, ready as ever to sing the praises of one band who helped shape my music tastes and who still informs it to this day.

THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES WE CARRY ON!!!

The Ranking:

#8: Extreme Power Metal (2019). No album on Earth makes me miss ZP Theart’s vocals as much as Extreme Power Metal. Admirable though his efforts are, Marc Hudson just doesn’t fit this material, and somehow his voice just continues to degrade with time. On this, his falsetto sounds reedy, and his midrange nasal beyond belief. This only exacerbates my issues with an album chock full of lackluster tunes and gutless guitar showmanship (with the exceptions of the awesome “Heart Demolition” and “Razorblade Meltdown”), the two things that make DragonForce albums so much fun. Without those two core characteristics, Extreme Power Metal brings nothing to the table.

#7: Reaching into Infinity (2017). Despite the fact that I strongly dislike the way Hudson sounds on this late-stage DragonForce record, Reaching into Infinity still charms me. Unlike Extreme Power Metal, the immense hooks and the striking musicianship here more closely align with what I expect and enjoy most from the band. Killer tunes like “Ashes of the Dawn,” “Midnight Madness,” and “The Edge of the World” ensure that I do, indeed, enjoy this record back to front in the moment. Sadly, uneven songwriting (“Silence,” oof) and Hudson’s irritatingly nasal delivery don’t entice me to return down the line.

#6: Maximum Overload (2014). Maximum Overload is an interesting album. Hudson’s voice isn’t quite as buttoned down or powerful as on The Power Within, and I quickly realize that he’s no replacement for the awesome ZP Theart. Musically, Maximum Overload finds a happy medium between the straightforward power metal of The Power Within and the breakneck velocity of Inhuman Rampage. However, something’s missing here. There’s a lack of soul and passion in some of these tracks (“Tomorrow’s Kings,” “Three Hammers”) that undermine its highlights (“The Game,” “Symphony of the Night,” “The Sun is Dead,” “Extraction Zone”) such that the whole fails to live up to expectations. A band going through the motions.

#5: Ultra Beatdown (2008). DragonForce’s most explorative and experimental record, Ultra Beatdown quite simply rocks my socks, for the most part. Exploring various non-metal genres while also featuring more metallic extremity outside of the usual hyperspeed technicality, standouts like “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “Inside the Winter Storm,” and “Scars of Yesterday” inject a rather impressive variety of approaches to break up the band’s trademark style. An unfortunate consequence of that adventurous songwriting, for every awesome moment, there’s another that just doesn’t quite fit (“A Flame for Freedom,” “Strike of the Ninja”). Truly, that’s the only thing keeping it from a higher rank.

#4: The Power Within (2012). The first record to feature Marc Hudson instead of ZP Theart, The Power Within is immediately recognizable as an outlier in DragonForce’s discography. Still fast as fuck and rife with ample wankery, these tunes are much more direct fare. With only one song surpassing six minutes, this is also among the band’s tightest outings. Massively hooky and immensely fun, killer tunes like “Fallen World,” “Cry Thunder,” “Wings of Liberty,” “Heart of the Storm,” and “Die By the Sword” perfectly suit Hudson’s voice while still offering tons of album variety. More importantly, I keep coming back to it. It’s got its claws in me and simply won’t let go.

#3: Valley of the Damned (2003). Possessor of one of the most useless intro tracks of all time (fifteen seconds of atmospheric crescendo does not deserve its own track), DragonForce’s debut is one of those records that sounds like something a far more established, seasoned band crafts. Hyperspeed rippers like “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” “Black Fire,” “Disciples of Babylon” and “Heart of a Dragon” launch a project of great passion, insanely catchy lines, and a million WHOOAAHs. A wide array of tones and textures built into that supersonic wank blueprint allow these fifty-eight minutes of extreme wank to feel justified and immensely satisfying. And yet, it was only the beginning for the fledgling band!

#2: Sonic Firestorm (2004). The three-album streak between the debut and Inhuman Rampage constitutes an unstoppable hot streak of triumphant, epic, shreddy power metal. Arguably the thrashiest record of the bunch, Sonic Firestorm deftly balances the riff/solo quotient, with an obvious but largely justified bias towards solos, and brings in a tasteful amount of blasts and keys to round out the palette. With massive hits like “Fury of the Storm,” “Fields of Despair,” “Above the Winter Moonlight,” “Soldiers of the Wastelands,” and “Once in a Lifetime,” I find it hard not to be totally enamored and enraptured. And of course, ZP Theart is in fine form, soaring above everything else to deliver only the catchiest, most infectious lines and choruses. Sonic Firestorm is the classic DragonForce formula, stripped down to its purest form and delivered straight to the cranium with a meteor impact.

#1: Inhuman Rampage (2006) – Okay, I know I probably spoiled this result in my intro, but even after an exhaustive run through their discography, Inhuman Rampage still stands proudly as my favorite DragonForce record. Side-by-side comparisons to equally strong albums like Sonic Firestorm cannot dull the sharp memories I have of whiplashing my neck to “Storming the Burning Fields,” belting my little heart out to “Cry for Eternity,” and stomping my feet to “Operation Ground and Pound.” Nostalgia only holds so much sway over this result, however. Much more power belongs to the strength of this record’s immense songwriting successes, its ridiculous technicality balanced by uncanny memorability, and ZP Theart’s uniquely passionate voice. Inhuman Rampage is an unstoppable record that not only formed core memories for me as a budding metalhead who loved so much more than just the still awesome “Through the Fire and Flames,” but also remains a regular standby for my power metal fix. Lambast this decision if you must, but it matters not. I will always love this record above the rest, and nobody else can do a damn thing about it!

Dragon Whisperer

Did you expect to see me here too? Yes, I know, you don’t necessarily associate your guy Dolph with the likes of these full-lactose weenies. But you may not know that a young Dolph broke his metal concert cherry by seeing DragonForce on their first US tour for their breakout album Inhuman Rampage. And that DragonForce, along with many 00s wanky power metal acts like Galneryus, At Vance, and Rhapsody—yes, before all the name change bullshit—made up a huge chunk of my teenage musical development. I used to be cool, and I hope that through my eyes you can relive the glory days of when DragonForce was cool. You know, before Herman Li got big on Twitch1 and then subsequently banned from there for supposedly stupid reasons. Or maybe DragonForce is still cool? Who knows. All their albums are too long, too full of solos, and histrionic as all get out. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Ranking:

#8. Reaching into Infinity (2017). Dragonforce was never not a Europower band at heart, but increasingly so in the Hudson universe, Europower presented as the default expression for chorus builds and general song flow. Tracks like “Judgement Day” and the ballad “Silence” feel like they could be any chipmunk-speed flower-power band with a little extra chirp in the extended solo runs. Only for the run from “War!” to the powerful eleven-minute opus “The Edge of the World” does DragonForce put any real effort into being their epic selves while showcasing some of the melodeath influence that makes their later era interesting. Oh, and this one has an absolutely pointless intro—no need to tack extra time onto an album that’s already too long.

#7. The Power Within (2012). As a guy who grew up with ZP being the voice of DragonForce, this first outing with Hudson was destined to present a challenge to my younger self. In the modern day, that feeling persists in the thought that many of the better tunes on this album feel like off-cuts from Ultra Beatdown with an increased 80s montage feel to many synth lines. The biggest issue with these choices is that the songs don’t feel entirely constructed around some of Hudson’s strengths, which he displays better on most later albums. For his first outing, he feels plain and safe save for the kick-in-the-teeth of “Give Me the Night” and “Seasons” and, well, the tail-end of the album… again. At least until the whiff of a closer that “Last Man Stands” offers. Such a shame that this fairly trim album lacks in impact.

