by Kai Stromler » Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:54 am
I got into them when their first demo (expanded into their first record with some minor changes, so you don't have to go hunting for it if you already have Valley of the Damned) was #1 in metal on mp3.com, back in like 2000 or 2001. I've seen them live twice, at Wacken and then at their North American debut at this year's Mass Metalfest, and while they've tightened up a little, they're still more 'fun but sloppy' than 'awesome' -- ZP's voice needs some work and Sam needs some fucking locking tuners on his guitars so he can't pull the strings out of tune playing.
Since they do have a fair degree of skill, I've been following them, but with progressively more detachment; they've kind of stagnated musically since that demo, probably due to their fanbase not really asking anything of them. There were some promising moments on Inhuman Rampage, but if they blow up Stateside, they'll probably get into that rut again.
On Blabbermouth, reports from England indicate that a lot of their popularity is driven by emos who don't really understand metal, but can "ironically" dig the band because they go so over the top. Of course, since they buy merch, DragonForce is laughing up their sleeves at them, but playing to this crowd in order to sell more stuff, and stagnating as mentioned above. This may be what's going on in the States as well; at Mass Metalfest, anyone honestly interested in melodic metal would have stayed for Gamma Ray, but 2 in 3 people left the venue after DragonForce finished. I'd double-check at Ozzfest, but everyone else but SYL on that bill kind of sucks, and I need to catch a plane for Wacken the next day.
At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with a band being fun; Edguy is a fun show even if their CDs get real old real fast, and you don't exactly go to a GWAR or Knorkator show for the music. But what is probably frustrating for a lot of the power metal fans in this thread is that DragonForce obviously has the talent to be totally awesome, and they're wasting it by dicking around for the entertainment of people who aren't even particularly into metal.
--K