Inhuman, indeed! DragonForce's third album offers another dose of extremely winged metal of power. Chiefly, the music is performed with such speed, that many won't even try to make a conscious effort to get into it. Those who give DragonForce the time their music needs, are in for a real ride.

DragonForce's metal is joyful, and when you listen to it, the joyness will grasp you. Beware, all you "evil" metal fans, steer clear from this band or your credibility will surely be shattered. When you hear the first note on this album, the band are immediately recognizable; their way to perform is simply unique, no other band sounds like DragonForce, and for the most part the band sound idiosyncratic enough. There's familiar melodies and antics from the bountiful spheres of heavy and power metal, surely, but these guys make 'em their own. I hear loads of similarities between Commodore 64 and computer/video game music generally (yep, they cover some on their debut album, maybe also on the 2nd one), and DragonForce's (on the forum, there's a debate between similarity of 'Cry for Eternity' and its 5:15 guitar solo, and 'Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja' game soundtrack). The band have dragged in some prog parts to keep their music fresh, which it always isn't, since you really can't guess the band wrong when you hear this.

Anyway, here's what you get when listening to DragonForce: very fast playing, with slower breaks to give a breather every now and then, epic melodies, symphonic influence and high sung vocals with choir on choruses. Yes, it's pompous at times, but in kind of a nice way. The songwriting on 'Inhuman Rampage' is better than on hurriedly written sophomore effort 'Sonic Firestorm' (2004), and this is really important, since the songs are long. However, the band should start coming up with some new ideas soon. Therefore I think the debut 'Valley of the Damned' (2003) is still their best one to date.

Great music for summertime, or to lift up the spirit of beery evenings and generally lifting up your spirit. Feel the energy flow! The band's on fire here and as you know, it's not an everyday occurence as the energy has been successfully captured on plastic.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/03/2007 15:26