#6. Extreme Power Metal (2019). This is the first album without longtime keys and weird noise maestro Vadim Pruzhanov, with Coen Janssen (Epica) providing guest arrangements, backings, and other keys sounds. In the present day, I can say this reminds me of the twinklecore that Fellowship presents on many occasions, but still DragonForce has a little more weight in tone. Please, understand, though, that this album is pretty much anything but the extreme in its own name, with a hefty, anthemic, Europe pounce striking through the sticky-sweet cuts “Heart Demolition” and “Strangers.” DragonForce plays with true restraint, and Hudson sounds great on these kinds of tracks—for better or worse—and it’s no surprise to hear that his solo work leans even into this kind of high glycemic power pop with guitar noises, frighteningly similar to Japanese Idol rock. Whatever the case, it works here, even if I don’t want to admit it out loud all the time. “My Heart Will Go On” is a good cover too.

#5. Inhuman Rampage (2006). I went through a ten-year period or so where I never wanted to hear “Through the Fire and the Flames” again, and anytime I revisited this album after its first year or so of existence, I just started at “Revolution Deathsquad,” which is a monster banger anyway. Witnessing DragonForce, of all the dorky bands I loved at the time, blow up because of Guitar Hero blew me away—still does. But with DragonForce dipping their toes into weirder guitar sounds (“Body Breakdown” in particular), more aggressive rhythm structures, and even a growl or two in the background from old friend of the band Lindsay Dawson (Demoniac), it’s hard to put Inhuman Rampage down once it gets going, especially since ZP is just about at the top of his game.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003). For the most authentic experience in this discog run experience and ranking, I pulled up some old shitty mp3s I had of this debut outing rather than hit the remastered version on stream. You see, my first experience with DragonForce came from a seedy copy of “Black Fire” and a corrupted version of “Disciples of Babylon” from LimeWire. And wouldn’t you know, when I finally heard the full, unclipped, unsqueaking version of the latter, it grew to be one of my favorite songs from this early incarnation of hyper-speed power metal. And though those two cuts leaned a little more on the sound of Blind Guardian at the time—you could even envision ZP as a budget Hansi Kürsch with extra warbling character—the prance and play inherent in the DragonForce sound still lived free in the spirit of “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” and “Heart of a Dragon.” The ballad isn’t particularly enjoyable, but Valley of the Damned remains a rollicking good time in all its youth and flaws.

#3. Maximum Overload (2014). It’s very simple: Maximum Overload wears Hudson better than any of his other outings with DragonForce. True to the album’s namesake, Hudson pushes his ventures into falsetto more recklessly, and DragonForce as a band finds that smart balance of fun, video game inspires noises and forward-moving riff-work. The heft of the Gothenberg-ripped guitar tone plays well against the smattering of video game noises and resplendent choruses, and many of the song choices ring true to a more classic and warm power metal sound than this band had ever displayed before. “The Sun Is Dead” reminds me of the gritty swagger of a band like Thunderstone more than DragonForce. Couple that with bassist Fredric Leclerq’s extreme metal influences that sharpen the steel of “The Game” and “Three Hammers,” a scorching cover of “Ring of Fire,” and NO BALLADS, Maximum Overload tears front to back all in under fifty minutes.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004) – Both a major step up in recording quality from the debut and a further diversification of attack, Sonic Firestorm hosts some of the best cuts that this discography has to offer. Yes, the continuing trend of DragonForce having overwrought ballads—very pretty piano on this one though—remains true on this piece, but its placement between the unyielding “Fields of Despair” and iconic synth warble of “Above the Winter Moonlight” ensures that this album never loses its course. Every track has bombastic intros, brain-staining choruses, dopamine-spiking solos, and sugar rush power that even twenty years removed from my first encounter still causes the flow. Yes, all of these songs are too long and have solo sections that extend well beyond what one might consider good taste, but that’s kind of the point isn’t it? And though this track has no bearing on this record’s standing, “Cry of the Brave” should have been on the album proper, damnit.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Around when Ultra Beatdown landed in the world, my love affair with DragonForce and frolicking power metal was waning in favor of things equally noodly but more progressive—I am a refined individual, after all. However, despite my own musical journey, this massive album just couldn’t let me go. No song is less than five minutes. Most are over seven. In these very halls, recently even, I’ve rallied against the over-soloization of music to diminishing effects. But every tone-exploring keys break, every hot-handed guitar squeal, every ZP led anthem, fills me with joy, with the urge to scream and air guitar and smash a keytar that I wouldn’t even know how to turn on. Context matters, and the story here is that no matter what level of excess this band poured into the making of Ultra Beatdown, it seared a near hour-long corridor in my mind built specifically for this album. “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “The Last Journey Home”—I could really just name all the songs including the bonus tracks “Strike of the Ninja” and “Scars of Yesterday”—represent the fullest vision of the first era of DragonForce and to this day remains their best work. And most importantly, Ultra Beatdown is one of my favorite power metal albums of all time.2

Official Ranking

The writers’ votes have been cast and counted. As the contributors to this ranking were also the only ones to have any strong feelings about DragonForce one way or the other, a poll was not conducted to obtain a tally from AMG staff. The below is an aggregate of the Rankings above. Here, to be scrawled on the sparkliest of unicorn hide with a can of Cheez Whiz, is the definitive AMG Ranking for DragonForce:

#7. Extreme Power Metal (2019), with 5 points out of a possible 24.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017), with 6 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) Maximum Overload (2014), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) The Power Within (2012), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003), with 14 points out of a possible 24.

#3. Inhuman Rampage (2006), with 17 points out of a possible 24.

#2. Ultra Beatdown (2008), with 20 points out of a possible 24.

#1. Sonic Firestorm (2004), with 21 points out of a possible 24.

If you don’t know DragonForce, you’ve probably saved yourself from a considerable heap of shame and embarrassment, but it’s never too late to shamelessly indulge with this playlist assembled by Eldritch Elitist, Kenstrosity, and Dolphin Whisperer:

#AtVance #BlindGuardian #BritishMetal #DragonForce #EarMusic #Epica #Europe #ExtremePowerMetal #Fellowship #Galneryus #InhumanRampage #JohnnyCash #MaximumOverload #PowerMetal #PowerQuest #ReachingIntoInfinity #Rhapsody #RoadrunnerRecords #RunningWild #SanctuaryRecords #SonicFirestorm #ThePowerWithin #Thunderstone #UltraBeatdown #ValleyOfTheDamned

AMG Goes Ranking – DragonForce

By Eldritch Elitist

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and n00bs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if multiple aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography, and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet some kind of dark magic to produce an official guide to, and an all-around definitive aggregated ranking of, that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would look something like this…

If you’re a regular around these parts, you might have seen this article’s title and thought to yourself: how the hell could something like this come from the fortress of snobbery that is AMG? You might have then seen the author of said article and thought to yourself: Oh, THAT’S how. My involvement in this endeavor might be a given for those who know my musical diet, but should there really be any surprise that I managed to wrangle two extra participants through mild coercion and weaponized nostalgia? For a certain generation of metal fans, whether they loved or hated them, DragonForce was a big deal. Thanks to the popularity of “Through the Fire and Flames” in the then-phenomenon that was Guitar Hero, guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman were practically household names. For me, DragonForce was so much more than a one-hit-wonder. Inhuman Rampage (which I discovered months before “Through the Fire and Flames” debuted in Guitar Hero 3, thank you very much) marked my very first exposure to power metal, an instant obsession that blew open the gates to the underground in pursuit of more music that could make me feel like that. It is by no means hyperbolic to state that without DragonForce, I might have never had enough interest to write about metal music at all.

My initial obsession waned, along with my interest in metal in general, as I moved on to college life. When I emerged four years later, I found myself with a revitalized passion for metal, which led me to apply at my favorite metal blog, but it took a while for that ol’ love for DragonForce to re-emerge. The band had long since parted ways with original singer ZP Theart, and their new material with Marc Hudson on mic duties lacked that undiluted rush of sugar bomb pyromania. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I delved into the Hudson era in earnest. Blame it on many of my musical pretenses falling away with age, but by god, DragonForce can still kill it when they really set their minds to it. They never have (and likely never will) recapture the thrills of their “glory” days, but a desire to highlight that disparity was not what prompted this ranking. Rather, it’s to shine a light on how the majority of DragonForce’s modern material is still really, truly good, and deserving of wider discussion than most fans and critics have afforded them in the last decade.

