Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Dragonforce
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release: 2017
Runtime: 65:49
Rating: 3.5/5
Dragonforce are today’s standard-bearers of British power metal. We’re talking second-generation power metal, of course. Though, hand on heart, only two guys in the band are actually British: Sam Totman and Marc Hudson, and even Totman is supposedly a New Zealander. Either way, Totman remains the main songwriter behind everything on the band’s new album.
»Reaching Into Infinity« is a typical Dragonforce album. The band had promised a slight stylistic detour from the expressive niche they usually occupy, but wherever »Reaching Into Infinity« tries to be different, it delivers precious little of interest.
Leaving aside the fact that you’re better off not translating the lyrics, since they keep up the stereotypical shallowness about life, i.e. the surface-level enjoyment of it, which means Dragonforce probably haven’t got much further than guzzling Coke and a double cheeseburger (hence all the poetic naivety, childishness and, frankly, downright silliness in the words), »Reaching Into Infinity« is (once again) a heap of fun to listen to. Of course, lots of the riffs are again built on major keys and show off the band’s cheerful side. The quintet just lives an easygoing, safe life, with no earthquakes. At the same time, everything is once more deftly seasoned with sky-high bombast. The new album again bursts at the seams with surplus pomp and kitsch. But that’s the substance and the trademark of the band, they can’t do without it, and everybody has to get used to it. Everybody who gives a damn about the band’s music, that is.
Back in the second paragraph of this piece I mentioned that this is a different kind of album. So on Silence Dragonforce serve up a ballad, in the closing Edge of the World they flirt with death metal elements in the middle section, and War! is no exception, with its unmistakable dalliance with thrash metal. The verdict? Better if none of that were on the album. Those are just moments that don’t suit the band’s character, and only proof that Dragonforce are at their best and strongest when they play extremely fast and unleash that seemingly reckless, breakneck rush that long ago earned them the famous label of the world’s first »Nintendo metal« standard-bearers. That doesn’t mean “Reaching Into Infinity” is a bad album by any stretch, it could just be twenty minutes (or more) shorter, and then it would leave you with the grateful feeling that Dragonforce delivered on the album only what they’ve always delivered at their best, namely in the traditional manner. Still, there’s new material by the heaping spoonful, so once again you’ll have no trouble being blown away by the shredding of the Li/Totman guitar tandem, which is guaranteed to take your breath away. Most of the compositions are also well put together, with a real feel for building atmosphere up into a catchy, ultra-melodic chorus crescendo. Marc Hudson keeps developing even more vocal charisma and confidence, and »Reaching Into Infinity« is only his second studio album with Dragonforce.
The impressions (especially the extreme technical acrobatics) the band has spoiled us with in the past are therefore still everywhere on the new album. That guarantees typicality, in which Dragonforce have once again successfully used their proven recipe and musical formula. Fusing with other genres just gives them a headache, so this time around with »Reaching Into Infinity« they serve up some conditionally forgivable musical enjoyment too. Since the band wants to »peel away« from exactly the norms in which it works most convincingly, it will be interesting to see which musical experiments they take on in the future. For now, they haven’t exactly convinced us with them.
Dragonforce – Ashes of the Dawn (official video):
Lineup
Marc Hudson – vocals
Herman Li – guitar, backing vocals
Sam Totman – guitar, backing vocals
Frédéric Leclercq – bass guitar, backing vocals
Vadim Pruzhanov – keyboards, piano, backing vocals
Gee Anzalone – drums, backing vocals
Production
Jens Bogren
Tracklist
1. Reaching Into Infinity
2. Ashes of the Dawn
3. Judgement Day
4. Astral Empire
5. Curse of Darkness
6. Silence
7. Midnight Madness
8. WAR!
9. Land of Shattered Dreams
10. The Edge of the World
11. Our Final Stand
