Reaching into Infinity

This album has an incredible cover, and it's the first Dragonforce album to actually feature a Dragon on the cover. Unfortunately, it's not a real dragon, it's a cyber-dragon. But a cyber-dragon looks cool. It's futuristic, pushing the boundaries of reality. This album pushes the boundaries of what Dragonforce can do, although the success of this is debatable on some songs. Most of this album was written by bass player Frederic Leclerq, so there are much heavier songs on this album.

Let's start with the highlights: "Ashes Of The Dawn" is the main single from this track, and it's one of the best Dragonforce songs since Through The Fire And Flames. It's probably their second best song. It's Marc's equivalent of Through The Fire And Flames. This song has a god-tier riff (I know I use god-tier a lot in my reviews, but I mean it on this), some amazing solos, and keyboard sounds that give it a feeling of war on the horizon. And the solos knock it out of the park. If you like Through The Fire And Flames, but hate the 7 minute runtime, this is the song for you. Judgement Day has a dubstep-sounding intro, but then it goes supersonic, then slows down for a beautiful outro. Midnight Madness is a much more upbeat song than what you'd expect from Dragonforce, but it's a nice change in sound, hearing something in a major key. Silence is an incredible ballad with a mix of acoustic guitars and 7 strings, although no piano since everyone forgot about Vadim...which brings me to some unfortunate negatives about this album

1. Vadim was forgotten AGAIN

Seriously, Vadim was one of the best members of Dragonforce. He said that he left because the band didn't appreciate him, and this album pretty much embodies why. The keyboard is mostly relegated to the background strings, and there's only actual keyboard bits on the album, and a half-solo on WAR! but that's all there is. Ever since Fred started writing the songs, he's pretty much been erasing Vadim's contributions. Maximum Overload was more keyboard friendly, but that's mainly because the other members were contributing to it. Let me prove it:

On Maximum Overload, there were 16 songs (includes the bonus songs), and a cover, so 15 songs written by the band. Fred is credited on 15 songs, but only 3 songs were written entirely by him, and 2 of those songs were bonus tracks. On nearly all of tracks where Vadim had more keyboard bits, Sam had music credits. He's the reason Vadim got the keyboard bits he did.

On Reaching Into Infinity, there were 14 songs (including the bonus tracks) and 2 covers, so 12 songs written by the band. Fred is credited on 9 songs, and 3 songs were written entirely by him. However, he had solo songwriting credits on EIGHT SONGS!!! Fred wrote WAR! which gives Vadim a small keyboard bit near the beginning, and he wrote Edge Of The World, which I will talk about in a bit, but Marc and Sam wrote some of the lyrics along with Fred, and Vadim only has 1 solo while Herman and Sam have like, 3 solos each, and that's not counting all the guitar interludes. The only other song Vadim gets a solo is on Judgement Day, which was written by him and Sam. This reinforces my theory that Fred is responsible for Vadim leaving the band.

2. WAR! and Edge Of The World.

WAR! is a god-awful track. Marc does not sound good in the angry thrash stuff. Fred is decent at it, but that's not what Dragonforce is supposed to be. This song reads like a thrown-out Matt Heafy or Demoniac song, but then again, you shouldn't be eating from the trash, because it was put there for a reason. This song does not mix well with Marc. Then, there's Edge Of The World, or as I call it: The biggest wasted opportunity in Dragonforce history. Why the #*%#! would you put a screamo section in this beautiful ballad? There's a reason you don't get Corey Taylor to sing November Rain. The screamo section ruins the entire vibe of the song, and it should have stayed slow and easy. This would have been one of the best tracks on this album, if not for that god-awful screamo section It could have beaten out Trail Of Broken Hearts in terms of a ballad. This album would have been been on par with Inhuman Rampage without these two mistakes. And Curse Of Darkness is a boring track, I just gotta say it.

This album has its highs and lows, and the highs may be high, but the lows are like falling off the Edge Of The World (get it? Because Fred wanted to hijack Dragonforce's sound and ruined what could have been a great ballad?) Fred wrote some good songs, but at the end of the day, he tried to hijack the band's sound, and I'm honestly a little glad he's gone.

As much as I like and enjoy DragonForce's previous works (both with Theart and Hudson), this album was a huge disappointment.

Deceived by a solid intro and a pretty energetic opening song "Ashes of the Dawn" with a catchy melody, I had high expectations of this album. However, the rest of the tracks turned out to be extremely boring and redundant in the sense of nearly everything, making "Reaching into Infinity" not only the worst DragonForce album up to date, but also one of the worst power metal albums I have listened to.