In short: With the impending landfall of their ninth LP Warp Speed Warriors, I’m here to report that rumors of DragonForce’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The fire still burns, proud and so glorious. Their soul and their spirit will go on, for all of eternity.

– Eldritch Elitist

Eldritch Elitist

#8. Extreme Power Metal (2019). I was more optimistic for Extreme Power Metal than I’d been for any DragonForce album since The Power Within. “Highway to Oblivion” was an excellent lead single that heralded the return of the dynamic songwriting and production panache that defined records like Ultra Beatdown. Turns out, this was just the result of DragonForce putting their best foot forward. “Troopers of the Stars” is a blast as a one-off novelty, and “Strangers” is a neat little slice of glam-power metal in the vein of Power Quest, but for me, the fun stops there. “In a Skyforged Dream” is DragonForce at their most phoned-in, “The Last Dragonborn” aims for bombast yet ultimately bores, and “Razorblade Meltdown” kills its momentum with a shockingly weak chorus melody. Extreme Power Metal’s choruses are disappointing in general, really, a chronic condition of their Marc Hudson era that comes to a head with this record. I’ll give credit where it’s due to DragonForce’s other albums, but for me, this one is strictly fodder for playlist harvesting.

#7. Maximum Overload (2014). The first half of Maximum Overload is the best A-side of DragonForce’s Marc Hudson era. “The Game” in particular is an experiment in modern melodeath that I’ve always felt worked brilliantly for the band, but “Tomorrow’s Kings” thrills as a driving force of no-frills power metal, and “Symphony of the Night” excels through a blistering, neo-baroque homage to Castlevania. Yet aside from the thrash-coded fun of “Defenders,” Maximum Overload’s back half disappoints. “The Sun is Dead” and “Extraction Zone” have great instrumentals yet totally uninspired vocal execution, “City of Gold” is a thoroughly lame closer, and the cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is a half-baked realization of its full potential. At final tabulation, Maximum Overload is still a record of mostly great material, but its whiffs signposted the end of DragonForce albums featuring wall-to-wall quality.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017). I was pretty harsh on Reaching Into Infinity upon release. I immediately felt that it failed to match the peaks of Maximum Overload, and for me, DragonForce just didn’t sound much like DragonForce anymore. Seven years on, I’ve come to the revelation that the distinct non-DragonForce-ness of Reaching Into Infinity makes it fresh. It’s still fast, furious fun, without overtly trying to ape the band’s fan-favorite material, the sole exception being the fantastic “Midnight Madness” in all its Sonic Firestorming goodness. The record’s sporadic experimental swings don’t always hit paydirt, as both “Silence” and “The Edge of the World” are divisive momentum killers, but the pure thrash thrills of “War!” and the Running Wild-on-stimulants rush of “Hatred and Revenge” proves that DragonForce can still find great success through large departures. Out of the band’s post The Power Within material, this is the album I’ve returned to the most, and I’d bump my review score up by a full point if I were to review it today.

#5. The Power Within (2012). “It is with great regret that DragonForce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart […] due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion.” These words hit seventeen-year-old Eldritch like a freight train. A foundational pillar of my musical tastes was now down one of power metal’s greatest vocalists, their musical direction uncertain. Enter Marc Hudson and The Power Within, something of a departure for DragonForce that lacks none of their signature spirit. The fantastic “Wings of Liberty” is the only cut that retains the lengthy structures of DragonForce’s earlier works; the remaining tracks are lean cuts of pure power metal, forming what is easily the band’s most riff-centric album. For all the gripes I have with Marc Hudson and his nowadays paper-thin delivery, he sounded pretty great on his first go around, with his intense delivery on tracks like “Heart of the Storm” being such a great fit that I can’t imagine ZP ever having sung it. The Power Within doesn’t quite live up to the records that preceded it in terms of sheer catchiness, but it’s very nearly as good and is easily recommendable to non-fans who just want a great slab of power metal.

#4. Inhuman Rampage (2006). If you’re one of those people who think DragonForce only knows how to write one song, Inhuman Rampage is probably the reason why. You would be correct to think so based on this album alone, which is exactly what makes it essential in power metal canon. Nothing else on Earth sounds like Inhuman Rampage, and it sounds like that for its entire runtime (closing ballad notwithstanding). Inhuman Rampage’s near-constant tempo of 200 bpm, layered with countless solos and electronic flourishes, is absolutely fucking bonkers. It’s the sound of the world ending via a joyous sugar bomb of metallic hellfire, and DragonForce is laughing their asses off the whole way through. The band clearly had the time of their lives coming up with this insanity, never once considering that they might have to play “Through the Fire and Flames” every night for the rest of their lives. It’s an entirely exhausting listening experience that borders on monotony, but Inhuman Rampage is so singular that I truly believe every metal fan should hear it at least once. If it clicks with you, good luck ever putting it down.

#3. Valley of the Damned (2003). If Inhuman Rampage is your sole exposure to DragonForce, and if you have even a casual appreciation for power metal, then you should be aware that their debut is mandatory listening. Valley of the Damned’s title track is as classic of a power metal song as has ever graced the genre, and between “Valley of the Damned,” “Revelations,” and “Heart of a Dragon,” the album sports three of my all-time favorite power metal tracks. Its standing in this ranking is only dragged down by a handful of relative weak points, namely “Evening Star,” and yet there are plenty of people out there who will swear that it is one of the best DragonForce songs. The magic of Valley of the Damned is that, as a debut, it’s less streamlined than other records from the ZP Theart era, meaning there are loveable oddities like “Evening Star” or “Disciples of Babylon” that could only feel at home on this album. But make no mistake; DragonForce still sounds righteously confident with their sound on this record, coming shockingly close to realizing their full potential at the starting line.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004). “Fury of the Storm” is probably the second DragonForce song people know if they know anything beyond “Through the Fire and Flames,” and for good reason, as it has one of the most iconic intros and choruses in all of power metal. And yet Sonic Firestorm is so incredible that I couldn’t justify ranking it in my top five tracks from the album. In a way, this sophomore offering represents DragonForce at their purest, an early career crystallization of their signature sound that isn’t distorted by the glossy production of their later efforts. As such, its songs feel straightforward, yet brilliant. “My Spirit Will Go On” and “Soldiers of the Wasteland” deserve extra special commendations, with the former acting as one of the best album openings in its genre and also my favorite DragonForce song, period. “Prepare for War” is the only weak link here (why this song didn’t swap places with the phenomenal bonus track “Cry of the Brave” will forever elude me), but otherwise, Sonic Firestorm is a virtually untouchable power metal powerhouse.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Valley of the Damned and Sonic Firestorm may have higher peaks than the band’s final album with ZP Theart on the mic, but in terms of consistency and sheer melodic quality, nothing beats Ultra Beatdown. This record offers uplifting major key excellence from its first second to its last, so much so that even its most predictable songs (“The Fire Still Burns,” “Heartbreak Armageddon”) feel downright monumental. But what really makes Ultra Beatdown DragonForce’s finest showing is that it’s an idealized version of their sound, combining the harmonic bliss of Sonic Firestorm with a tastefully reserved take on Inhuman Rampage’s massively bombastic production. It accomplishes this while also delving into the proggiest material of the ZP Theart era (“Reasons to Live,” “The Last Journey Home”), spawning DragonForce’s best and most underrated ballad (“A Flame for Freedom”), and still finding time to deliver the two best examples of the “stereotypical” DragonForce formula (“Heroes of Our Time”, “Inside the Winter Storm”). In short, this is the DragonForce album that truly feels like the best of all worlds, a collection of universally great songs that represent everything I have ever loved about the band and then some.

