DragonHeart

History

DragonHeart (nowadays known as DragonForce) formed in 1999. In April 2000, the band entered the studio with producer/Threshold guitarist Karl Groom to oversee the recording of their first demo 'Valley of the Damned'. Not content with this, the band managed a major coup in acquiring well-known keyboards virtuoso Clive Nolan (Arena, Pendragon) to make a guest appearance on the demo. Recorded at the famous Thin Ice Studios in Surrey England, despite having budget restraints, the band managed to get a very professional sounding demo together in a very short space of 7 days. A sonic adventure that rival many of today's major metal releases. Self produced; the results speak for themselves.

In June 2000, the 5 songs demo were made available as free download from the controversial web site MP3.com. Within 1 month the title track 'Valley of the Damned' reached the top of MP3.com's Power Metal chart, with the other songs following very closely. Over 350 000 downloads/play (last counted) from mp3.com alone, 'Valley of the Damned' has been number 1 for album 2 years beating legendary bands such as Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Manowar in the complete Metal Chart. Although still an unsigned band, their music has since spread world-wide not only on the internet but the band has also made their mark into Metal magazines in England, Norway, Finland, Japan and many others!
The demo is also available for sale on CD at MP3.com and has been the number 1 selling CD under the Metal chart!

All the rave and buzz for months have led the band many record label interests and in December 2000, the band was offered to be the special guest on the Halford Tour and Stratovarius show in England! Despite having only played 2 live shows all together before and none under the current line up, DragonHeart approached the tour with so much energy and dedication to their music, making each show a complete success, receiving great reviews from the press and gained many new fans from their live performances! Despite without a keyboardist on tour, the band proved to be even more impressive on stage than on their demo.

In first half of 2001, the band spend most of their time in studio writing to complete their first album while negotiating recordings deals. Later in that year, DragonHeart recruited young keyboardist Vadim and headlined a number of successful shows across England.

DragonHeart was changed to DragonForce in december 2001. They finally signed to Sanctuary/Noise Records in March 2002 after over one year and a half of negotiations.

(source: the official DragonForce website, 2004)