Of all, "Cry Thunder" in particular stands out as sounding incredibly cookie-cutter with its almost annoyingly predictable and oft-repeated chorus and inescapable, annoying, and incessantly bouncy 6/8. In fact, it becomes more revealing on other pieces like "Die By the Sword" and the closer "Last Man Stands", which are almost offensive with the baseness of their appeal. Take any track on the album, like the opener "Holding On" or the intensely frantic "Give Me the Night", and you'll notice that while, yes, they certainly are still playing at breakneck speeds, that alone isn't making them particularly interesting at all. It really was the sweeping, epic compositions that took albums like Sonic Firestorm beyond merely enjoyable and made them legitimately interesting to listen to, and their removal just reveals the rest of the music for what it actually is: incredibly flat and boring. Basically, instead of sounding like a righteous kick to the ass as DragonForce albums should, The Power Within sounds like a regular, bland power metal album. So while, yes, the speed element of their music (at least) remains firmly intact, that aspect on its own is not strong enough to make the album sound significantly different from generic power metal. So, in a long, circuitous manner, this brings me to my main complaint against their newest album, 2012's The Power Within: the album all but eradicates the lengthened, complex compositions that made DragonForce's music so interesting in the first place. Beyond those two things, however, there isn't anything else to DragonForce's music that other bands aren't doing: the fantasy-based lyrics, flashy guitar playing, and heavily melodic writing are all hallmarks of literally every single other band in the genre. Though other bands do play at ridiculous speeds, DragonForce is undoubtedly the first that springs to anyone's mind, and in addition to that, there is a distinctly progressive quality to the depth (yes, depth) of composition in their songs that make them very interesting to listen to.
Now, you'll note that there are two main things I mentioned that separate DragonForce from the rest of the numerous generic power metal bands around: the ridiculous speeds at which they play, and the sheer length and variety of arrangement in their songs. So, yes, while even I find the band to be incredibly hilarious just at the mention of their name, their music is nonetheless incredibly enjoyable and, to a very large extent, unique. The fact of the matter is, no one else does the genre quite like they do there's really no other band that performs similarly epic-length power metal at ridiculous speeds with insanely indulgent and gratuitous amounts of soloing. You would have to be if you played at the speeds they do ("Cry of the Brave" was fucking 215 BPM, and, spoiler alert, one of the tracks on this album beats that). Though, yes, the band occasionally has been beleaguered by live performance difficulties, the band members themselves are all nonetheless ridiculously talented musicians, especially in terms of their technical capacity.
And I agree, some of that is well deserved there is something inherently hilarious about the level of self-absorption normally found in power metal, especially of the fantasy variety that DragonForce are known to indulge in.īut beyond that, there are still things about this band that are legitimately praiseworthy. Whether its the plague of terrible performances that prevailed during the Inhuman Rampage tour, or the observation that the band can only play at two speeds: metal and ballad, or simply the fact that fantasy-based power metal in general is incredibly silly in how seriously it takes itself, there is no shortage of ways that this band gets made fun of for simply existing. I know, I know just saying 'DragonForce' is a one-liner joke in of itself. Okay, I'll just come out and say it-I like DragonForce. Dragonforce – The Power Within - Roadrunner, 2012