Kenstrosity

DragonForce was a force to be reckoned with for young Ken. As you’d expect for young teens like me who were just getting into metal, “Through the Fire and Flames” had my jaw on the floor faster than Herman Li could complete a full chromatic scale. Needless to say, I had to hear more, and one thing led to another and suddenly I was listening to all manner of fast, shreddy, cheesy stuff. To my great surprise, much of DragonForce’s discography held up quite nicely over the years. With greater knowledge of metal at large, both historical and current, I found only a deeper appreciation of what DragonForce do and how they do it. You might expect the opposite to be true, as I did when I embarked on ranking close to nine hours of supersonic wankery. Yet, here I am, ready as ever to sing the praises of one band who helped shape my music tastes and who still informs it to this day.

THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES WE CARRY ON!!!

The Ranking:

#8: Extreme Power Metal (2019). No album on Earth makes me miss ZP Theart’s vocals as much as Extreme Power Metal. Admirable though his efforts are, Marc Hudson just doesn’t fit this material, and somehow his voice just continues to degrade with time. On this, his falsetto sounds reedy, and his midrange nasal beyond belief. This only exacerbates my issues with an album chock full of lackluster tunes and gutless guitar showmanship (with the exceptions of the awesome “Heart Demolition” and “Razorblade Meltdown”), the two things that make DragonForce albums so much fun. Without those two core characteristics, Extreme Power Metal brings nothing to the table.

#7: Reaching into Infinity (2017). Despite the fact that I strongly dislike the way Hudson sounds on this late-stage DragonForce record, Reaching into Infinity still charms me. Unlike Extreme Power Metal, the immense hooks and the striking musicianship here more closely align with what I expect and enjoy most from the band. Killer tunes like “Ashes of the Dawn,” “Midnight Madness,” and “The Edge of the World” ensure that I do, indeed, enjoy this record back to front in the moment. Sadly, uneven songwriting (“Silence,” oof) and Hudson’s irritatingly nasal delivery don’t entice me to return down the line.

#6: Maximum Overload (2014). Maximum Overload is an interesting album. Hudson’s voice isn’t quite as buttoned down or powerful as on The Power Within, and I quickly realize that he’s no replacement for the awesome ZP Theart. Musically, Maximum Overload finds a happy medium between the straightforward power metal of The Power Within and the breakneck velocity of Inhuman Rampage. However, something’s missing here. There’s a lack of soul and passion in some of these tracks (“Tomorrow’s Kings,” “Three Hammers”) that undermine its highlights (“The Game,” “Symphony of the Night,” “The Sun is Dead,” “Extraction Zone”) such that the whole fails to live up to expectations. A band going through the motions.

#5: Ultra Beatdown (2008). DragonForce’s most explorative and experimental record, Ultra Beatdown quite simply rocks my socks, for the most part. Exploring various non-metal genres while also featuring more metallic extremity outside of the usual hyperspeed technicality, standouts like “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “Inside the Winter Storm,” and “Scars of Yesterday” inject a rather impressive variety of approaches to break up the band’s trademark style. An unfortunate consequence of that adventurous songwriting, for every awesome moment, there’s another that just doesn’t quite fit (“A Flame for Freedom,” “Strike of the Ninja”). Truly, that’s the only thing keeping it from a higher rank.

#4: The Power Within (2012). The first record to feature Marc Hudson instead of ZP Theart, The Power Within is immediately recognizable as an outlier in DragonForce’s discography. Still fast as fuck and rife with ample wankery, these tunes are much more direct fare. With only one song surpassing six minutes, this is also among the band’s tightest outings. Massively hooky and immensely fun, killer tunes like “Fallen World,” “Cry Thunder,” “Wings of Liberty,” “Heart of the Storm,” and “Die By the Sword” perfectly suit Hudson’s voice while still offering tons of album variety. More importantly, I keep coming back to it. It’s got its claws in me and simply won’t let go.

#3: Valley of the Damned (2003). Possessor of one of the most useless intro tracks of all time (fifteen seconds of atmospheric crescendo does not deserve its own track), DragonForce’s debut is one of those records that sounds like something a far more established, seasoned band crafts. Hyperspeed rippers like “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” “Black Fire,” “Disciples of Babylon” and “Heart of a Dragon” launch a project of great passion, insanely catchy lines, and a million WHOOAAHs. A wide array of tones and textures built into that supersonic wank blueprint allow these fifty-eight minutes of extreme wank to feel justified and immensely satisfying. And yet, it was only the beginning for the fledgling band!

#2: Sonic Firestorm (2004). The three-album streak between the debut and Inhuman Rampage constitutes an unstoppable hot streak of triumphant, epic, shreddy power metal. Arguably the thrashiest record of the bunch, Sonic Firestorm deftly balances the riff/solo quotient, with an obvious but largely justified bias towards solos, and brings in a tasteful amount of blasts and keys to round out the palette. With massive hits like “Fury of the Storm,” “Fields of Despair,” “Above the Winter Moonlight,” “Soldiers of the Wastelands,” and “Once in a Lifetime,” I find it hard not to be totally enamored and enraptured. And of course, ZP Theart is in fine form, soaring above everything else to deliver only the catchiest, most infectious lines and choruses. Sonic Firestorm is the classic DragonForce formula, stripped down to its purest form and delivered straight to the cranium with a meteor impact.

#1: Inhuman Rampage (2006) – Okay, I know I probably spoiled this result in my intro, but even after an exhaustive run through their discography, Inhuman Rampage still stands proudly as my favorite DragonForce record. Side-by-side comparisons to equally strong albums like Sonic Firestorm cannot dull the sharp memories I have of whiplashing my neck to “Storming the Burning Fields,” belting my little heart out to “Cry for Eternity,” and stomping my feet to “Operation Ground and Pound.” Nostalgia only holds so much sway over this result, however. Much more power belongs to the strength of this record’s immense songwriting successes, its ridiculous technicality balanced by uncanny memorability, and ZP Theart’s uniquely passionate voice. Inhuman Rampage is an unstoppable record that not only formed core memories for me as a budding metalhead who loved so much more than just the still awesome “Through the Fire and Flames,” but also remains a regular standby for my power metal fix. Lambast this decision if you must, but it matters not. I will always love this record above the rest, and nobody else can do a damn thing about it!

Dragon Whisperer

Did you expect to see me here too? Yes, I know, you don’t necessarily associate your guy Dolph with the likes of these full-lactose weenies. But you may not know that a young Dolph broke his metal concert cherry by seeing DragonForce on their first US tour for their breakout album Inhuman Rampage. And that DragonForce, along with many 00s wanky power metal acts like Galneryus, At Vance, and Rhapsody—yes, before all the name change bullshit—made up a huge chunk of my teenage musical development. I used to be cool, and I hope that through my eyes you can relive the glory days of when DragonForce was cool. You know, before Herman Li got big on Twitch1 and then subsequently banned from there for supposedly stupid reasons. Or maybe DragonForce is still cool? Who knows. All their albums are too long, too full of solos, and histrionic as all get out. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Ranking:

#8. Reaching into Infinity (2017). Dragonforce was never not a Europower band at heart, but increasingly so in the Hudson universe, Europower presented as the default expression for chorus builds and general song flow. Tracks like “Judgement Day” and the ballad “Silence” feel like they could be any chipmunk-speed flower-power band with a little extra chirp in the extended solo runs. Only for the run from “War!” to the powerful eleven-minute opus “The Edge of the World” does DragonForce put any real effort into being their epic selves while showcasing some of the melodeath influence that makes their later era interesting. Oh, and this one has an absolutely pointless intro—no need to tack extra time onto an album that’s already too long.

