DragonForce
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Tvornica kulture, Zagreb, Croatia
“Svirajte, p…e! Seriously?”
After just over a year (March 2024, alongside Amaranthe and Infected Rain, review here), it was time again to catch the (loosely speaking) British Power Metal extremists DragonForce. This time for a headline show at Zagreb’s Tvornica kulture.
On a sweltering summer evening, the venue was filling up nicely — great to see a crowd draped in black. Power metal isn’t quite dead yet, then. A solid crew of us from Rockline had assembled, the conversation was flowing, and the wait for the show to kick off was anything but boring.
Since they were the only act this time around, DragonForce could afford a slightly longer setlist — though with the enormous length of the older material in particular, it still only stretched to 15 tracks. They opened with Ashes of the Dawn from the largely forgotten Reaching into Infinity (2017). A strong opener, no question. Even though the setlist only had 5 tracks from the ZP era, the remaining ten were all bangers — powerful, anthemic stuff. Doomsday Party still stinks, though, and I have no idea why they keep insisting on two covers, My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion) and Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift), neither of which quite landed. If they must do covers, they could throw in Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, which — unlike the two mentioned above — is an absolute blast.
The real treats for us old-school fans were Black Fire and Valley of the Damned from the self-titled 2003 debut. And the unbeatable masterpiece Soldiers of the Wasteland from the second album Sonic Firestorm (2004). Vocal maniac Marc Hudson had absolutely no trouble with any of this material — let alone with “his own” tracks. The real stars, of course, are guitar wizards Sam Totman and Herman Li, who don’t let up for a second and leave both guitar illiterates and those who know a thing or two about playing the instrument completely slack-jawed.
The sound picture matched what I’ve described above — Marc‘s vocals were clear and loud, as were the backing vocals, which were pretty impressive for a live performance. Bassist Alicia and TikTok sideman Billy (you can check out his version of the hit Through the Fire and Flames here — the one that earned him a spot in the DF lineup for this tour) add something extra, and the whole thing sounds great. The guitar solos came through brilliantly too. The sound engineer is more than obviously a fan of cranked double bass drums, because Gee‘s pounding would occasionally cut through the mix in an irritatingly piercing way. The rhythm guitar, pre-recorded keyboards, and practically non-existent bass were all lumped together into an indistinct wall of noise. Not exactly an ideal mix, then.
The band was in excellent form and great spirits, and the crowd gave absolutely everything they had too. I want to flag two moments here. During Space Marine Corp, one of the roadies was doing push-ups on stage — and so was some guy in the crowd, all while a proper circle pit raged around him. Insane! The other thing, which I teased in the title, I just can’t get out of my head. After the main set, the crowd cheerfully chanted “svirajte pićke!” Not “hoćemo još” or “cugabe”. No. Luckily the band didn’t understand those words — I genuinely cannot wrap my head around how the Zagreb crowd finds that funny or even remotely clever. A disaster!
That was the only sour note, though — the power metal party rolled on like a merry-go-round. The newest track A Draco Tale held its own nicely too. I happily joined in belting out the chorus: “Master of the Starbucks, ruler of the world, say Jacob, Jacob! and the story shall be told“! That’s how it goes, right?
Us older folks had no clue what all the video game references were about, but we enjoyed the rubber chicken being passed across the venue just as much. I have to praise the crowd again — on top of the push-ups and circle pit already mentioned, Marc even got to crowd surf, which, given that the man is nearly two meters tall and pushing a hundred kilos, is quite the impressive feat.
I’ve already said my piece about the setlist — what does puzzle me is that they’re avoiding the current single Burning Heart, probably the best original song they’ve put out since ZP‘s departure.
A great night at Tvornica. Top-tier power metal, an enthusiastic crowd, cold beer, and a meet-and-greet with the band as a sweet cherry on top. And on Saturday, everyone’s off to Thompson — ready for the homeland!
Honorable mention: When I was chatting with Sam after the show, I asked if he remembered playing at a small club (Štuk, Maribor) in Slovenia about fifteen years ago. He said he didn’t, but added: “This (Tvornica) was a small club too. We haven’t really gotten anywhere, have we?” Brutally honest self-deprecation — you have to hand it to him.
Text: Igorac
Photos (‘patience is the mother of wisdom’): Denis Paradiž
Backup photo gallery (iPhone – published): Edita Klemen
