PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
British Power Metal band Dragonforce release their sixth album in August. Entitled Maximum Overload, it’s their second album with their current singer Marc Hudson, and will be followed by a Headline tour of the UK – and unlike many bands that announce a “UK tour”, this one isn’t jsut dates in England – they’ve got dates in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (plus a Dublin date), and they’re playing a wide range of places – it’s nice to see a band touring outside the usual few large places – London, Birmigham, Manchester and Glasgow.
Brief comments on a few tracks….
Opening track, “The Game” features Trivium’s Matt Heafy making a guest appearance and is the first song to be released from the album – check out the video below and see what you think.
While Dragonforce are known for their listeringly fast guitar playing, they do play some slower stuff too, and one of those songs is “The sun is dead”. It’s not a slow song – more mid-paced, but the slower guitar playing really does sound good – you need a break from the ridiculously fast stuff sometimes and this does the job perfectly.
“Extraction zone” is another fast song, but alongside the usual guitars and keyboards there’s another element added – video game sound effects (from the original Donkey Kong I believe).
The last track on the album is one that surprised me – it’s a cover of the Johnny Cash song, “Ring of fire”. Before I listened to it I couldn’t quite see how it would work – trying to do a power metal version of a country song could have turned out awful or brilliant. Happily it was the latter – it’s worked better than I imagined and really works well as a metal song.
I have to say I really like this album. Okay at times it feels like they’re playing ridiculously fast for the sake of it, but it’s a very good power metal album and is well worth a listen.
“Maximum overload” will be released on 18th August 2014
http://youtu.be/gbbm6L2ifKE
Track listing:
1. The game
2. Tomorrow’s kings
3. No more
4. Three hammers
5. Symphony of the night
6. The sun is dead
7. Defenders
8. Extraction zone
9. City of gold
10. Ring of fire
UK headline tour
17 SEP EDINBURGH Liquid Room
18 SEP ABERDEEN Lemon Tree
19 SEP GLASGOW King Tuts
20 SEP BELFAST Limelight 2
21 SEP DUBLIN Whelan’s
23 SEP CARLISLE Brickyard
24 SEP MIDDLESBRO’ Empire
25 SEP MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
26 SEP STOKE Sugarmill
27 SEP BIRMINGHAM Institute
30 SEP BRIGHTON The Haunt
01 OCT SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
02 OCT PLYMOUTH White Rabbit
03 OCT BRIDGEND Hobo’s
04 OCT BRISTOL The Thekla
07 OCT LEEDS Brundenell
08 OCT NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
09 OCT COLCHESTER Arts Centre
10 OCT NORWICH Waterfront
11 OCT LONDON Bush Hall
- 10.99