#7. The Power Within (2012). As a guy who grew up with ZP being the voice of DragonForce, this first outing with Hudson was destined to present a challenge to my younger self. In the modern day, that feeling persists in the thought that many of the better tunes on this album feel like off-cuts from Ultra Beatdown with an increased 80s montage feel to many synth lines. The biggest issue with these choices is that the songs don’t feel entirely constructed around some of Hudson’s strengths, which he displays better on most later albums. For his first outing, he feels plain and safe save for the kick-in-the-teeth of “Give Me the Night” and “Seasons” and, well, the tail-end of the album… again. At least until the whiff of a closer that “Last Man Stands” offers. Such a shame that this fairly trim album lacks in impact.

#6. Extreme Power Metal (2019). This is the first album without longtime keys and weird noise maestro Vadim Pruzhanov, with Coen Janssen (Epica) providing guest arrangements, backings, and other keys sounds. In the present day, I can say this reminds me of the twinklecore that Fellowship presents on many occasions, but still DragonForce has a little more weight in tone. Please, understand, though, that this album is pretty much anything but the extreme in its own name, with a hefty, anthemic, Europe pounce striking through the sticky-sweet cuts “Heart Demolition” and “Strangers.” DragonForce plays with true restraint, and Hudson sounds great on these kinds of tracks—for better or worse—and it’s no surprise to hear that his solo work leans even into this kind of high glycemic power pop with guitar noises, frighteningly similar to Japanese Idol rock. Whatever the case, it works here, even if I don’t want to admit it out loud all the time. “My Heart Will Go On” is a good cover too.

#5. Inhuman Rampage (2006). I went through a ten-year period or so where I never wanted to hear “Through the Fire and the Flames” again, and anytime I revisited this album after its first year or so of existence, I just started at “Revolution Deathsquad,” which is a monster banger anyway. Witnessing DragonForce, of all the dorky bands I loved at the time, blow up because of Guitar Hero blew me away—still does. But with DragonForce dipping their toes into weirder guitar sounds (“Body Breakdown” in particular), more aggressive rhythm structures, and even a growl or two in the background from old friend of the band Lindsay Dawson (Demoniac), it’s hard to put Inhuman Rampage down once it gets going, especially since ZP is just about at the top of his game.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003). For the most authentic experience in this discog run experience and ranking, I pulled up some old shitty mp3s I had of this debut outing rather than hit the remastered version on stream. You see, my first experience with DragonForce came from a seedy copy of “Black Fire” and a corrupted version of “Disciples of Babylon” from LimeWire. And wouldn’t you know, when I finally heard the full, unclipped, unsqueaking version of the latter, it grew to be one of my favorite songs from this early incarnation of hyper-speed power metal. And though those two cuts leaned a little more on the sound of Blind Guardian at the time—you could even envision ZP as a budget Hansi Kürsch with extra warbling character—the prance and play inherent in the DragonForce sound still lived free in the spirit of “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” and “Heart of a Dragon.” The ballad isn’t particularly enjoyable, but Valley of the Damned remains a rollicking good time in all its youth and flaws.

#3. Maximum Overload (2014). It’s very simple: Maximum Overload wears Hudson better than any of his other outings with DragonForce. True to the album’s namesake, Hudson pushes his ventures into falsetto more recklessly, and DragonForce as a band finds that smart balance of fun, video game inspires noises and forward-moving riff-work. The heft of the Gothenberg-ripped guitar tone plays well against the smattering of video game noises and resplendent choruses, and many of the song choices ring true to a more classic and warm power metal sound than this band had ever displayed before. “The Sun Is Dead” reminds me of the gritty swagger of a band like Thunderstone more than DragonForce. Couple that with bassist Fredric Leclerq’s extreme metal influences that sharpen the steel of “The Game” and “Three Hammers,” a scorching cover of “Ring of Fire,” and NO BALLADS, Maximum Overload tears front to back all in under fifty minutes.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004) – Both a major step up in recording quality from the debut and a further diversification of attack, Sonic Firestorm hosts some of the best cuts that this discography has to offer. Yes, the continuing trend of DragonForce having overwrought ballads—very pretty piano on this one though—remains true on this piece, but its placement between the unyielding “Fields of Despair” and iconic synth warble of “Above the Winter Moonlight” ensures that this album never loses its course. Every track has bombastic intros, brain-staining choruses, dopamine-spiking solos, and sugar rush power that even twenty years removed from my first encounter still causes the flow. Yes, all of these songs are too long and have solo sections that extend well beyond what one might consider good taste, but that’s kind of the point isn’t it? And though this track has no bearing on this record’s standing, “Cry of the Brave” should have been on the album proper, damnit.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Around when Ultra Beatdown landed in the world, my love affair with DragonForce and frolicking power metal was waning in favor of things equally noodly but more progressive—I am a refined individual, after all. However, despite my own musical journey, this massive album just couldn’t let me go. No song is less than five minutes. Most are over seven. In these very halls, recently even, I’ve rallied against the over-soloization of music to diminishing effects. But every tone-exploring keys break, every hot-handed guitar squeal, every ZP led anthem, fills me with joy, with the urge to scream and air guitar and smash a keytar that I wouldn’t even know how to turn on. Context matters, and the story here is that no matter what level of excess this band poured into the making of Ultra Beatdown, it seared a near hour-long corridor in my mind built specifically for this album. “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “The Last Journey Home”—I could really just name all the songs including the bonus tracks “Strike of the Ninja” and “Scars of Yesterday”—represent the fullest vision of the first era of DragonForce and to this day remains their best work. And most importantly, Ultra Beatdown is one of my favorite power metal albums of all time.2

Official Ranking

The writers’ votes have been cast and counted. As the contributors to this ranking were also the only ones to have any strong feelings about DragonForce one way or the other, a poll was not conducted to obtain a tally from AMG staff. The below is an aggregate of the Rankings above. Here, to be scrawled on the sparkliest of unicorn hide with a can of Cheez Whiz, is the definitive AMG Ranking for DragonForce:

#7. Extreme Power Metal (2019), with 5 points out of a possible 24.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017), with 6 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) Maximum Overload (2014), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) The Power Within (2012), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003), with 14 points out of a possible 24.

#3. Inhuman Rampage (2006), with 17 points out of a possible 24.

#2. Ultra Beatdown (2008), with 20 points out of a possible 24.

#1. Sonic Firestorm (2004), with 21 points out of a possible 24.

If you don’t know DragonForce, you’ve probably saved yourself from a considerable heap of shame and embarrassment, but it’s never too late to shamelessly indulge with this playlist assembled by Eldritch Elitist, Kenstrosity, and Dolphin Whisperer:

#AtVance #BlindGuardian #BritishMetal #DragonForce #EarMusic #Epica #Europe #ExtremePowerMetal #Fellowship #Galneryus #InhumanRampage #JohnnyCash #MaximumOverload #PowerMetal #PowerQuest #ReachingIntoInfinity #Rhapsody #RoadrunnerRecords #RunningWild #SanctuaryRecords #SonicFirestorm #ThePowerWithin #Thunderstone #UltraBeatdown #ValleyOfTheDamned

AMG Goes Ranking – DragonForce

By Eldritch Elitist

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and n00bs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if multiple aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography, and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet some kind of dark magic to produce an official guide to, and an all-around definitive aggregated ranking of, that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would look something like this…

If you’re a regular around these parts, you might have seen this article’s title and thought to yourself: how the hell could something like this come from the fortress of snobbery that is AMG? You might have then seen the author of said article and thought to yourself: Oh, THAT’S how. My involvement in this endeavor might be a given for those who know my musical diet, but should there really be any surprise that I managed to wrangle two extra participants through mild coercion and weaponized nostalgia? For a certain generation of metal fans, whether they loved or hated them, DragonForce was a big deal. Thanks to the popularity of “Through the Fire and Flames” in the then-phenomenon that was Guitar Hero, guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman were practically household names. For me, DragonForce was so much more than a one-hit-wonder. Inhuman Rampage (which I discovered months before “Through the Fire and Flames” debuted in Guitar Hero 3, thank you very much) marked my very first exposure to power metal, an instant obsession that blew open the gates to the underground in pursuit of more music that could make me feel like that. It is by no means hyperbolic to state that without DragonForce, I might have never had enough interest to write about metal music at all.

