Ladies and gentlemen, because nothing says TGIF like a blast of hyperspeed fantasy gabba-metal, I give you the first great “hit” single of 2008 (even if it was originally released in 2006): Dragonforce’s “Through The Fire And Flames.” (Fire and flames! These guys are serious!)
These British power metallers have been releasing albums since the early ’00s, and “Through The Fire And Flames,” which you should download from their site for free right now, is brilliant silliness played headbanging, fist-pumping straight. The Illiterate, which tipped us off to the song now at No. 86 on Billboard Hot 100 thanks to (naturally) a Guitar Hero III inclusion, describes it as “sword and sorcery rock under the influence of early 90’s techno, like something off of Best of Techno, Vol. 3 played by Styx.” And it does sound like it could be a Rainbow tribute cooked up by gabba genius Marc Acardipane. It also sounds like something Don Coscarelli would have thrown over the closing credits to a straight-to-video ’80s action flick about killer trolls or endangered unicorns. (Except played really fast.) If Guitar Hero mania allows it to crack the Top 40, there may be hope for us all.
Dragonforce [Official Site]
Top Ten Update [The Wisdom Of The Illiterati]
@noamjamski: *”Raining Blood”
My fiance is an Icelandic horse trainer, and I always help her pick out the music for her riding showcases. Her riding team was going to be riding the horse in pace (fast!), while riding thorough a runway of made of fire. She wanted fast music. I played her some speedier techno, some drum n bass, and she staid she needed something faster. I played her some Slayer, half joking , but she said that was about the tempo she needed, but not that dark. I knew exactly what to do. I played her “Through the fire and the flames”, and it was perfect. Watch this clip and listen carefully. None more metal than Viking horses riding through fire with Dragonforce playing in the auditorium.
[www.youtube.com]
80’s Nintendo RPG?
@rogerniner: I think these guys should do an entire video with Icelandic horses tolting through walls of flame. I would watch that at least eleven thousand times.
1. I’m not sure if it’s Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out or Castlevania, but I’m sure the Minibosses have covered this song.
2. During the duel shredding, the picture in picture sets the video ON FIRE AND AFLAME.
3. Considering 1) and 2), there’s no way this came out after 1991.
@edgyspice:
Hell, we’ll just make one and send to them as a fan video.
We are still waiting on the “professional” video that was made at the event. I’ll see if I can get up on youtube when we have it.
@Cos: Jesus, I’m a dork, but
Dragon Force was a strategy/RPG on the Sega Saturn, not NES.
It’s actually an amazing game that I my friend had. I think I used to watch him play it for hours. In hindsight we probably should have been playing sports or learning how to smoke or other things that were cool, but it was the mid-90s then. Times were different.
@sparkletone: Dumbledore must love these guys! Thanks, 2007!
@Dead Air ummm Dead Air: Fuck. Dragon Warrior. Damn.
@Chris Steffen: You are totally right. My bad.
See, Jess? Things are now, actually, the complete opposite of the way things were ten years ago….now this shit amazes you and annoys the hell out of me. Progress, Ahoy.
“how did you guys not find out about Dragonforce two-three years ago when Idolator has only been around for about 19 months?”
This song is missing the sound of a 20 sided die being rolled on a wooden dinner table.
Wait. You’re only NOW getting to Dragonforce?
For shame.
I first heard about them a few years ago when some kid in a class I was substitute teaching described them:
Kid: Man, Mr. [redacted]… You’ve gotta check out this band Dragonforce. You know Yngwie Malmsteen?
Me: Yep.
Kid: Okay… Well, Dragonforce has, like… TWO Yngwie Malmsteens!
Me: Son… That’s two Yngwie Malmsteens too many.
The never brought the onstage trampolines to the Koolhaus in Toronto when I saw them there. I was dissapointed but the quicvkly melted away when I heard the intro to Fury of the Storm.
@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee:
I can’t believe how redneck this sounds now that I’ve typed it out, but when I got my first tattoo a couple years ago, the artist was listening to Dragonforce at full volume the whole time. Unsurprisingly, it was a great experience.
I love Dragonforce. They rip up the fretboards, and are just borderline on taking themselves seriously. They have another video out where it shows the two guitar players dueling with solos, but they each accrue points for solos, almost like in a video game. It’s great.
