DragonForce
Ultra Beatdown

THE REVIEW

Dragonforce is one of the few bands that has always managed to amaze me in a more than positive way. This is in light of the fact that they have been able to rethink and correct the now scant and exhausted concept of "power metal" by mixing elements of the latter with those typical of black metal.

From the debut with that "Valley Of The Damned," a bit raw but with clear ideas, they exposed to the world what their intention was: to set the global heavy scene on fire. The English band (the most multicultural I know) didn't stop there and surpassed themselves in the monumental "Sonic Firestorm," which, even today, I consider their peak and a must for those who define themselves as power metal fans and, in any case, of all heavy metal.

After widespread acclaim obtained left and right, as well as various live performances, the band's third full-length, "Inhuman Rampage," left me a bit hesitant: perfect in every aspect but too long-winded and repetitive. Doubt began to creep into me: "is the toy already about to break"?

Year 2008. Herman Lee’s English band gave life to their fourth studio offspring, "Ultra BeatDown" indeed, with a fairly idiotic cover and the songs....... Exactly. The songs I exactly expected. All the same, in terms of songwriting, with no minimum departure from the three previous albums, except for some (slightly) interesting bridges in some compositions (I mention "Heartbreak Armageddon", "Scars Of Yesterday", and "The Last Journey Home").

Except for the opener ("Heroes Of Our Time") and the video which can be freely seen for several weeks now, the album, overall, is deadly boring! No song manages to engage me much, none! By now Dragonforce has already given everything they could in technique, speed, and various other aspects in their previous works and, I regret to say, the path they have taken (that of super speedy songs with an average duration of over 7 minutes, in which it seems that the instruments are about to catch fire and, always in which, during the solos, singer ZP Theart seems to have time to go pee, jerk off, have a coffee, smoke a cigarette and then get back behind the microphone, fix his hair very well, and return to singing) is a dead-end street and without a path of evolution.

Always the same old story, always the same songs, always the same riffs, always the same hyper-technical and hyper-fast solos, always the same singer, and always the same damn ballad, each time uglier, bland, and boring! What a drag!

Poor Dragonforce. And yet, they are a force of nature, one of those bands that when you see them live, you can't believe that they are actually human beings. Stuff that to stop the drummer, you'd have to shoot him in the legs or, who knows, you're struck with fear that during the performance of one of their songs, perhaps, the instruments might catch fire. You know, that's the sad thing: seeing such a capable, technically prepared band, perhaps unbeatable, reduced to the shadow of itself, to self-recycling.

Few ideas, little initiative, the same warmed-over broth for the umpteenth time.

Too little to promote an album and the band that gave birth to it.

Pointless.