My initial obsession waned, along with my interest in metal in general, as I moved on to college life. When I emerged four years later, I found myself with a revitalized passion for metal, which led me to apply at my favorite metal blog, but it took a while for that ol’ love for DragonForce to re-emerge. The band had long since parted ways with original singer ZP Theart, and their new material with Marc Hudson on mic duties lacked that undiluted rush of sugar bomb pyromania. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I delved into the Hudson era in earnest. Blame it on many of my musical pretenses falling away with age, but by god, DragonForce can still kill it when they really set their minds to it. They never have (and likely never will) recapture the thrills of their “glory” days, but a desire to highlight that disparity was not what prompted this ranking. Rather, it’s to shine a light on how the majority of DragonForce’s modern material is still really, truly good, and deserving of wider discussion than most fans and critics have afforded them in the last decade.

In short: With the impending landfall of their ninth LP Warp Speed Warriors, I’m here to report that rumors of DragonForce’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The fire still burns, proud and so glorious. Their soul and their spirit will go on, for all of eternity.

– Eldritch Elitist

Eldritch Elitist

#8. Extreme Power Metal (2019). I was more optimistic for Extreme Power Metal than I’d been for any DragonForce album since The Power Within. “Highway to Oblivion” was an excellent lead single that heralded the return of the dynamic songwriting and production panache that defined records like Ultra Beatdown. Turns out, this was just the result of DragonForce putting their best foot forward. “Troopers of the Stars” is a blast as a one-off novelty, and “Strangers” is a neat little slice of glam-power metal in the vein of Power Quest, but for me, the fun stops there. “In a Skyforged Dream” is DragonForce at their most phoned-in, “The Last Dragonborn” aims for bombast yet ultimately bores, and “Razorblade Meltdown” kills its momentum with a shockingly weak chorus melody. Extreme Power Metal’s choruses are disappointing in general, really, a chronic condition of their Marc Hudson era that comes to a head with this record. I’ll give credit where it’s due to DragonForce’s other albums, but for me, this one is strictly fodder for playlist harvesting.

#7. Maximum Overload (2014). The first half of Maximum Overload is the best A-side of DragonForce’s Marc Hudson era. “The Game” in particular is an experiment in modern melodeath that I’ve always felt worked brilliantly for the band, but “Tomorrow’s Kings” thrills as a driving force of no-frills power metal, and “Symphony of the Night” excels through a blistering, neo-baroque homage to Castlevania. Yet aside from the thrash-coded fun of “Defenders,” Maximum Overload’s back half disappoints. “The Sun is Dead” and “Extraction Zone” have great instrumentals yet totally uninspired vocal execution, “City of Gold” is a thoroughly lame closer, and the cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is a half-baked realization of its full potential. At final tabulation, Maximum Overload is still a record of mostly great material, but its whiffs signposted the end of DragonForce albums featuring wall-to-wall quality.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017). I was pretty harsh on Reaching Into Infinity upon release. I immediately felt that it failed to match the peaks of Maximum Overload, and for me, DragonForce just didn’t sound much like DragonForce anymore. Seven years on, I’ve come to the revelation that the distinct non-DragonForce-ness of Reaching Into Infinity makes it fresh. It’s still fast, furious fun, without overtly trying to ape the band’s fan-favorite material, the sole exception being the fantastic “Midnight Madness” in all its Sonic Firestorming goodness. The record’s sporadic experimental swings don’t always hit paydirt, as both “Silence” and “The Edge of the World” are divisive momentum killers, but the pure thrash thrills of “War!” and the Running Wild-on-stimulants rush of “Hatred and Revenge” proves that DragonForce can still find great success through large departures. Out of the band’s post The Power Within material, this is the album I’ve returned to the most, and I’d bump my review score up by a full point if I were to review it today.

#5. The Power Within (2012). “It is with great regret that DragonForce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart […] due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion.” These words hit seventeen-year-old Eldritch like a freight train. A foundational pillar of my musical tastes was now down one of power metal’s greatest vocalists, their musical direction uncertain. Enter Marc Hudson and The Power Within, something of a departure for DragonForce that lacks none of their signature spirit. The fantastic “Wings of Liberty” is the only cut that retains the lengthy structures of DragonForce’s earlier works; the remaining tracks are lean cuts of pure power metal, forming what is easily the band’s most riff-centric album. For all the gripes I have with Marc Hudson and his nowadays paper-thin delivery, he sounded pretty great on his first go around, with his intense delivery on tracks like “Heart of the Storm” being such a great fit that I can’t imagine ZP ever having sung it. The Power Within doesn’t quite live up to the records that preceded it in terms of sheer catchiness, but it’s very nearly as good and is easily recommendable to non-fans who just want a great slab of power metal.

#4. Inhuman Rampage (2006). If you’re one of those people who think DragonForce only knows how to write one song, Inhuman Rampage is probably the reason why. You would be correct to think so based on this album alone, which is exactly what makes it essential in power metal canon. Nothing else on Earth sounds like Inhuman Rampage, and it sounds like that for its entire runtime (closing ballad notwithstanding). Inhuman Rampage’s near-constant tempo of 200 bpm, layered with countless solos and electronic flourishes, is absolutely fucking bonkers. It’s the sound of the world ending via a joyous sugar bomb of metallic hellfire, and DragonForce is laughing their asses off the whole way through. The band clearly had the time of their lives coming up with this insanity, never once considering that they might have to play “Through the Fire and Flames” every night for the rest of their lives. It’s an entirely exhausting listening experience that borders on monotony, but Inhuman Rampage is so singular that I truly believe every metal fan should hear it at least once. If it clicks with you, good luck ever putting it down.

#3. Valley of the Damned (2003). If Inhuman Rampage is your sole exposure to DragonForce, and if you have even a casual appreciation for power metal, then you should be aware that their debut is mandatory listening. Valley of the Damned’s title track is as classic of a power metal song as has ever graced the genre, and between “Valley of the Damned,” “Revelations,” and “Heart of a Dragon,” the album sports three of my all-time favorite power metal tracks. Its standing in this ranking is only dragged down by a handful of relative weak points, namely “Evening Star,” and yet there are plenty of people out there who will swear that it is one of the best DragonForce songs. The magic of Valley of the Damned is that, as a debut, it’s less streamlined than other records from the ZP Theart era, meaning there are loveable oddities like “Evening Star” or “Disciples of Babylon” that could only feel at home on this album. But make no mistake; DragonForce still sounds righteously confident with their sound on this record, coming shockingly close to realizing their full potential at the starting line.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004). “Fury of the Storm” is probably the second DragonForce song people know if they know anything beyond “Through the Fire and Flames,” and for good reason, as it has one of the most iconic intros and choruses in all of power metal. And yet Sonic Firestorm is so incredible that I couldn’t justify ranking it in my top five tracks from the album. In a way, this sophomore offering represents DragonForce at their purest, an early career crystallization of their signature sound that isn’t distorted by the glossy production of their later efforts. As such, its songs feel straightforward, yet brilliant. “My Spirit Will Go On” and “Soldiers of the Wasteland” deserve extra special commendations, with the former acting as one of the best album openings in its genre and also my favorite DragonForce song, period. “Prepare for War” is the only weak link here (why this song didn’t swap places with the phenomenal bonus track “Cry of the Brave” will forever elude me), but otherwise, Sonic Firestorm is a virtually untouchable power metal powerhouse.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Valley of the Damned and Sonic Firestorm may have higher peaks than the band’s final album with ZP Theart on the mic, but in terms of consistency and sheer melodic quality, nothing beats Ultra Beatdown. This record offers uplifting major key excellence from its first second to its last, so much so that even its most predictable songs (“The Fire Still Burns,” “Heartbreak Armageddon”) feel downright monumental. But what really makes Ultra Beatdown DragonForce’s finest showing is that it’s an idealized version of their sound, combining the harmonic bliss of Sonic Firestorm with a tastefully reserved take on Inhuman Rampage’s massively bombastic production. It accomplishes this while also delving into the proggiest material of the ZP Theart era (“Reasons to Live,” “The Last Journey Home”), spawning DragonForce’s best and most underrated ballad (“A Flame for Freedom”), and still finding time to deliver the two best examples of the “stereotypical” DragonForce formula (“Heroes of Our Time”, “Inside the Winter Storm”). In short, this is the DragonForce album that truly feels like the best of all worlds, a collection of universally great songs that represent everything I have ever loved about the band and then some.

