Sonic Firestorm [CD+DVD, Colour]

The music on this cd is absolutely brilliant. From the opening bars I was instantly hooked and remained so to the final closing note.

I have been listening to rock music for over 40 years, (yes, I'm old), and Dragonforce are the best band I've heard in the last 20 years.

Taking into consideration the fact that the general level of rock musicianship today is of a very high standard, the musicianship on this cd is truly outstanding. The vocals are excellent, powerful, melodic and perfectly suited to the style of music. The Drumming is truly awesome, (how on earth does he keep up this pace???), the keyboard playing is excellent and the guitars just have to be heard to be believed.

Herman and Sam are the best twin guitar duo since Brian & Scott of Thin Lizzy, only 100 times faster, technically more proficient and far superior.

There are many speed metal bands around, the difference here is that Dragonforce are very melodic, and for those of us who appreceiate some melody in our music instead of drop-D death riffs and monotonous screaming vocals, the music here is a most welcome and very refreshing change to the boring speed metal currently around.

Dragonforce are a very melodic speed metal band. if you've not heard them yet then my advice is to buy or borrow a cd of theirs and hear them for yourself. I'll be surprised if you're not impressed, (if not blown away) by what you hear.

The best way I can describe them is to take Iron Maiden, Rainbow and Thin Lizzy, mix them together and speed the whole thing up (a lot).

Believe me, this band are going to be huge.

I'm a guitarist of many years (36) and have heard the very best of just about every known style, yet I was left in awe of the truly breathtaking guitar playing when I first heard this superb band.

If you like fast, melodic, kick-ass rock with awesome guitars and great musicianship, then treat yourself to this cd NOW!

Taking into account that most speed metal bands currently around are from the USA, a note to all you Americans out there:-

Dragonforce are a BRITISH band, and this is how we do it across the pond!!!

Thanks Herman & Co for putting us back on top.

Before metal was mainsteam those of us who liked it were laughed at endlessly for the images of escapism, and extravagant extreme lyrics.

Dragonforce are as cliched as you can get in this respect, and do it well. Big-haired and fast-guitared, they strut through tracks at top speed, recounting tales of battles death and the like.

They know they're not entirely serious, and the guitar work is incredible - this level of skill is hard to match elsewhere.

Plenty of Maiden-esque head shaking tunes and crowd pleasers have made them a successful live act, and they deserve it. Skill, great meoldies and a belief in their extravagant image has made them what they are. Enjoy.

Start with a huge amount of melodic, fast solos played at the same high level of Slash and Iron Maiden. Add in distorted guitar strumming reminiscent of early Misfits from the Danzig age. Chuck in some fantastic key board playing, a bassist similar to Jerry Only, a double kicker and singing that even you're parents would deem 'acceptable', sprinkle on a heap spoonful of cheese and stick it in a recording studio at a moderate English temperature for three months. What have you got? Iron Misfits? Not quite, but something just as good, if not a lot better. As you can probably tell by the strange recipe metaphor above, describing what Dragon Force actually consists of is not easy, in fact its very difficult. I'm not a fan of power metal in general, but this takes the genre to a whole new level, a level which is occupied only by Dragon Force.

For those who have heard the first Dragon's album, 'Valley Of The Damned', I'm glad to say that Sonic Firestorm is an improvement, having ironed out the few mistakes of the bands debut. The singing (however cheesy) is much clearer and the incredibly fast solos (and I really do mean fast, you have to hear it to believe it) have been refined to a perfect art. The songs, each of which is an epic tale of fantasy are all just about different enough to give the album a slightly less merged feel as opposed to the first album, where the songs do sound a little too similar.

To put it simply, I've not been this excited and hyped about a band since hearing AFI's 'The Art Of Drowning' (the first AFI record I ever had the pleasure of listening to) and it seems that Dragon Force have hit on something very special and very appealing early on in their career, which, if they continue, has the potential to span the same length and build up as big a fan base as the metal God's Iron Maiden.

If you're a fan of guitar music in general, I suggest you find your seat on the Dragon's band wagon because with them supporting Iron Maiden on some of the dates on Maiden's world tour, it won't be long until thousands of potential fans are exposed to the sound of the Dragons and when that happens, I predict the band wagon becoming very, very crowded.