1. It’s easy to play finger tapping and 256/th note runs when you’re playing an Ibanez with zero action and 7 gauge strings, and your guitar is hooked up to like 37 computers.
2. This sounds exactly like every song in DDR.
3. While the guitarists, bass player, keyboardist, and drummer are all playing these insane fast runs in perfect sync at 180+bpm while headbanging the whole time, the singer is singing whole notes and standing still mostly. Pussy.
4. Despite all this, I feel out of breath in that good way after listening to the song, and I love playing it in GHIII.
Kicked my ass at Ozzfest. So did the undercooked gyro.
Why did I think these guys were Italian?
@Ned Raggett: Dragonfor-chay?
I once saw a Photoshop done for an “honest album titles” thing of a Dragonforce album cover. The intrepid Photoshopper had retitled the album something like “Gay Wizards and Face Melting Solos.”
I can think of no finer description of Dragonforce’s music.
Are you really just finding out about Dragonforce now?
It’s too bad they don’t use trampolines on stage anymore. Search youtube for that one, and watch the crazy drunken disasters.
I’m doing a themed mix-CD exchange with a bunch of friends, and one of the semi-prerequisites is that one of the songs can be one where you wish you didn’t know the language the lyrics were in. If I don’t get at least one Dragonforce song on one of those mixes, I’ll be pretty surprised.
When I saw Dragonforce in October 2006 (I’ve never seen so many people carrying four beers at once), some guy stepped on my foot. He turned to apologize and I said, “It’s cool.” He said, “You’re fucking right it’s cool, we’re here to see Dragonforce!” Then he hugged me.
At the Nokia in 2006 they had a timer on stage set to 2:29, the length of Angel of Death. They played the song in its entirety until the digital counter went to zero and fired up. It was simultaneously awesome and ridiculously absurd. I’m pretty sure they had the trampoline there.
For recording nerds, listen to how Inhuman Rampage is mixed. There are so many guitars going on at once, the placements of everything is a tour de force.
Also, the “Operation Ground and Pound” video is funnier. They do the guitar solos as a fighting game. It just needs to be seen.
When I first heard “Through the Fire and the Flames,” I thought “This band HAS to have a Asian dude in it. There is no doubt in my mind.”
It’s definitely of the “put up or shut up” school of guitar histrionics. But… those guys aren’t Yngwie. Note the almost complete lack of vibrato, and the same tone most of the way through the song. (Ok, they did pull out the wah pedal for a few notes…)
Pretty cool, nonetheless. I think it’s great that this kind of stuff is still getting made!
The most notable thing about Yngwie’s playing is NOT the number of notes per second he can play. It’s the myriad number of different ways he can shake the same note. Vibrato, baby. Yngwie’s the best in the biz at that…
@Vince Neilstein: Of course it took this long for Dragonforce to make it here. They’re the antithesis of a “blog band” - i.e., they don’t take themselves too seriously and are incredibly proficient at their instruments. Unsurprisingly, Pitchfork makes zero mention of them anywhere and Stereogum only references them in an article about an Adult Swim cartoon.
Best video moment = 3:20, the dueling solos where one guy shreds while the other nonchalantly sips a soda.
Between these guys and 3 Inches of Blood, you’ve just been exposed to like, half the soundtrack of the internet. Next up: Chocolate Reign…
Wow — Hot 100, No. 86: How did I miss that yesterday? Apologies to readers of my column. (That would make “Fire and Flames” the one GH3-related song I listed that’s eligible to appear on the current pop charts.)
As fan-friendly as posting the song for free is, it guarantees that Dragonforce’s ride on the charts will be a short one. It’s only on the Hot 100 right now thanks to iTunes sales.
Yeah, I was pretty shocked to see you guys just finding out about them now. They were in Guitar Hero 2 as well. BUT I’m surprised you didn’t hear about them three or four years ago when they had a MASSIVE promo push. I think my place of business got 8 copies of one of their albums. I’m pretty sure that’s how they ended up on Guitar Hero initially.
Once again…another call for no mentions of Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover in Guitar Hero 3….one of the biggest wtf moments of 2007 for me. It’s surrounded by Slayer and Maiden for fuck’s sake!