Kenstrosity

DragonForce was a force to be reckoned with for young Ken. As you’d expect for young teens like me who were just getting into metal, “Through the Fire and Flames” had my jaw on the floor faster than Herman Li could complete a full chromatic scale. Needless to say, I had to hear more, and one thing led to another and suddenly I was listening to all manner of fast, shreddy, cheesy stuff. To my great surprise, much of DragonForce’s discography held up quite nicely over the years. With greater knowledge of metal at large, both historical and current, I found only a deeper appreciation of what DragonForce do and how they do it. You might expect the opposite to be true, as I did when I embarked on ranking close to nine hours of supersonic wankery. Yet, here I am, ready as ever to sing the praises of one band who helped shape my music tastes and who still informs it to this day.

THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES WE CARRY ON!!!

The Ranking:

#8: Extreme Power Metal (2019). No album on Earth makes me miss ZP Theart’s vocals as much as Extreme Power Metal. Admirable though his efforts are, Marc Hudson just doesn’t fit this material, and somehow his voice just continues to degrade with time. On this, his falsetto sounds reedy, and his midrange nasal beyond belief. This only exacerbates my issues with an album chock full of lackluster tunes and gutless guitar showmanship (with the exceptions of the awesome “Heart Demolition” and “Razorblade Meltdown”), the two things that make DragonForce albums so much fun. Without those two core characteristics, Extreme Power Metal brings nothing to the table.

#7: Reaching into Infinity (2017). Despite the fact that I strongly dislike the way Hudson sounds on this late-stage DragonForce record, Reaching into Infinity still charms me. Unlike Extreme Power Metal, the immense hooks and the striking musicianship here more closely align with what I expect and enjoy most from the band. Killer tunes like “Ashes of the Dawn,” “Midnight Madness,” and “The Edge of the World” ensure that I do, indeed, enjoy this record back to front in the moment. Sadly, uneven songwriting (“Silence,” oof) and Hudson’s irritatingly nasal delivery don’t entice me to return down the line.

#6: Maximum Overload (2014). Maximum Overload is an interesting album. Hudson’s voice isn’t quite as buttoned down or powerful as on The Power Within, and I quickly realize that he’s no replacement for the awesome ZP Theart. Musically, Maximum Overload finds a happy medium between the straightforward power metal of The Power Within and the breakneck velocity of Inhuman Rampage. However, something’s missing here. There’s a lack of soul and passion in some of these tracks (“Tomorrow’s Kings,” “Three Hammers”) that undermine its highlights (“The Game,” “Symphony of the Night,” “The Sun is Dead,” “Extraction Zone”) such that the whole fails to live up to expectations. A band going through the motions.

#5: Ultra Beatdown (2008). DragonForce’s most explorative and experimental record, Ultra Beatdown quite simply rocks my socks, for the most part. Exploring various non-metal genres while also featuring more metallic extremity outside of the usual hyperspeed technicality, standouts like “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “Inside the Winter Storm,” and “Scars of Yesterday” inject a rather impressive variety of approaches to break up the band’s trademark style. An unfortunate consequence of that adventurous songwriting, for every awesome moment, there’s another that just doesn’t quite fit (“A Flame for Freedom,” “Strike of the Ninja”). Truly, that’s the only thing keeping it from a higher rank.

#4: The Power Within (2012). The first record to feature Marc Hudson instead of ZP Theart, The Power Within is immediately recognizable as an outlier in DragonForce’s discography. Still fast as fuck and rife with ample wankery, these tunes are much more direct fare. With only one song surpassing six minutes, this is also among the band’s tightest outings. Massively hooky and immensely fun, killer tunes like “Fallen World,” “Cry Thunder,” “Wings of Liberty,” “Heart of the Storm,” and “Die By the Sword” perfectly suit Hudson’s voice while still offering tons of album variety. More importantly, I keep coming back to it. It’s got its claws in me and simply won’t let go.

#3: Valley of the Damned (2003). Possessor of one of the most useless intro tracks of all time (fifteen seconds of atmospheric crescendo does not deserve its own track), DragonForce’s debut is one of those records that sounds like something a far more established, seasoned band crafts. Hyperspeed rippers like “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” “Black Fire,” “Disciples of Babylon” and “Heart of a Dragon” launch a project of great passion, insanely catchy lines, and a million WHOOAAHs. A wide array of tones and textures built into that supersonic wank blueprint allow these fifty-eight minutes of extreme wank to feel justified and immensely satisfying. And yet, it was only the beginning for the fledgling band!

#2: Sonic Firestorm (2004). The three-album streak between the debut and Inhuman Rampage constitutes an unstoppable hot streak of triumphant, epic, shreddy power metal. Arguably the thrashiest record of the bunch, Sonic Firestorm deftly balances the riff/solo quotient, with an obvious but largely justified bias towards solos, and brings in a tasteful amount of blasts and keys to round out the palette. With massive hits like “Fury of the Storm,” “Fields of Despair,” “Above the Winter Moonlight,” “Soldiers of the Wastelands,” and “Once in a Lifetime,” I find it hard not to be totally enamored and enraptured. And of course, ZP Theart is in fine form, soaring above everything else to deliver only the catchiest, most infectious lines and choruses. Sonic Firestorm is the classic DragonForce formula, stripped down to its purest form and delivered straight to the cranium with a meteor impact.

#1: Inhuman Rampage (2006) – Okay, I know I probably spoiled this result in my intro, but even after an exhaustive run through their discography, Inhuman Rampage still stands proudly as my favorite DragonForce record. Side-by-side comparisons to equally strong albums like Sonic Firestorm cannot dull the sharp memories I have of whiplashing my neck to “Storming the Burning Fields,” belting my little heart out to “Cry for Eternity,” and stomping my feet to “Operation Ground and Pound.” Nostalgia only holds so much sway over this result, however. Much more power belongs to the strength of this record’s immense songwriting successes, its ridiculous technicality balanced by uncanny memorability, and ZP Theart’s uniquely passionate voice. Inhuman Rampage is an unstoppable record that not only formed core memories for me as a budding metalhead who loved so much more than just the still awesome “Through the Fire and Flames,” but also remains a regular standby for my power metal fix. Lambast this decision if you must, but it matters not. I will always love this record above the rest, and nobody else can do a damn thing about it!

Dragon Whisperer

Did you expect to see me here too? Yes, I know, you don’t necessarily associate your guy Dolph with the likes of these full-lactose weenies. But you may not know that a young Dolph broke his metal concert cherry by seeing DragonForce on their first US tour for their breakout album Inhuman Rampage. And that DragonForce, along with many 00s wanky power metal acts like Galneryus, At Vance, and Rhapsody—yes, before all the name change bullshit—made up a huge chunk of my teenage musical development. I used to be cool, and I hope that through my eyes you can relive the glory days of when DragonForce was cool. You know, before Herman Li got big on Twitch1 and then subsequently banned from there for supposedly stupid reasons. Or maybe DragonForce is still cool? Who knows. All their albums are too long, too full of solos, and histrionic as all get out. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Ranking:

#8. Reaching into Infinity (2017). Dragonforce was never not a Europower band at heart, but increasingly so in the Hudson universe, Europower presented as the default expression for chorus builds and general song flow. Tracks like “Judgement Day” and the ballad “Silence” feel like they could be any chipmunk-speed flower-power band with a little extra chirp in the extended solo runs. Only for the run from “War!” to the powerful eleven-minute opus “The Edge of the World” does DragonForce put any real effort into being their epic selves while showcasing some of the melodeath influence that makes their later era interesting. Oh, and this one has an absolutely pointless intro—no need to tack extra time onto an album that’s already too long.

