DragonForce: Ultra Beatdown

DragonForce: Ultra Beatdown There is literally no band more ridiculous than DragonForce. On their fourth studio album, DragonForce continues their path into legendary power metal. Although the album only contains eight tracks it still clocks in around the hour mark. No track on the album is under five and a half minutes and most tracks are over seven minutes. Guitarist Sam Totman said of the album "It's not going to be majorly different. But hopefully the melodies will be nicer, the guitar solos will be better, the production will be better. You just try to improve in every area." It's true that DragonForce doesn't do anything revolutionary to their formula. Ultra Beatdown contains fast, twin-guitar harmonies in speed metal styles, fantastical lyrics, multi-tracked backing vocals, heavy use of keyboards, and video game-influences. The biggest criticism I have about the band still stand, and that is that all of their songs sound the same. When every song contains blistering guitars and a similar drum tempo, its hard to decipher one song from another. In the end, DragonForce fans will like this album if you have not enjoyed previous DragonForce efforts then don't even bother. It's same old same old from the extreme power metal originators. Rating: 6.5/10 MP3: DragonForce "The Fire Still Burns" Buy: iTunes