Released: 3/15/2024 on Napalm Records
Production: Damien Rainaud, Sam Totman, Herman Li
Length: 68 min., 11 sec.
Genre: Extreme Power Metal
“The boys are back in town … almost”
In 2011, DragonForce swapped their charismatic frontman ZP Theart for the heavenly screamer Marc Hudson, and it was like they lost the magic that graced their first three albums. In all honesty, the fourth album, Ultra Beatdown (with ZP on vocals) from 2008, already hinted at trouble in paradise, but nobody, least of all me, expected the turn for the worse the band pulled off with The Power Within in 2012. Song lengths shrank from eight minutes to a little over five, the dizzying 3-minute solos gave way to solos of more standard length, and the songs themselves were uncharacteristically, plain boring. If I mention that the best thing on the album was Seasons, written by then-bassist Frederic Leclercq and sounding like a middling Stratovarius composition, it’s clear DragonForce had sailed into troubled waters. They tried to fix things by having Sam Totman pass the songwriting baton to the aforementioned Leclercq, who unsuccessfully tried to bring thrash and progressive elements into the band’s sound. That led to the solid (though not thanks to Leclercq) Maximum Overload (2014), the dismal (except for two tracks) Reaching Into Infinity (2017) and the absolutely pointless Extreme Power Metal (2019). That last one is, personally, unlistenable to me. There’s no power metal on it (at least not in the DragonForce style), let alone anything extreme. A disaster. Of course, it didn’t help that keyboardist and one of the band’s founders, Vadim Pruzhanov, had become completely estranged in the process. The band got rid of him under murky circumstances after Reaching Into Infinity came out in 2018. Vadim, just like guitarists Li and Totman, was an integral part of the DragonForce sound. His diminished role and eventual exit from the band really showed on the albums.
Anyway, after the Extreme Power Metal fiasco, Frederic left to play bass in Kreator, bassist Alicia Vigil (Vigil of War) joined the band in line with modern metal trends, and after a brief think, Sam Totman took all the songwriting reins back into his own hands.
After a five-year break, we finally got the new album, Warp Speed Warriors. Sadly, I can’t find a picture anywhere online of that old DragonForce shirt with the big, crossed-out slogan “Midtempo Power Metal“. How times change! For the lead singles, DragonForce put out the midtempo disasters Doomsday Party and Power of the Triforce. Sam started introducing midtempo tracks with Cry Thunder on The Power Within, kept going with Three Hammers, and then just couldn’t stop. Basically, DragonForce lost a good chunk of their identity that way, and Sam clearly smelled blood. Then Power of the Saber Blade followed as the video single and promised better times. It’s probably the best thing since Judgement Day from the Reaching Into Infinity album, and sadly it’s not on Warp Speed Warriors, but the taste of old DragonForce was there.
Enough with the boring intro, let’s get to the album itself. Like I said, Totman did almost everything, and it shows. Half of it is pure, original “vintage” DragonForce. On the opener Astro Warrior Anthem, Sam and Herman treat themselves to a mini solo after every line of the verse. And that’s across the whole track!!! The rhythm is murderous, the speed breakneck, DragonForce are back! In the same vein, the album gives us Burning Heart, The Killer Queen and Pixel Prison, while this time the “breather” ballad is the excellent Kingdom of Steel, which, in both title and musical style, brings to mind the true metal heroes Manowar. The best of this five-pack is The Killer Queen, with its nonstop rhythm changes and a truly infectious chorus.
The second half of the album is more questionable. Besides the two singles mentioned, we get the needless intro Prelude to Darkness, the comedic (but not entirely wrong) Space Marine Corp and a dubious cover of Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams. With their cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, DragonForce knew how to poke fun and have a hell of a time, and Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On was superb, if slightly failed, tomfoolery, but with this cover you can’t shake the feeling that it’s a play for fans among the younger crowd. Since my daughters have banned me from listening to the original, I can’t tell you whether the cover is OK or not. It just sounds like a third-rate DragonForce track and is completely unnecessary on the album.
The extended version contains:
- Astro Warrior Anthem with barking vocals by Matt Heafy of Trivium, which adds absolutely nothing to the track, plus a solo by Nita Strauss that, if it weren’t for the big difference in production, you couldn’t tell apart from Li’s.
- Burning Heart with Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), whose vocals add a whole other dimension and lift the track up two levels.
- Doomsday Party with Elize Ryd (Amaranthe), who gives it everything she’s got, but just can’t help a dismal track. It’s like not showering for two weeks and then trying to fix it with €300 perfume. Doesn’t work.
- The instrumental version of Power of the Triforce. Needless.
Finally, let me point out this album’s burning problem: the production. It’s tough when someone thinks they know it all and can do it all, which is why Li and Totman produced most of this album themselves. It sounds sterile, the excellent Gee sounds like a drum machine on the drums, and Coen Janssen (Epica) is lost in space on keyboards, as if it weren’t enough that his style simply doesn’t fit DragonForce. Vadim, where are you? When I just think about what Flemming Rasmussen would have done with this album!!! Or even, if nobody else is available, Andy Sneap.
One more word about Alicia. The girl is a competent singer, so the legit question is why they didn’t use her in some duet. She does get some room (Burning Heart, The Killer Queen) to show off a few bass tricks, and she makes good use of that room.
DragonForce are halfway back to their old glory. If they’d just taken out the dismal Doomsday Party, replaced it with Power of the Saber Blade and skipped the needless intro Prelude to Darkness, I’d be reviewing an album here that would have scored at least a point higher. But things are moving in the right direction for the band, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Sam will follow what he does best and next time conjure up something like Sonic Firestorm (2004).
Sweet picks: Burning Heart (with Alissa), The Killer Queen, Kingdom of Steel
7.5/10
Author: Igorac
Tracklist:
- “Astro Warrior Anthem” 6:50
- “Power of the Triforce” 3:53
- “Kingdom of Steel” 4:45
- “Burning Heart” 5:55
- “Space Marine Corp” 6:17
- “Prelude to Darkness” 0:52
- “The Killer Queen” 5:49
- “Doomsday Party” 5:14
- “Pixel Prison” 6:42
- “Wildest Dreams (DragonForce’s Version)” (Taylor Swift cover) 2:50
Bonus tracks:
- “Astro Warrior Anthem” (featuring Matt Heafy and Nita Strauss) 6:50
- “Burning Heart” (featuring Alissa White-Gluz) 5:55
- “Doomsday Party” (featuring Elize Ryd) 5:16
- “Power of the Triforce” (instrumental) 3:53
Musicians:
Marc Hudson – lead and backing vocals
Herman Li – guitar, backing vocals, production
Sam Totman – guitar, backing vocals, production
Alicia Vigil – bass, backing vocals
Gee Anzalone – drums, backing vocals
Additional musician:
Coen Janssen – keyboards
Technical crew:
Damien Rainaud – production, mastering, mixing, engineering
