There's been a lot of talk about DragonForce. Almost only positive words, those that I've read. I can easily tell that the good things said about the band are true. At least a majority. DragonForce have flown over most of deep traps many a metal band have stepped into. Namely boredom, powerlessness and total facelessness.

DragonForce are made of power, melodies and speed. The band's music, or rather melodies, are very familiar for a most of time. And usually extremely heroic, sometimes even pompous. Sometimes it feels, that there could be more variety in general. Still, performance is the thing that helps the band over the trap of facelessness. Ex-guitar heroes of Demoniac, Herman Li and Sam Totman, are the DragonForce duo. They are simply awesome, impossibly fast and talented players and hell, there's a lot of guitars in any possible form; riffing, soloing, leads, you name it, with so much of their trademarks in their playing. Maybe too much for some. Drummer (now former) Didier Almounzi is fast as a lightning, hitting the skins and cymbals like his life depended on it. Vocalist ZP Theart lets it rip. He's not a very professional vocalist, but surely a talented one. His voice is high-register and not very powerful. Still, he handles his spot like all of the guys. Bass is handled by a session bassist.

The songs are longish, expect the short, pointless intro 'Invocation...'. Shortest one lasts for 5:47 minutes and the longest one 7:16 minutes. Sometimes the songs feel a tad too long, even though there's variety and different parts in them all. Every song is fast except balladish 'Starfire'. Including piano and cheesy melodies, it is not the worst of its ilk, but still I do not like it. But then there's this thing that interest me extremely much: 'Revelations' include a tribute to Commodore 64 game 'The Last Ninja' which music is composed by Ben Daglish and Anthony Lees. This is what I've dreamed of: Commodore 64 songs played metal way! In this is the proof they would really work! And 'Blackfire' includes a part of 'The Double Dragon' theme song... Great, now who's got the balls to do metal tribute to Commodore 64?!?!

The cover's great, I mean also otherwise than that half-naked lass. The painting of J-P Fournier's really lives. Lyrics are printed, but to tell the truth they are too cheesy for my liking for the big part. Maybe I just overlooked them? Band member poses are cheesy, but not overtly so.

'Valley of the Damned' is full of good-time metal. You know what you want from your music and if you need something to drink to, headbang to, for whatever joyous action may be, you can't go wrong with this. Energetic power metal and definitely a good debut for DragonForce.

Reviewed by Lane
09/03/2003 00:41

How does the time fly?! It was over a decade ago that I reviewed this fantastic album. I've grown to like it more and more during the years. Despite somewhat shoddy production job, the songs rule! Even though the speed is often very fast, guys can throw in so much memorable bits. So I don't blame someone getting an overload of melodiousness..! Damn, this album rocks!!!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/13/2014 18:15