The first thing that extremely lacks diversity in this album is song structure. Music-wise, most songs simply follow the standard DragonForce pattern – an acoustic guitar/keyboard/drum intro (optional), mad guitar accompanied by furious drumming, first verse, chorus, short guitar solo, second verse, chorus, 2-minute guitar solo that tries insanely hard to impress you with its speed rather than with its beauty (with almost unchanged drumming in the background), chorus (sometimes with guitars being replaced by a synth/acoustic guitar for a bit), furious outro. It's not a great problem in and of itself, but in this particular album there are simply no songs where all the aforementioned elements sound good (like in "Soldiers of the Wasteland" or "Cry for Eternity"). In other words, if the intro is good, the main riff is weak, if the main riff is fine, the boredom of the solo will outweigh it and so on. This album makes it abundantly clear that DragonForce fails miserably to keep up with the epicness of their previous works, but is still reluctant (or afraid?) to change their style even a little bit. The same thing can be said about rhyme and meter patterns. For example, chorus of "Judgement Day" and first verse and chorus of "Astral Empire" are extremely similar in that sense. What was the problem to write less songs, but make each of them more unique so that the listener can never mix one song with another (like the band did on "Inhuman Rampage" or "The Power Within")?

Lyric-wise, "Reaching into Infinity" is absolute trash. I know lyrics have never been a praised element of DragonForce's music, even its fans would agree with that, but the redundancy of lyrics in this album is absolutely stunning. After having read a few lines from lyrics of each song, I'm absolutely sick of all these "fire", "fly away", "fear", "fight", "free", "time to [verb]", "march", "we will [verb]", "die", "power", "stand", "war", "world", etc. The only bands this album is comparable with in terms of redundancy of its lyrics are black metal bands like Dark Funeral that have "Satan's demons are smeared in blood" and "smeared in angel's blood" in the same verse. The only songs of the album that stand out from the rest (despite not being unique in any way) are "Curse of Darkness" and "Silence" that focus on sadder lyrical themes. Again, if you take other works of DragonForce, like "Inhuman Rampage", the lyrics are way more interesting there (just compare the average line length of the two albums). The "sad" song on that album, "Trail of Broken Hearts", is also way more beautiful (both music-wise and lyric-wise) than the aforementioned sad songs of "Reaching into Infinity". Hudson's vocals are decent as always, but fail to make the overall album more enjoyable (especially because of how uniform what he sings is).

The worst thing about this album is probably its length. Even for DragonForce, the average song length of which (at least in case of the first 3 albums) is around 6 minutes it's way too long. I don't know why, but DragonForce seem to have tried their best to make "Reaching into Infinity" longer (perhaps, to make the album title symbolic?). All the aforementioned problems would be less significant and irritating if the album lasted less, but the band seems to be trying to bore the hell out of you, even after the quintessence of boredom is reached at "The Edge of the World", an 11-minute long song with a fine intro and chorus that are completely ruined by a tremendously long solo with ridiculous growling in the middle of the song.

Bonus tracks don't change the situation much, although I have to admit that seeing a Death song title in the tracklist was surprising. In fact, I do give the band credit for such an unusual pick and a good-sounding cover (never thought power metal sound would fit a Death song). The other two tracks, unfortunately, are just as boring as the rest of the album, which is sad considering DragonForce does have albums with decent bonus tracks ("Maximum Overload", for example).

In conclusion, this is a pretty weak album that tries to incorporate the previously used tools in its sound, but fails to impress the listener with remarkable melodies and simply can't compare with the band's previous works for multiple reasons. Definitely not recommended to people unfamiliar with the band or the genre, better listen to actually cool albums like the first 4 works of DragonForce.

Highlights: "Reaching into Infinity", "Ashes of the Dawn"

It is stipulated that at around the 20 year mark of a band's existence, they've achieved veteran status, and for Dragonforce it has arguably come a couple years early given their unique status. Despite their overt, in-your-face style, pinning down exactly where they fit within the broader power metal equation is not so simple. Technically they belong to the golden age of European power metal given their origin at the turn-of-the-millennium, presenting a more exaggerated version of the speed metal-based yet ultra-melodic Helloween style that was the dominate one of the day, meshed with some more aggressive elements from their twin axe-men Totaman and Li's background with the New Zealand black metal outfit Demoniac. On the other hand, their commercial breakthrough coincided with the days when their adopted style was going through an AOR-tinged phase and when metalcore mainstays such as Trivium and Killswitch Engage were on top of the commercial world of metal, as underscored by their frequent partnering with said bands while touring. Through it all, their popularity and status as a sort of lone mainstream ambassador for power metal proved to be a double-edged sword, as it brought some degree of commercial viability in some other steadfast acts in the style but also reinforced a negative and largely false stereotype that the style in general lacked any degree of nuance.

Several lineup changes later and the passing of all these aforementioned trends, some degree of self-reflection and stylistic evolution was destined to follow, and thus emerges the Dragonforce that many observe today, one that is still recognizable but fairly different from both its early and more exaggerated middle period incarnation. This is a band that still embodies the same quirky persona of extreme power metal, but defines it more so by conforming itself a bit more closely to a number of stylistically extreme forms of metal, though the exaggerated technical feats are still front and center. Most of this owes to the gradually increasing influence of former Heavenly guitarist turned bassist Frédéric Leclercq's songwriting, incorporating a greater degree of thrash, progressive, death/black and old school heavy metal elements into the equation, and also streamlining the overall structure of things into a more concise formula. This ongoing trend that began on Ultra Beatdown with Herman Li backing off from songwriting and Leclercg taking his place as an ancillary writer has come to a rather surprising conclusion with the advent of their 7th studio offering Reaching Into Infinity, as Dragonforce's token Frenchman now finds himself supplanting Sam Totman as the principle songwriter, composing almost 80% of the original music himself.

