Dragonforce

Ultra Beatdown

Written by: PP on 08/09/2008 01:45:38

"Ultra Beatdown" is a great title for a Dragonforce album, because that's exactly what your guitar skills and aspirations receive throughout the duration of the album. The band has done the impossible; the songs presented here are even faster, even more technical, and even more ridiculous than on "Inhuman Rampage", already considered to be a masterpiece in its genre: power metal.

But of course, Dragonforce isn't your ordinary power metal act considering they're about hundred times better than any other band in the genre, not forgetting the fact that they have, quite possibly, two of world's best guitarists in the band; that's both technically and melodically speaking. Just listen to the album opener "Heroes Of Our Time". If you aren't awe-inspired by their unmatched guitar wizardry that, against all odds, is incredibly catchy in a typically 80s video game way, then you don't know anything about guitar driven music. Sure, bits and pieces of it are actually keyboard sounds, but it's the interplay between them and the guitars that makes the song thrive. The clean vocals are still cheesy as hell, but they help create the tongue-in-cheek atmosphere the band is so famous of, and they're actually pretty catchy. At the same time, Herman Li & Sam Totman are nothing short of ridiculous on those guitars, but yet they sound so relaxed, making their impossible parts sound effortless on the album.

"Ultra Beatdown" has been criticized for being basically "Inhuman Rampage" version two, and to an extent the critics are right: it sounds almost identical to its predecessor. The songs are again averaging around the 7 minute mark, full of twin guitar solos, traded solos, breakneck speed solos, blazing solos, epic solos, timeless solos, solo solos.. you get the point. But let me ask you a question - who the fuck cares? "Inhuman Rampage" was amazing, as its title suggests, a battle between two guitarists that can't possibly be from this planet because nobody can and should be able play like that, and if we're getting more of that, still in the form of great songs simultaneously, I don't understand why you are complaining.

Download: Heroes Of Our Time, The Fire Still Burns
For the fans of: Blind Guardian, Helloween, Gamma Ray
Listen: Myspace

Release date 26.08.2008
Roadrunner Records / Universal

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