DragonForce
are an English Grammy-nominated power metal band from London, England, formed in 1999. They are known for fast guitar solos, fantasy-based lyrics, and electronic sounds in their music to add to their retro video game influenced sound.
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DRAGONFORCE TICKETS
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History
DragonForce was formed in 1999 by singer ZP Theart, bassist Steve Scott, guitarists
Sam Totman and
Herman Li, drummer Didier Almouzni, and keyboardist Steve Williams. Sam Totman and Herman Li had former experience in the band, Demoniac. Initially the band intended to call themselves "DragonHeart", but found that a band
with this same name already existed. They played with
Stratovarius and
Metal Church in
Finland. The band underwent various lineup changes before settling with the six current members. The band was introduced to the mainstream with their album
Inhuman Rampage in 2006. The album featured "Through the Fire and Flames" and "Operation Ground and Pound" which are the band's biggest hits yet to date. Lindsay Dawson of Herman Li and Sam Totman's former band, Demoniac, appeared as backup vocalist for this album. Their song "
Through the Fire and Flames" is one of their most famous songs and is featured on the game "
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock". The first track and first single, "
Heroes of Our Time", from their latest album,
Ultra Beatdown
, was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance on December 3, 2008, losing out to Metallica with their song "My Apocolypse" from their album "Death Magnetic"
[1]. "Heroes Of Our Time" is also featured in the video game
Skate 2
.
[2]. On January 22, 2009, the music video for their song "The Last Journey Home" was released to the
Xbox Live Community.
[3]
DragonForce will carry out the Ultra Beatdown Tour in
Latin America,
North America and
Europe. They were supposed to play in Latin America in May 2009
[4], but the tour was postponed to late 2009
[5]. They will first perform at the
Two Days a Week Festival in Weisen,
Austria on
September 4.
Then, they will perform in several cities of
Canada and
United States from
September 15 to
October 11, with special guests
Sonata Arctica and
Taking Dawn.
The next tour will be in
Germany, from
October 16 to
October 30, followed by a single live performance in
Luxemburg on
October 31.
Then, they will actually go to Latin America to perform in
Mexico City,
Santiago,
Buenos Aires,
Bogotá,
Porto Alegre,
Curitiba and
São Paulo, from
November 6 to
November 14.
The final part of the tour will be entirely in the
United Kingdom, from
November 19 to
December 12.
Band members
Current members
- ZP Theart - lead vocals (founder)
- Herman Li - lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals (founder)
- Sam Totman - lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals (founder)
- Vadim Pruzhanov - keyboards, backing vocals (2001-present)
- Dave Mackintosh - drums, percussion, backing vocals (2004-present)
- Frederic Leclercq - bass and additional rhythm guitars, backing vocals (2006-present)
Former members
- Adrian Lambert - bass guitar (2004-2005)
- Didier Almouzni - drums, backing vocals (1999-2003)
- Diccon Harper - bass guitar, backing vocals (2001-2003)
- Steve Williams - keyboards, backing vocals (1999-2000)
- Steve Scott - bass guitar, backing vocals (1999-2000)
Musical Style
The band have frequently referred to their style not just as
power metal, but as extreme power metal. Herman Li commented on descriptions of the band's style in an interview with
Guitar World
: "'
Nintendo metal', 'extreme power metal', '
Bon Jovi on
speed', '
Journey meets
Slayer', ... people are always coming up with weird labels for us."
[6] The band has often been labelled
speed metal [7] [8] [9] due to the fast tempos present in their songs, but always as a supplement to other types of metal descriptors.
Discography
below =
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