#7. The Power Within (2012). As a guy who grew up with ZP being the voice of DragonForce, this first outing with Hudson was destined to present a challenge to my younger self. In the modern day, that feeling persists in the thought that many of the better tunes on this album feel like off-cuts from Ultra Beatdown with an increased 80s montage feel to many synth lines. The biggest issue with these choices is that the songs don’t feel entirely constructed around some of Hudson’s strengths, which he displays better on most later albums. For his first outing, he feels plain and safe save for the kick-in-the-teeth of “Give Me the Night” and “Seasons” and, well, the tail-end of the album… again. At least until the whiff of a closer that “Last Man Stands” offers. Such a shame that this fairly trim album lacks in impact.

#6. Extreme Power Metal (2019). This is the first album without longtime keys and weird noise maestro Vadim Pruzhanov, with Coen Janssen (Epica) providing guest arrangements, backings, and other keys sounds. In the present day, I can say this reminds me of the twinklecore that Fellowship presents on many occasions, but still DragonForce has a little more weight in tone. Please, understand, though, that this album is pretty much anything but the extreme in its own name, with a hefty, anthemic, Europe pounce striking through the sticky-sweet cuts “Heart Demolition” and “Strangers.” DragonForce plays with true restraint, and Hudson sounds great on these kinds of tracks—for better or worse—and it’s no surprise to hear that his solo work leans even into this kind of high glycemic power pop with guitar noises, frighteningly similar to Japanese Idol rock. Whatever the case, it works here, even if I don’t want to admit it out loud all the time. “My Heart Will Go On” is a good cover too.

#5. Inhuman Rampage (2006). I went through a ten-year period or so where I never wanted to hear “Through the Fire and the Flames” again, and anytime I revisited this album after its first year or so of existence, I just started at “Revolution Deathsquad,” which is a monster banger anyway. Witnessing DragonForce, of all the dorky bands I loved at the time, blow up because of Guitar Hero blew me away—still does. But with DragonForce dipping their toes into weirder guitar sounds (“Body Breakdown” in particular), more aggressive rhythm structures, and even a growl or two in the background from old friend of the band Lindsay Dawson (Demoniac), it’s hard to put Inhuman Rampage down once it gets going, especially since ZP is just about at the top of his game.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003). For the most authentic experience in this discog run experience and ranking, I pulled up some old shitty mp3s I had of this debut outing rather than hit the remastered version on stream. You see, my first experience with DragonForce came from a seedy copy of “Black Fire” and a corrupted version of “Disciples of Babylon” from LimeWire. And wouldn’t you know, when I finally heard the full, unclipped, unsqueaking version of the latter, it grew to be one of my favorite songs from this early incarnation of hyper-speed power metal. And though those two cuts leaned a little more on the sound of Blind Guardian at the time—you could even envision ZP as a budget Hansi Kürsch with extra warbling character—the prance and play inherent in the DragonForce sound still lived free in the spirit of “Valley of the Damned,” “Black Winter Night,” and “Heart of a Dragon.” The ballad isn’t particularly enjoyable, but Valley of the Damned remains a rollicking good time in all its youth and flaws.

#3. Maximum Overload (2014). It’s very simple: Maximum Overload wears Hudson better than any of his other outings with DragonForce. True to the album’s namesake, Hudson pushes his ventures into falsetto more recklessly, and DragonForce as a band finds that smart balance of fun, video game inspires noises and forward-moving riff-work. The heft of the Gothenberg-ripped guitar tone plays well against the smattering of video game noises and resplendent choruses, and many of the song choices ring true to a more classic and warm power metal sound than this band had ever displayed before. “The Sun Is Dead” reminds me of the gritty swagger of a band like Thunderstone more than DragonForce. Couple that with bassist Fredric Leclerq’s extreme metal influences that sharpen the steel of “The Game” and “Three Hammers,” a scorching cover of “Ring of Fire,” and NO BALLADS, Maximum Overload tears front to back all in under fifty minutes.

#2. Sonic Firestorm (2004) – Both a major step up in recording quality from the debut and a further diversification of attack, Sonic Firestorm hosts some of the best cuts that this discography has to offer. Yes, the continuing trend of DragonForce having overwrought ballads—very pretty piano on this one though—remains true on this piece, but its placement between the unyielding “Fields of Despair” and iconic synth warble of “Above the Winter Moonlight” ensures that this album never loses its course. Every track has bombastic intros, brain-staining choruses, dopamine-spiking solos, and sugar rush power that even twenty years removed from my first encounter still causes the flow. Yes, all of these songs are too long and have solo sections that extend well beyond what one might consider good taste, but that’s kind of the point isn’t it? And though this track has no bearing on this record’s standing, “Cry of the Brave” should have been on the album proper, damnit.

#1. Ultra Beatdown (2008). Around when Ultra Beatdown landed in the world, my love affair with DragonForce and frolicking power metal was waning in favor of things equally noodly but more progressive—I am a refined individual, after all. However, despite my own musical journey, this massive album just couldn’t let me go. No song is less than five minutes. Most are over seven. In these very halls, recently even, I’ve rallied against the over-soloization of music to diminishing effects. But every tone-exploring keys break, every hot-handed guitar squeal, every ZP led anthem, fills me with joy, with the urge to scream and air guitar and smash a keytar that I wouldn’t even know how to turn on. Context matters, and the story here is that no matter what level of excess this band poured into the making of Ultra Beatdown, it seared a near hour-long corridor in my mind built specifically for this album. “Reasons to Live,” “Heartbreak Armageddon,” “The Last Journey Home”—I could really just name all the songs including the bonus tracks “Strike of the Ninja” and “Scars of Yesterday”—represent the fullest vision of the first era of DragonForce and to this day remains their best work. And most importantly, Ultra Beatdown is one of my favorite power metal albums of all time.2

Official Ranking

The writers’ votes have been cast and counted. As the contributors to this ranking were also the only ones to have any strong feelings about DragonForce one way or the other, a poll was not conducted to obtain a tally from AMG staff. The below is an aggregate of the Rankings above. Here, to be scrawled on the sparkliest of unicorn hide with a can of Cheez Whiz, is the definitive AMG Ranking for DragonForce:

#7. Extreme Power Metal (2019), with 5 points out of a possible 24.

#6. Reaching Into Infinity (2017), with 6 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) Maximum Overload (2014), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#5. (tied) The Power Within (2012), with 11 points out of a possible 24.

#4. Valley of the Damned (2003), with 14 points out of a possible 24.

#3. Inhuman Rampage (2006), with 17 points out of a possible 24.

#2. Ultra Beatdown (2008), with 20 points out of a possible 24.

#1. Sonic Firestorm (2004), with 21 points out of a possible 24.

If you don’t know DragonForce, you’ve probably saved yourself from a considerable heap of shame and embarrassment, but it’s never too late to shamelessly indulge with this playlist assembled by Eldritch Elitist, Kenstrosity, and Dolphin Whisperer:

#AtVance #BlindGuardian #BritishMetal #DragonForce #EarMusic #Epica #Europe #ExtremePowerMetal #Fellowship #Galneryus #InhumanRampage #JohnnyCash #MaximumOverload #PowerMetal #PowerQuest #ReachingIntoInfinity #Rhapsody #RoadrunnerRecords #RunningWild #SanctuaryRecords #SonicFirestorm #ThePowerWithin #Thunderstone #UltraBeatdown #ValleyOfTheDamned