Metal Reviews

There have probably been a million posts about this band....but honestly, I don't get it. Why do people like a band that can't write a song to save their life. THey sound like the Back Street Boys with double bass. Sure the guitar players are absolutely rediculous....but they can't write songs worth a damn. I just don't get it. So they're good at the guitar......big deal. There is absolutely no content to their music. The choruses and verses are the same old crap and they never change tempo. Sure it's fun the first time. But the second time onward is just boring as hell. How can anyone take this band seriously? No explanation could ever ease my baffled mind. Poor me. Oh well, at least Gamma Ray's old stuff is awesome. At least we have that to fall back on.

The same question could be asked of nearly ever thrash band you like to support.

Yeah, I pretty much agree. It kind of depresses me that they actually get respect from metalheads.

ha! I don't really care for them! I only like listening to them occasionaly because of the fast solos! I win!



But say anything about Sonata Arctica and I'll decapitate you.

The truth of the matter is most musicians only play at a few tempos. The reason being everyone has kind of an inner feel for what is "fast" to them, what is "mid", and what is "slow". Even bands who get credit for using various tempos actually use only a few. When the tempos are extreme though, like DragonForce's common 200 bpm-ish songs, it becomes more obvious. Every band, if you really pay attention, has their select comfort zone tempos for playing faster or slower. Sometimes it varies by a couple bpm, but not by a whole lot.

I don't listen to DragonForce for songwriting, but you know what? I don't listen to very many metal bands at all for their songwriting. The way I see it, lyrical prowess is only a strong point for a few metal bands. Yeah, I wish DragonForce would vary the song structures more often, but they did that more on their first album (like using a jazz break on one song) before going more extreme with their sound. Still, if you slowed the songs down a little, you could hear some of their nuances better. Not only are the guitarists insane players, but they've come up with some interesting sounds and such that fly by at a million miles an hour. If you've already decided you hate the band, you won't let yourself notice these things. They have some creative riffs from time to time, but the speed sometimes makes it hard to pick up on them.

Yea I agree, i find them to be boring as hell...
And i am not a power metal hater, in fact i really like some power metal.

Actually, what DragonForce could easily do to make a better album in my eyes is to throw in a heavy mid-tempo song to offset the 7 fast songs and the single ballad and make it easier to listen to an entire album.

And Frigid...

Sonata Arctica's drums are repetitive

didn't they have a ballad on the other album?


and derncare...

Tommy Portimo kicks your ass. But just in case he's too busy, I'll give you an e-kick in the balls.

There once was this speed-power metal band. They were all cool and happy, making albums and playing great, fast and technically. But unbeknonwst to them, they had provoked the ire of a supreme being, the one and only Demon-entity of all things Metal! So during one of their shows, this being of absolute metal power, appeared under the cover of thunder and lightning, rain and hail, blizzards and hurricanes. With barely one nod, all the amps exploded and the drums were broken (and the singer got a sore throat from the foul weather).
Thus spoke that god of metal upon them:
- "Hear me smallest of metal musicians, thou have erred and thou shall repent! In time equal to the rising of the fifth full moon, thou shall have produced a power-speed metal album of above-mediocre quality of compositions! That or by the forces granted to me by my divine awesomeness I swear I will FORCE a DRAGON up your asses!!"
No more than the duration of a blink of an eye or the flutter of a fly's wings had passed and the spirit of extreme metalic pwnage had disappeard but the echo of his warning lingered like a freezing mist in the air. The band was speechless and headed at once for the studio. The rest is history....

(I actually like Dragonforce, I just couldn't resist this urge....)

Yeah, the structure being exactly the same for every single song is what annoys me.

Yeah, they had ballads on each album, but the other songs are all mostly over 200 bpm, so a single mid-tempo metal song would really help mix it all up. As long as the majority of the album is still fast, it wouldn't compromise their signature style much and make for a better overall listening experience.

And Tommy couldn't kick my ass. All I'd have to do is take away his snare and bass pedals. He wouldn't know what to do with what he had left!

I know, right?

I'm like, "Hey, Dragonforce... Cool right?"

Then I heard some songs, and was put off by them. Sure, they can play really fucking well, and their chops are enormous, but they just can't write songs I can get into.

So now I'm just like "Hey... Dragonforce... Meh."

In the end, it's all about personal taste anyway. Their songwriting is no worse than the majority of metal bands. The high speed and song structures get redundant over an entire album, so I think they have work to do overall, but if you're into technical guitar wizardry and feel like banging your head for a while, it's fun to play DragonForce for a few songs. That's how I see it. They are for a certain mood.

I am yet to listen to a dragonforce album from start to finish I usually listen to 2 or 3 songs in a row and thats it. Then change the cd
I have seen them and the concert was very good , energentic, crowd surfing , moshing, lots of women, it was a good night out. Dragonforce is what it is

Dragonforce to me is just too fast to be considered music. My humble brain cannot absorb all the notes and form a musical pattern so I can enjoy the damn thing. It's just a big blurry thing to me.

Funny thing is my dad, a 70s rock fan, feels the same way when he used to pass by my room and I'd be listening to Megadeth's Rust In Peace ... He would say "what the hell is this, it's too fast, this isnt music , is just showing off" .... oh, the irony ...

There are a couple songs that do that to me. When the lead guitar's melody is made up of 200 bpm 32nd notes along with the riff, it loses me after a while.

Three things:

1. Dragonforce
2. Hot Topic
3. Negative Reaction

Some of you are so goddamn annoying with your negative nonsense! There are some of you here that I never see writing more than a sentence on bands you like, yet constantly the people that are here to truly discuss music are bombarded by these internet shit stains that are totally worthless.

It's so predictable! A band gets popular and here comes the cavalry!! What even funnier are these quotes from August of 2005:



These quotes, of course, came when the band was just another Euro power metal band. Now, however, the band has somehow garnered some mainstream exposure over here in the US and, predictably, we get this completely negative nonsense intended to somehow discredit the band because some people just cannot stand it when bands get popular!


Outstanding. You lose at life.

Eyesore, you're my hero!

Not to mention again that his complaints are EASILY applicable to his thrash bands

Eh, Dragonforce is nice fun every once in a while. I can't listen to them often, nor can I listen to a full album, but sometimes pure speed (especially through the soloing) can be nice. They're also great to see live.

Not a bad point Ken. Actually I honestly don't care about Dragonforce one way or the other, other then it is cool to see a Metal band make money like they use too and they are much better then 3 Inches of Blood and Trivium.

I just hate this kind of speed metal, always have, always will. It annoys me. Cellardoor is the same way to me and so is old Gamma Ray, Iron Savior, etc. Too fast for my taste.

What I laugh at tough is the "old" school kids who will shit all over Dragonforce, etc, but go on and on about how great some 3rd rate thrash shit like exciter or razor is just because it is pretty unheard of. Oh the hypocrisy......lol