Ironically enough, the album introduces itself largely by presenting a picture closer to what a typical power metal album would have sounded like circa 2000 when this band first hit the scene, but as the old adage goes, the first ingredient of surprise is seeing what is expected. The instrumental and spacey prelude of a title song "Reaching Into Infinity" presents the listener with a beautifully simple atmospheric keyboard aesthetic with military drumming and an Iron Maiden-inspired lead guitar theme to boot, which segues seamlessly into an iconic Helloween homage with some slight symphonic trappings in "Ashes Of The Dawn". It possesses that signature, shredding lead guitar flavor that Dragonforce has always planted their flag on; but the melodic contour, driving feel and concise packaging isn't that much of a far cry from the more conservative offerings of a turn-of-the-millennium Gamma Ray or Freedom Call offering, and Leclercg being the sole songwriter on an anthem that channels this era isn't totally unexpected when considering his past with Heavenly, his current black and death metal projects not withstanding. Other songwriting offerings out of him such as "Astral Empire" and "Curse Of Darkness" generally follow the same formula, save the occasional odds and ends on the periphery that tilt things in a somewhat more progressive direction, and present a largely triumphant air that fits well in the context of Dragonforce.

To Sam Totman's credit, he isn't wholly silent on this album musically, collaborating with Vadim Pruzhanov on a blast and shred-happy throwback to the insanity of the Inhuman Rampage days in "Judgment Day", while also offering up a catchy speeder with a hook-laden melodic gloss from the Sonic Firestorm days in "Midnight Madness" and a shredding extravaganza of a musical collaboration with Leclercg in "Land Of Shattered Dreams" that hints at the same era. All the same, the paradigm that governs this album due to the changing in the songwriting guard yields some truly different results in the somber ballad "Silence", a noted departure from the more campy and up beat balladry this band is known for and touches upon more of a Neo-classical meets proggy Dream Theater sound. The murky and dissonant atmosphere that gives way to a certified speed/thrashing blazer in "War!" almost completely wanders off the reservation of this band's sound precedent until the chorus hits, while the punchy mid-paced turned moderately fast old school romp "Our Final Stand" occasionally finds itself in late 80s Manowar territory. But the most blatant left-turn of them all is the gargantuan epic "The Edge Of The World", which bridges the gap between Leclercg's old school and extreme metal influences in an ironically progressive package, largely marching at a "Heaven And Hell" pace, but veering into death/black territory at a few key points.

In somewhat similar fashion to its predecessor Maximum Overload, this album is a bit more of a grower than a shower, though it has a bit more catchy flash to go with the nuanced genre exploration. This point is driven home for any whom bring home the special edition version of this album and come across a brilliantly reworked rendition of Death's "Evil Dead", taking the speed factor to Mach 10 and the shred one into the proverbial stratosphere while still managing to maintain the original's extreme character in the vocal department, though the result there is a bit closer to how Schuldiner might have performed the song during the late 90s circa The Sound Of Perseverance. It proves to be a delicious cherry on top of an already elaborate and tasty musical sundae, though perhaps one that would be more of an acquired taste for the average power metal enthusiast who may not go for the extreme influences that top things off. If nothing else, it stands as one more impressive notch in this band's ongoing career, one that has survived the rise and fall of several eras and the fleeting dismissals of a legion of boneheaded naysayers. Adventurers of all things fast and melody-friendly take heed, for the journey here is rewarding, but there are a handful of villainous exploits along for this ride of power metal heroism.

Most people will agree to say that Helloween is one of the first power metal bands, back to the beginning of the 80's. They were playing more melodic speed metal than other bands were doing without leaving their traditional heavy metal roots. Lots of bands have been inspired by this new way to play metal, which increased the popularity of this genre. Some notable power metal bands might include bands like Gamma Ray (although it was founded by the same person who founded Helloween, singer and guitarist Kai Hansen), Iron Savior, Primal Fear, Blind Guardian, Running Wild or Scanner. The common point with all these bands is their way to play metal: it is speed metal mixed with a lot of melodies in the guitars and in the singing with a typical heavy metal sound. Nowadays it is slightly more difficult to define clearly what power metal is. Lots of sub-genres have appeared such as symphonic or neoclassical power metal, so much that most of the most famous power metal bands don't match the former definition brought by the first bands.

Dragonforce is one of these bands. Formed in 2001 in England, they quickly gained success with their hyper-speed and hyper-melodic power metal and the famous voice of ZP Theart and their crazy solos. They made their entire career with this uncommon way to play power metal and met the top of their success with their third album "Inhuman Rampage" with super-famous songs like "Through the Fire and Flames" and "Operation Ground and Pound". This year, Dragonforce delivered us their seventh album entitled "Reaching into Infinity". It is the third full-length of the band after the departure of ZP Theart on March 2010 and his replacement by Marc Hudson.

