Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
power metal's reductio ad absurdum., September 4, 2006
it's possible purchasing this album was an error in judgment. I owned _Sonic Firestorm_. I really didn't need another Dragonforce album. Yet the addictiveness of the previous album carried on and I couldn't resist the (perhaps somewhat masochistic) temptation to get more Dragonforce songs. _Inhuman Rampage_ is everything I expected, yet somehow it still surprised me. This album is even MORE power metal than the last album! If you don't think that's possible, well...that's reasonable. i didnt think so, that's for sure. Nonetheless, when an album wails the power metal idiom this hard it would be appear mistaken to conclude otherwise. This is the reductio ad absurdum of power metal, but it is _not_ a parody -- for it is keeping with the general method. It's basically just faster and more uninhibited, with a surprising lack of pretense (well, any band that has a song called "Operation Ground and Pound" is either totally handicapped or pretty down-to-earth, and in this case i favor the latter) At only eight songs, this is one of the most physically exhausting albums ever (and that's just for the listener, I mean -- not to mention the band itself, whose stamina is superhuman). Dragonforce plasters the listener for seven songs straight with every power metal stereotype amplified a hundredfold, nigh-ceaselessly 256 bpm with double-bass pedals like the pulse of 500-lb hummingbird wings, guitars grinding with grand gestures, and vocals that just might summon all the warriors in the world. I like to describe their songs as continuous choruses, because the verses, bridges, and, yes, choruses, are so power metally straight through and through -- with their perfect cadences and melodic aptitude -- that, for example, on "Through the Fire and the Flames", after the first verse you think you've hit the chorus twice before you actually have. pretty much all the songs are like that. Also absolutely delicious are the mightily crunchy seven-string guitar riffs that appear two, maybe three, times throughout the album. Delicious touches like that, and the greater variety that appears in the solo/interlude sections of songs (sometimes all-out berserker shredding, sometimes complex fugues of bass, keys, and guitars, sometimes just totally sweet midtempo clomps). A lot of people will say Dragonforce is uninteresting, which is reasonable. Others, on the other hand, will denigrate them because they are too over-the-top, or that they lack taste. Respectfully, if you buy this album and complain about such things, you were terribly ignorant. You should not be listening to Dragonforce if you want tasteful metal. You should listen to Dragonforce if you want the fastest, most relentless, over-the-top power metal there out there - performed by a band that actually writes damn great songs while they're at it. (btw, the eighth song actually does slow things down a lot - a very nice power metal power ballad. by then you kinda need it!)
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A strong contender for the best album of all time, June 22, 2006
Believe the hype. I never hype up bands. But I will hype up this band until the day I die. EVERY good review about this band, specifically this album, is 100 perecent TRUE. After hearing this album, you pick your head back, put it on your shoulders, and then go ram your frickin' body through a granite wall. This is probably the fastest album I've ever heard (other than origin or something) and it amazes me how fast this band plays. And it's not just masturbating and seeing how fast they can play before the friction causes their flesh to burn: they actually make coherent lead, riffs, and melodies that somehow are understandable when going through your head about 56565656565 miles an hour. This album is so fast that my cd player caught on fire and then later on my cat did because he realized that he will never be as cool as this album.
I feel very very bad for my other music. I'll never play it again. Dragonforce has indeed ruined every cd ever, past, present, and future. Actually, I feel bad for every item I own, even my house. My house SUCKS compared to this cd. Their next release might beat it but I think the world might end then because if this cd is already god then what is the next cd going to be?
By the way, it's obvious that i'm exaggerating but I AM NOT being sarcastic. This is seriously one of the greatest metal albums ever or album in general. If you don't like this then you have no soul. I'm so sorry. Just get this album. Tracks 1 through 7 are in your face fast attacks with the last track being a pretty ballad feature slower, but no less specatular, guitar playing.
Dragonforce...i love you. Not in a gay way. Oh i'm not done yet. Keep reading, woman.
Yes, you may hate power metal. But you won't care when you hear this. The vocals are not over the top like most power metal bands, the singer sings at just the right pitch with very few actual falsetto yells. He sounds like the journey singer more than he does an opera singer. Oh and the drums are insanely insane too. THe lyrics are DEEPLY rooted in fantasy based elements but somehow they take these corny subjects and make them moving and emotional with the vocals and crushingly awesome with the instruments.
If had a g/f, she would break up with me because I would be like, "sorry, baby butt cakes, but we can't make love. I'm listening to Dragonforce".
she would reply, "freak"
but i don't care. I got this album!
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57 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious - no joke - this album is high-larious, August 30, 2006
Alright, just so you know, this album review comes from a power metal enthusiast. Rhapsody, Kamelot, Shaman and Helloween are among my favorite bands, which should provide some credentials to what I'm about to write. I love melodic power metal and I definitely appreciate the fantasy realm in which these bands live. I love shredding guitar solos, pounding double-bass rhythms and of course, the high-pitched falsetto whail.
Then there's Dragonforce. I had originally stayed away from them because power metal bands are sprouting up in everyone's backyard these days. But the hype grew. I heard "Fields of Despair" (off "Sonic Firestorm") on Pandora, but I still stayed away. And the hype continued to grow.
Finally, I saw the video for "Through the Fire and the Flames", and at no point in it's edited 5-minute run did I stop laughing. The entire song, from concept to delivery, was hilariously fast. I'm sure you've already heard this: Dragonforce is fast, big deal.
No, you don't understand, it IS a big deal. They're not only fast, they are relentlessly fast. These guys must lift weights with their fingers and calves alone because the endurance they must have is staggering. Songs like "Operation Ground and Pound" and "The Flame of Youth" have the drum rhythms of the most intense black metal bands, but with the melodic command and consistency of melodic power-metal bands like Brainstorm. Every single nook of every song is filled with blitzkrieg finger-picking, impossible drum breaks and video game sound effects. It doesn't take much time for the average listener to be out of breath.
That, however, is the only thing that separates Dragonforce from the rest of the crowd. With songs averaging at 7 minutes long, you can't really listen to more than one at a time. Additionally, some tend to blur together (I can't differentiate between the choruses in "Through the Fire and Flames" and "Operation Ground and Pound").
Despite these flaws, the album is exhilirating and definitely a welcome addition to your low blood pressure. You won't be able to stop headbanging ... for 10 - 12 minutes, and then you change it to something a little less over-the-top.
As a guitarist, I can appreciate Herman Li's innovative guitar-playing insanity, but, like I've said, only for a few minutes. If you like laughing at music (Luca Turilli, Helloween), and at the same time appreciate melodic speed, then go ahead and get Dragonforce's entire three-album catalog. Otherwise, slow it down a little.
See also: Angra - Holy Land, Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy, Rhapsody - Power of the Dragonflame
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