The real truth about DragonForce.

rms

Active Member
Dec 14, 2006
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Buffalo, New York
They are a superb live band(the best ive seen on video/live) and I loved their show. If anyone is attending the tour they are on atm, here's my review.

He Is Legend;

if ur a fan, they opened with no fear, played seduction and another song they said was named/inspired by a McDonald's breakfast meal, whatever the hell that means.

Review:

Before he started singing, I thought the band might be ok live, since I didnt listen to him. But the vocalist is a poor one at that and gropes himself on stage like a rolling stones concert or some shit. Overall 4/10 -- rest of band ok but vocalist hell nah.

Chrimara was next, I heard from Pantallica they were a good band, never listened previously but regardless I wanted to get close for DragonForce. They opened with Ressurection, played PUre Hatred, Power trip and Nothing to Live for, atleast 2 more songs, didnt say names so I couldn't tell. These guys were not bad, almost made me a fan. The vocalist doesn't have alot of energy as he just stood and sang, but 7/10 IMO.

Now DragonForce. I was so anticipating this, I have my new DF tour shirt I just bought and I was 3inches frm the rail, only an emo kid was in the way. The venue was huge, much larger tahn I thought since it was my first time going there. But after like 30-35m setup time(long as shit idk why) they came on. Dave first, then Vadim, then Fred with Herman and Sam. ZP came out for the start of the song. THey played in order, Revolution Deathsquad, Fury of the storm, My Spirit Will Go On, Operation Ground and Pound, THrough the Fire and Flames and closed with Valley mof the damned. I was SO worn out after their set. Every lyric I remember I sang, every time they played a solo I whirlwind during it, and when ZP came around to fuck with the crowd during solo's I shook his hand. The thing that confused me was people saying how he calls the crowd wankers..but I was like ok. He did that for us, but if you took it seriously then idk. He would put the mic to his crotch and stroke it and yell stop being a wanker, to me that's funny shit. Only called them wankers when he was asking for hands/whatnot. Later in the set during Through the Fire and Flames I think, Sam came over to my side of the stage, looked at me and then thrusted like he was air-humping, i laughed and gave him a thumbs up, Herman tehn switched spots and looked at me and rolled his eyes and did the fake dick in the mouth thing Laughing funny shit. I also got some water they sprayed into the crowd and some whenZ P spit. Honestly, this was such a great set. THey were so energetic, so funny and so well on their playing. They blew me away and even if ur not a fan Idont see how u couldnt enjoy the set.

Last band was Killswitch Engage, the only things I have to say negative is wtf why only an hour for headliner? That was lame. IMO take that hr spot for DF's spot and give df the time to paly hour and a half like most headliners. And personally after DF I was so worn out and I didn't really think they gave alot of energy to get me going. During my favorite song by them When Darkness Falls I got into it and Fixation on the Darkness, but the rest I was just standin still watching basically.

They played, frm wh at I remember;

My Curse
Rose fo Sharyn
Life to Lifelss
WHenD arkness Falls
Fixation on teh Darkness
my last serenade(encore)
take this oath
hope is...
as daylight dies

and maybe 5-10 more I cant remember, not that many songs from As Daylight Dies, which imo is a good thing since that album is pretty subpar to their other work.
 
First time I saw Dragonforce in Cleveland, they were spot-on and rip-roaring, the crowd went berzerk, and ZP sounded awesome. Second time in Detroit, ZP's voice was really rough and the crowd was LAME.

Saw Killswitch a month (or two?) ago in Toledo, and they kicked the place's ass, and Adam's stage antics were hilarious and his crowd interaction was just brain-damaged funny! He ran from the stage to the mixing board at the back of the venue, had someone pour some kinda drink down his throat while playing, then ran back to the stage. That boy is infinitely entertaining and his mutton chops were in full force.


Yes, Dragonforce are sloppy players, yes ZP has bad nights, YES THEY KICK ASS ANYWAYS.
 
Yeah. They don't really fit our bill. They're great, but ya know...


....now... if he got CELLADOR instead, we're talking REAL live performance! They just came through Detroit, and WHOAH did their 5 songs impress! Too bad they were the very first band of the night...
 
Yeah. They don't really fit our bill. They're great, but ya know...


....now... if he got CELLADOR instead, we're talking REAL live performance! They just came through Detroit, and WHOAH did their 5 songs impress! Too bad they were the very first band of the night...

Hell yeah! As a friend of mine once said: "Cellador is Dragonforce from Omaha, before they let Mario and Luigi join the band." :lol:
I saw them at Jaxx a few months ago (not the most recent tour they did where they opened and only got like 20 mins, but one where they actually got to headline and play a full set) and they were amazing! :headbang: I'd love to see them in a ProgPower setting, even if they would probably only get a first (maybe second/third) spot in the Friday or Saturday line-ups if they put out another album by next year.

I agree that Dragonforce would probably not be a good fit at ProgPower. I know what you mean by "They're great, but ya know..." :rolleyes:
 
Why wouldn't they be a great fit? They would play to a crowd that isn't metalcore/emo kids and IMO a great stage band. If some guy watches a band and says "Wow he missed a note in that solo...what a joke" that's just ridiculous. I saw Cellador back in August of last year open for Bullet for my Valentine, went for the 10$ show for cellador, played 45m-55m and it was a good set, covered Helloween's Eagle Fly Free. But IMO they take riffs from DF and kinda lame beacuse that's not all that much talent. I would rather see what htey do with a 2nd album before Is ay theyre a good band.
 