The departure of the former singer drove a lot of fans doubtful because he was one of the most famous symbols of Dragonforce. Moreover, Marc Hudson's voice proved to be different than ZP's one and many fans preferred the first singer rather than the new one. I do not consider myself as a fan of Dragonforce but I put myself among these people. ZP Theart's voice is more melodic and tends more to reach high-pitched notes and so it is more appropriate to the ultra-melodic songs of Dragonforce. Marc Hudson's voice is not bad, it is simply more appropriate to "classical" power metal bands like Primal Fear for example. It is a little bit rougher than ZP's one and is more appropriate to low-pitched notes rather than the high. With this sword of Damocles upon them, they recorded the average "The Power Within" which comforted me on my position concerning the new singer. I didn't expect anything from this day until they released "Maximum Overload" in 2014 which was for me one of the most surprising albums of the year. I liked everything, even this so-contested voice hoping the next Dragonforce would be as good as the precedent.

Sadly it is not the case. Dragonforce delivered us one of the most disappointing albums of the year with "Reaching Into Infinity". When I listened to "Maximum Overload", I thought they were knowing what was wrong with their previous record "The Power Within" and they had learnt from their mistakes. That is why I was hoping for great things with this new album by also giving a new chance to Marc Hudson.

Let's now dive into the main problem of the album. What makes this error so important is that we find it in almost every song. I am talking here about the multiple solos. They mean absolutely nothing. Making solos when you are either Herman Li or Sam Totman is a tough work because the boundary between melodic or beautiful and insane and ridiculous is really thin. And they crossed it too many times in this album. First of all, these solos are absolutely not diversified. It seems that random tapping with sometimes strange guitar effects is the only kind of solo they can play. We find these eerie solos in songs like "Ashes of Dawn", "Judgment Day", "Astral Empire", "Curse of Darkness", "Midnight Madness" and "Land of Shattered Dreams". Even in "Silence", which is a ballad, the two guitarists play their crazy solos full of tapping and semiquavers on a very slow rhythmic guitar and an even slower drum set. Here, the solos are not that bad. The main problem with them is they are completely inappropriate with the rest of the song. It would have been better to play more melodic and slower solos. Then the other major problem with solos on this album is they are way too long. I don't dislike long and complex solos with several guitars, but we have to do it only if the solo we play is appropriated. Here it is not. The style of Marc and Herman is hyper speed tapping solos that go up and down in a percentage of a second, interspersed with odd guitar sounds made with the whammy bar. Everything goes very quickly. You can't make a long solo with that, first because you can't assimilate so many notes, and then because it becomes very quickly boring. Sadly, this is what they did. However, all solos aren't garbage. Some of them are okay, like the first ones in "The Edge of the World", "War!" and "Judgment Day" which remembers the old Dragonforce period, and the second one in "Curse of Darkness".

The riffing overall is very mediocre, this time for several reasons. It is often because of main riffs are far too speedy to understand anything like in "Astral Empire", where we don't have much time to assimilate everything in the main riff. I just want to say to the guitarists "Please calm down!" We find this kind of hyper speed and incomprehensible riffing quite often. But the worst riff you could ever find in a Dragonforce song is in "The Edge of Silence", an eleven minute track. After an okay solo in a calm part, there is a pseudo-death metal part with a pseudo-evil riff that plunges you not into a horrific atmosphere but in an embarrassing mood. The worst about this riff is not that it represents very badly the death metal atmosphere, but that it is repeated so many times that it will quickly become the riff you hate the most. However, some noticeable riffs might include main riffs like "Midnight Madness", very good and joyful, "War!" with its typical speed/heavy metal sound, "Land of Shattered Dreams", tremolo picking in harmony and "Our Final Stand" which reminds me of old Gamma Ray. Sadly, the few good things about this song are only played once, in the beginning. Moreover, "War!" is an interesting song because it tries to escape from the basic Dragonforce super melodic sound, and makes a more thrashy-style sound. Actually, this song is pretty good, it has catchy verse riffs but they are too short. To conclude on the riffing, in spite of some good things, many main riffs are way too speedy and inappropriate to the tempo of the song, which makes them very difficult to understand. Moreover, the band adds too many guitars at certain parts, like in the pre-chorus and the solo of "Judgment Day" and in the verse of "Midnight Madness" which make these parts more difficult to understand.

Let's jump into the second big problem with this album, which is the global mixing. Everything in "Reaching Through Infinity" sounds like plastic. It is like if the music didn't come from real instruments but from synthetic and simulated ones in software like Mixcraft or Guitar Pro. The best example is in the song "Judgment Day", where I can't say if the second solo is played with a guitar or a keyboard - to be honest, I know it's a keyboard, but it's still quite hard to distinguish both instruments. There is actually synthetic sounds, but they are atmospheric trance pads that make transitions or intros. We find a trance intro in "Judgment Day", made with an awful pad. I like both metal and trance music, but these are two music genres that I have some difficulties to mix. In a full trance music song, this pad would be good and efficient, but here it sounds awful and off-topic. It doesn't match the rest of the song. We have also an explosion of synthetic sounds in "Astral Empire" and in "Midnight Madness", which may lead us to ask if you're listening to power or cyber metal.

The third and last main problem with this album is Marc's voice. The music played emanates a certain epic and melodic atmosphere, with very specific emotions and feelings, and the voice does not match them at all, for the reasons I evoked in the intro. So in some songs, everything seems pretty okay and I am just beginning to enjoy the song, and then his voice comes and ruins everything, like in "Ashes of Dawn", "Midnight Madness" and "War!", where the chorus absolutely butchers the rest of the song - it is the most off-topic chorus I've ever heard -, and in "The Edge of Silence", where there is... guttural voices, in this death metal part. Please DF, don't. This is the worst thing you could ever do. Wait, am I talking about Dragonforce or Dying Fetus? Where is the link between a death metal scream and a power-ballad? The worst in all of that is not that this is off-topic once again, but that it is so badly imitated that the only impression we have while listening to this is a nine year old child trying to scare you saying something like "grr! I'm a devil! Are you afraid?"

In conclusion, in spite of some goods attempts from time to time, "Reaching Into Infinity" is an awful album with too much computer edits and synthetic sounds which kill the authenticity of the songs, changing them into soulless and plastic sounds with crappy transitions. Everything is chaotic. Solos are full of problems, keyboard and bass guitar aren't there enough, and the voice is completely inappropriate to the emotions of the album. A bad release that we're going to forget after listening to it.

DragonForce widdled their way onto the scene in 2002 with their ‘Valley of the Damned’ album creating a ground zero for the bands rather unique take on power metal. However, it was their 3rd album, ‘Inhuman Rampage’ released in 2006 which really broke DragonForce to the masses with the massive single, ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ achieving huge popularity through the video game, ‘Guitar Hero’. Following the departure of vocalist ZP Theart in 2010, DragonForce replaced Theart with the unknown Marc Hudson and since Hudson’s arrival, DragonForce have found themselves releasing two more than decent albums; ‘The Power Within’ in 2012 and ‘Maximum Overload’ following 2 years later.

Breaking their 2 year cycle, DragonForce released their 7th studio album and 3rd with Marc Hudson, ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ in May of 2017. Taking the template laid down on earlier DragonForce albums, ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ expands on this formula and could prove to be the most diverse and mould breaking album that DragonForce have ever released. Yes, DragonForce can play fast, they have proved that many times and once more prove it on their latest album, but with ‘Reaching Into Infinity’, DragonForce have broken their cliché, they have proved that they are not just superior musicians, but also excellent songwriters.

Part of the success of ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ is not only down to the band, but also the producer, the acclaimed Jens Bogren. Bogren has left his mark on the DragonForce sound, he has pulled the band together and injected his expertise built around bands like Paradise Lost, Amon Amarth, Kreator and Rotting Christ, incorporating his knowledge of different styles and thus, different ways of approaching the songs, this has massively helped to improve the DragonForce sound.

Following the brief self-titled intro, ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ bursts into ‘Ashes of the Dawn’, a typical DragonForce fast paced romp with the soaring vocals associated with DragonForce’s take on power metal, with Marc Hudson hitting notes that only dogs can hear towards the end, whilst the following track, ‘Judgement Day’ recalls ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ with its extremely fast intricate playing in which guitarists; Herman Li and Sam Totman outdo themselves. However, ‘Judgement Day’ throws in a curveball by descending into a half time rhythmic section in tune with modern hard rock with keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov showing that he can easily keep up and even outdo the speed of light guitars.

The main issue with DragonForce has always been their albums can occasionally melt into an hour long hemidemisemiquaver fest, but with ‘Reaching Into Infinity’, the tempo and time changes placed into their songs easily bypass this and no songs do this better than; ‘Astral Empire’, ‘War!’ and the epic ‘The Edge of the World’. ‘Astral Empire’ is fantastic and will probably be the first song on the album which grabs you with its insanely catchy chorus and fantastic bass work from Frédéric Leclercq, with Leclercq even formulating a bass solo before unleashing Li and Totman. DragonForce even manage to take their speed to another realm with ‘War!’. ‘War!’ borders on thrash metal with its aggressive rhythms, easily showing that DragonForce are not a one trick power metal pony. ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ even takes the listener into a more sombre moment during ‘Silence’ with its overtones of suicide, proving that DragonForce are not all dragons, crystal balls and sci-fi journeys and are capable of writing introspective, heartfelt songs. But ultimately, the album’s showstopper goes to ‘The Edge of the World’, an eleven minute brute of a song which even manages to take you by surprise with the mid-section descending into melodic death metal, complete with downtuned guitars and growls to boot. With songs like ‘War!’ and ‘The Edge of the World’ in their cannon, it shows that DragonForce are capable of so much and with this positive expansion in their sound, DragonForce may be able to break from the corner the world painted them into back in 2006.

In essence, the only songs that pale and fade into unmemorable are at the latter end of the album, ‘Land of Shattered Dreams’ and ‘Our Final Stand’ pale in comparison to the other tracks on ‘Reaching Into Infinity’. But, long term fans of DragonForce will be pleased to note that there are plenty of the sounds around that made DragonForce famous, blistering solos, fantastic soaring vocals and plenty of singalong whoa whoa whoas to satisfy your inner Iron Maiden clawing its way out and with DragonForce having continued their streak of enjoyable albums since Marc Hudson inherited the vocal duties, ‘Reaching Into Infinity’ shows a band hungry, diversifying their sound and maturing gracefully.

It’s been around 10 years since I discovered DragonForce: the band that ignited my passion for metal. I’m glad to see that, after about 40% of my life, and my tastes broadening and flowering to genres far beyond, I can always count on these power metal maniacs to release quality material. Their past two endeavors were somewhat contention points in my own mind. “The Power Within” has slowly faded out of my regular listening while “Maximum Overload” has actually held its own. If I could go back, I’d probably bump up my score for that album, it’s a little more enjoyable than I gave it credit for on my first few listens. Of course, my heart will always belong to the first 3 records; “Above the Winter Moonlight” will always be at least a weekly listen. This brief trip down memory lane brings us to the subject matter at hand today: “Reaching Into Infinity.”

First off, I’m glad this feels like a minor return to form for the band. Song lengths are longer than the previous two albums, and generally the solos are more tastefully done and not simply a blistering speed fest attempting to outdo “Through the Fire and Flames.” They’re still blistering speed fests, definitely, but they don’t sound as though they are attempting more gimmicky versions of the same effects that made the band famous. This lets the album breathe a little bit, and I think this is the type of deviation DragonForce were attempting when they originally brought in Marc Hudson as the new vocalist. It took a bit of growth, but they finally found the differentiation and progression of sound they were looking for. Personally, though I am happy the band sounds much more comfortable in their own shoes now, I will always prefer the 7-8 minute fantasy power metal anthems of the first two albums. I don’t think we will ever get that DragonForce back, so I’m perfectly fine with this.

The album begins with the first proper instrumental intro that DragonForce have ever done. Funny that, considering the prevalence of instrumental intros in power metal bands. We are then immediately thrust into an absolute winner of a song: “Ashes of the Dawn.” I’m serious, a 4-minute DF song that finally hits all the right beats. Marc is on fire here. The chorus and high notes are on point and the solos stick to your brain like a hearty bowl of oatmeal sticks to your bones. It’s fantastic. That’s something that permeates this entire album: catchy choruses. I really enjoy what Marc does here, I can’t describe exactly what I like, but it definitely keeps my attention and drags me right back to this CD every time I glance at it in my library. “Land of Shattered Dreams” is the other absolute winner that drives this point all the way home. “Can we really leave this world behind?” is a line I was reciting on the second chorus my first time listening, it’s Stratovarius “Hunting High and Low” or “Will the Sun Rise?” astounding. Another special mention goes out to the bonus track “Hatred and Revenge.” The chorus is yet another winner and it repeats a lot, which I adore.

As with the choruses, there are a number of guitar solos and instrumental moments that stick out a lot more than the previous 2 albums. The easiest one to point out is the intro to “Curse of Darkness” which is basically plagiarism of “Bloody Tears” from the Castlevania series. They had an overt reference to Symphony of the Night last album, so why not go one further, eh? A more original moment comes with “Astral Empire” which boasts a great bass guitar solo and many blindingly fast guitar antics. Speaking of “Astral Empire,” newcomer Gee Anzalone puts on a great performance on drums with his blazing intro to that song. “War!” also contains a great fill from Gee. Drums have never been too memorable in DragonForce, and they definitely don’t break new ground here, but it is nice to hear the instrument get at least a little love. I’m surprised ex- Bal-Sagoth drummer Dave Mackintosh lasted so long in DF, I much prefer his performances in his previous band. More memorable moments are sprinkled liberally throughout, so you should go listen to this album and find them for yourself!

I mentioned at the beginning of this review that this was a minor return to form. Unfortunately, one of the parts that marks a full return to form is a cruddy ballad that I was so glad they cut from their previous album. DF ballads are always bores to me. Some of them are passable but by and large they always feel like filler. The songs that experiment a bit and continue DF’s trend of playing with new ideas show up in the form of “War!” and “The Edge of the World.” The former is a thrashier tune and I think they missed the mark here. The chorus is great and it contains good solos and a great drum fill, but that can’t save it from feeling out of place. The latter is DF’s longest song to date and I was desperately hoping for “Soldiers of the Wasteland” 2. Instead we get something more akin to “The Last Journey Home” (which I not-so-lovingly refer to as "The Last Coma-Inducing Journey Home," more on that if I ever get to "Ultra Beatdown"). This song starts out solid enough, it certainly feels more inspired than other experimental DragonForce songs. I really like the chorus here too, and there are plenty of memorable solos throughout. When the song reaches the midpoint though, we get a very odd change. Marc shows up big again, with growl vocals that are pretty cool. Wait, why the heck did we need the guy from Trivium to show up on the last album if you were this decent at growled vocals, Marc? Anyway, as well meaning as the attempt is, I, again, feel as though they missed the mark here. DragonForce really needs to stick to fast and catchy. I appreciate the attempt, but, guys, there are plenty of other bands that can do this type of tune much better, leave it to them. The album feels like it should end after this behemoth of a song, but, we have one final track in the form of "Our Final Stand," which, once again, doesn't quite hit home. I love the intro guitars but after that it feels rather phoned in.

So that's "Reaching Into Infinity," the seventh full length album by DragonForce. It does well for itself. There is definitely more here that sticks to my brain the previous Marc albums, and the experiments fare slightly better. Songs like "Midnight Madness" and "Land of Shattered Dreams" feel much more like happy anthem DragonForce and remind me why I fell in love with the band in the first place. It's a shame that the album gets bogged down a little by the return of the ballad and experiments that stumble in execution. That being said, this is a refreshing DF experience for me and I'm sure I'll be listening to the phenomenal tracks from this record for years to come!

If there's no dictionary definition of 'past their prime' or 'irrelevant,' I think Dragonforce would be a great candidate for either one. They've been all but forgotten about after a brief stint with huge fame back when “Through The Fire And Flames” got big on Guitar Hero – ever since then it's been a long, slow decline into irrelevancy, and nobody except for big power metal nerds has cared about their recent albums without classic singer ZP Theart. This new one, though, is the first one to really, truly suck ass. And as their best album Sonic Firestorm has a special place for me as the second album I ever bought, this is a tough review to write.

On their previous two albums with new singer Marc Hudson, I haven't really liked the change in style to a more restrained, palatable version of the sound – to me, this band was always great when they let their songs play long and wrote louder and louder choruses from album to album. So it was disappointing to hear them rein in the things that made them good. Hudson's voice wasn't great, either. But they did manage to write catchy, fun songs anyway, so I gave them a pass.

On this one, that's basically all gone. There are at least glimpses of the band trying to reach beyond the rather restrained songwriting of the previous two, but at the expense of anything catchy or energetic, apparently. These are very generic, dull songs that use contrived melodies you'd think were written by a newbie band with one demo out, except this band used to be one of the biggest in metal for a few years. Hudson is just not up to scratch here, probably just because of the awkwardly written vocal lines – he sounds very flat and there's nothing exciting about the lines he's singing here. He seems to be singing everything super fast too, so he comes off something like an Alvin and the Chipmunks character singing karaoke versions of Dragonforce songs. Either that or one of those sped-up Youtube videos for humorous effect – neither one is a compliment.

The best you get on here is some hyper-speedy, melodious guitar lines that recall their old stuff – but the writing is just confused, with each song somewhere between trying to be fresh and innovative and trying to hearken back to the band's glory days. So really they don't accomplish either one. The songs are a bit longer than those on the previous few albums, and they try to put in some twists and turns here and there, but again, all the melodies are just stale and Hudson's flat singing doesn't lend itself to any singable parts. “Astral Dawn” and “Midnight Madness” are listenable (although they'd be B-sides on their older albums) and lead single “Judgment Day” actually sounds like the Dragonforce you used to know. But there isn't much else of interest – mostly just faceless blurs of speed like “Curse Of Darkness” with weak melodies, or the limp ballad “Silence.” “War!” is maybe the band's worst track ever with its groovy, half-thrash style harsh vocals and fucking terrible chorus. I just can't believe how bad this shit is.

Then you get “The Edge Of The World,” at 11 minutes long being the band's longest track ever. It's actually not that bad at first, until halfway in when they go into an incredibly strange harsh-vocal section that doesn't work at all, sounding like they just sampled a song from a completely different band. It'd be fine if the band had tried to implement these experiments more wholly into the songwriting, but as they just crop up in very short bursts near the end of the album, it comes off as halfhearted and half-assed. Like they just threw it in without thinking much.

So that's the whole album – the songs are either forgettable B-side versions of their classic work with worse melodies and vocals, or bizarre experimentation that they didn't really put much work into. This specific blend of inconsistencies and mediocrities just tells me this is a band without much inspiration at this point of their careers. They seem to be desperately grasping for some kind of way to get people's attention again, but it's at the expense of anything resembling musical quality. This is a directionless album that is annoying when it's not boring. After a while you'll just turn it off and put on “My Spirit Will Go On” again.

I really should stop being so surprised that Dragonforce is capable of writing actual songs. 2012’s The Power Within proved that the band could show restraint and do more than just shred for the sake of shredding. 2014’s Maximum Overload was a bit more inconsistent in comparison but it managed to keep the momentum going. Reaching Into Infinity (and beyond?) sees Dragonforce holding to their signature brand of extreme power metal and managing to keep the ship afloat.

For all the changes that have happened in the last decade, Dragonforce isn’t that dramatically different as a band. The songs are still shorter on average than their early albums but they still mostly consist of shredding guitars, blasting drums courtesy of newcomer Gee Anzalone, over the top vocals, and the occasional electronic outburst. Unfortunately, this also means that the fast songs still feel the same. Thankfully their chorus writing is a little more consistent, with “Midnight Madness” in particular managing to stick out.

Fortunately, things do get a little more varied as the album goes on. It’s been a tradition since Valley of the Damned for Dragonforce to tack a power ballad onto each album, but “Silence” just might be the most emotional one they’ve put out so far. Elsewhere, the thrash influence and more aggressive vocals on “War!” suggest that Matt Heafy’s influence on Maximum Overload may still be lingering here.

But with this said, “The Edge of the World” is the real head-turner on here. As someone who thought Dragonforce’s older songs generally went on for too long and praised the band for opting for shorter lengths in recent years, I have to appreciate the irony of the best song on here being the longest one they’ve ever released. But rather than making this song an eleven minute shredfest, it is a largely mid-tempo anthem that gradually picks up more extreme metal influence and surprisingly tactful solos by the band’s standards. No idea why they went with “The Final Stand” as the album’s closer though; it really seems like it should’ve gone before…

Overall, Reaching into Infinity isn’t too dramatically different from its predecessors, but I don’t think Dragonforce has ever sounded this comfortable. For better or worse, the band doesn’t seem to be trying so hard to impress their lovers or haters. Listeners with the bitter taste of Inhuman Rampage still on their tongues are advised to give the band another chance but I’d say Valley of the Damned or The Power Within are the best places to go about doing so.

Highlights:
“Silence”
“Midnight Madness”
“The Edge of the World”

Originally published at http://indymetalvault.com

Originally Written For The Grungy Land Blog

Reaching for infinity and grabbing it.

I fully believe that one of the more fascinating discographies to dissect in the metal scene as of late is that of DragonForce. Love them or hate them (as you probably fall into one of either category) DragonForce’s brand of ultra-speed thrash/power that, let’s be honest, only reached the mainstream for a short time due to their appearance in Guitar Hero III, was a niche kind of music that thrilled some and bored others. Then in 2010 when vocalist ZP Theart left, the band rebooted themselves, going back to more traditional power metal, and producing one of the most underwhelming albums of 2012, followed by one of the most underrated albums of 2014.

It’s been a bizarre ride to be sure, but it’s one that I feel has no real destination. DragonForce have proven that they have some level of talent and can make something besides overly masturbatory solos masquerading as songs, so in terms of what I was hoping for on Reaching Into Infinity, I was kind of lost. On the one hand, I want them to continue the work they did on Maximum Overload, but if they did that they may just end up making Maximum Overload again, and that’s just not what this band needs right now. The one thing I knew was I didn’t want DragonForce to return to their Ultra Beatdown and Inhuman Rampage era of… well, overly masturbatory solos masquerading as songs. But I know that whichever road they pick, the band is kind of boned. After all, continuing past the denser material will mean continually alienating their past fanbase, while not attracting any new fans because no one thinks they have moved past the denser material.

And that’s what makes Reaching Into Infinity so disappointing. Not that it’s bad, but that it’s actually pretty good, but it feels like no one cares anymore.

Reaching Into Infinity is DragonForce’s latest work that tries its damnedest to satisfy both ends of the power metal spectrum. This mostly means bringing back some of the more exotic and over-active guitar playing, while trying to remain as concise and melodious as possible. And honestly, it works. Reaching Into Infinity’s attempts at blending those two very different styles succeed in making an album that doesn’t reach the level of complexity of Ultra Beatdown or the emotional impact of Maximum Overload, but makes such a strong attempt, that it’s hard not to get caught up in the thrill of it all.

Most of the songs on Reaching Into Infinity follow the template the modern DragonForce has been following for a while now. Most of the riffs are incredibly fast, with the drums falling just short of blast beats, and the bass… is also there. The difference here being, much like Maximum Overload, the band’s overactive playing style has been greatly toned down to allow a more melodious (but still face paced) style grow out. Here and there, the band return to that crazy style, but it’s used sparingly. Honestly, it’s used so rarely that whenever it does come up, the band really feels like they have earned it. Even the songs Judgement Day and Midnight Madness who throw that style right in your face feel like they’ve earned it considering most of their choruses and verses are so controlled and well executed. The solos aren’t as long and intricate as previous records, but much like the rest of the songs, they allow for things to get crazy when they should, and end up sounding much more melodious and enjoyable as a result.

The overall flow of the album is what sells it. Past records have always been exhausting to listen too, and even though Reaching Into Infinity is a solid hour, it doesn’t feel its length. The band tries its best to make sure that every song doesn’t overstay its welcome. No chorus is too repetitive, no solo is overbearing, and the overall tone of the album is constantly changing. Things are constantly kept fresh and exciting while sticking to that melodious speedy power metal vibe. Even the 11 minute track “The Edge of The World” doesn’t drag on like most attempts tend to do thanks to some amazing melodies and even a dramatic change in vocals.

Lyrically this album is a bit more cheesy than I would like, but considering power metal as a whole is meant to be more cheese over substance I can let it slide. It certainly helps that ZP Theart’s replacement, Marc Hudson, is a fantastic vocalist whose delivery of each line never ceases to be entertaining, even when the lyrics may be more clumsy and cheesy than the group intended.

The only real nitpick I have with the album is that the group seems to be going for this sci-fi theming on the album, and don’t really flesh out what their going for as well as they could. Most of that is due to the cheesy lyrics which focus more on the power metal tropes of victory and war and rising up and all that instead of doing something that reinforces that sci-fi feel.

I enjoyed my time with Reaching Into Infinity. It’s a refreshing new piece of talent from a band that is working hard to redeem themselves, and I for one hope that this album does well and DraonForce gets their chance to shine again.