I saw Cellador back in August of last year open for Bullet for my Valentine, went for the 10$ show for cellador, played 45m-55m and it was a good set, covered Helloween's Eagle Fly Free. But IMO they take riffs from DF and kinda lame beacuse that's not all that much talent. I would rather see what htey do with a 2nd album before Is ay theyre a good band.

i think you should stop being a hard ass, and throw a little respect their way.
 
All I know is when DF came through town in August, I had a killer time. Still one of the best shows I've been to in terms of energy and fun. I can't wait to see them on this tour on Wednesday.
 
My opinion is that people who don't play fucking guitar need to shut the hell up about Dragonforce and stop pretending like they know what they are talking about, already.

That's just my, as usual, controversial opinion though. :lol:

The Michael
 
My opinion is that people who don't play fucking guitar need to shut the hell up about Dragonforce and stop pretending like they know what they are talking about, already.

That's just my, as usual, controversial opinion though. :lol:

The Michael

This doesn't really make any sense to me... non guitarists do have ears too... and are usually more forgiving than guitarists...
 
All I know is when DF came through town in August, I had a killer time. Still one of the best shows I've been to in terms of energy and fun.
Totally agree. That's what DF is to me; energy and fun. But then I'm more apt to go to a show for those very things as well as the atmosphere then be a "purist" and stay home watching lame TV or hit the local pub and listen to whatever crap they pump through the sound system. Next time DF comes through NYC, I'll be there if I get a ticket before they sell out. :(
I know I'll be totally into Cellador's performance.:headbang:
 
This doesn't really make any sense to me... non guitarists do have ears too... and are usually more forgiving than guitarists...


The attacks on Dragonforce are on them as players/musicians more than attacks on their songs from all the posts I'm reading. In my humble opinion, Dragonforce are excellent songwriters and craft fantastic melodies. They absolutely know their way around their instruments. They play within the context of "extreme" power metal which means extremely high tempos and some don't like that, I guess.

I just get so aggrivated when a band like Pyramaze gets praised for great musicianship and Dragonforce gets slammed. Pyramaze technically play a more "progressive" power metal... but Dragonforce absolutely display more skill on their instruments (and no not just in the speed factor). You can tell when a guitarist actually knows his theory and is playing as a musician, versus someone who just picked up power chords, scales, and reads tabliture.

That is all I'm saying.


The Michael
 
The attacks on Dragonforce are on them as players/musicians more than attacks on their songs from all the posts I'm reading. In my humble opinion, Dragonforce are excellent songwriters and craft fantastic melodies. They absolutely know their way around their instruments. They play within the context of "extreme" power metal which means extremely high tempos and some don't like that, I guess.

I just get so aggrivated when a band like Pyramaze gets praised for great musicianship and Dragonforce gets slammed. Pyramaze technically play a more "progressive" power metal... but Dragonforce absolutely display more skill on their instruments (and no not just in the speed factor). You can tell when a guitarist actually knows his theory and is playing as a musician, versus someone who just picked up power chords, scales, and reads tabliture.

That is all I'm saying.


The Michael


I don't need to be an expert film director to know when a movie sucks or an all-star athlete to know when somebody has a bad game.

That being said, I love Dragonforce.
 
The attacks on Dragonforce are on them as players/musicians more than attacks on their songs from all the posts I'm reading. In my humble opinion, Dragonforce are excellent songwriters and craft fantastic melodies. They absolutely know their way around their instruments. They play within the context of "extreme" power metal which means extremely high tempos and some don't like that, I guess.

I just get so aggrivated when a band like Pyramaze gets praised for great musicianship and Dragonforce gets slammed. Pyramaze technically play a more "progressive" power metal... but Dragonforce absolutely display more skill on their instruments (and no not just in the speed factor). You can tell when a guitarist actually knows his theory and is playing as a musician, versus someone who just picked up power chords, scales, and reads tabliture.

That is all I'm saying.


The Michael

Ok, well as someone who's been playing guitar for 10 years and knows just a bit about the instrument I happen to think the guitarists in Dragonforce are awful musicians. They've proven they're sloppy guitarists on any "instructional" thing they've done for guitar magazines (that I don't think I need to repost here since they've been all over Youtube for months), and the only way they can pretend to pull the shit off live is by masking their sloppiness in more gain, chorus, reverb, and delay than should be allowed on a guitar tone. The studio performances are just as polished and edited as the last Britney Spears single, not to mention the singer's unnaturally fast vibrato leads me to believe that they actually speed the recording up a little bit.

If you wanna talk about a "technical" metal band that actually are incredible musicians, we can talk about a band like Necrophagist. Or, if you want to remain within the "prog/power" genres we can talk about a band like Outworld.

edit: the tempos they play at have nothing to do with my critique of their playing ability. There is more to musicianship than sheer speed, and in areas like phrasing and vibrato (you know, the stuff that actually counts) the DF guys fall extremely short.
 
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The attacks on Dragonforce are on them as players/musicians more than attacks on their songs from all the posts I'm reading. In my humble opinion, Dragonforce are excellent songwriters and craft fantastic melodies. They absolutely know their way around their instruments. They play within the context of "extreme" power metal which means extremely high tempos and some don't like that, I guess.

I just get so aggrivated when a band like Pyramaze gets praised for great musicianship and Dragonforce gets slammed. Pyramaze technically play a more "progressive" power metal... but Dragonforce absolutely display more skill on their instruments (and no not just in the speed factor). You can tell when a guitarist actually knows his theory and is playing as a musician, versus someone who just picked up power chords, scales, and reads tabliture.

That is all I'm saying.


The Michael
Fuckinay, right! I'm with you. You hit the nail on the head! DRAGONFORCE fucking rips!:headbang: