There is one thing fans and non-fans of metal can agree on: the genre is ripe for self-parody. It’s over-the-top stage mannerisms, lyrics, speed and non-conformist in a conformist sort of way outsider culture, practically begs for mockery. That doesn’t mean metal fans will stop loving it, nor will metal bands stop deliberately striving to be crazier, more flagrantly antagonistic and faster than everyone else.
If you’re looking for the poster child for metal’s faster-than-thou subset, look no further than London’s Dragonforce. Since 1999 the band has been fusing power and speed metal along with the fastest alternate picking this side of Yngwie Malmsteen into songs with so many notes per second the end result sounds like a soundtrack to a seizure-inducing Japanese video game.
That sound is anchored by the dual-lead guitar attack of founding members Sam Totman and Herman Li, a pair who play off one another on stage like a sonic Laurel and Hardy, if the comedians could nail a solo at 200 beats per minute without breaking a sweat nor glancing down at the fret board.
Photo courtesy of EarMusic
With nothing more than a demo under their belts the band conjured up enough hype around the UK in 2001 to snag the opening slot on a tour with power metal legends Stratovarius and the Metal God himself Rob Halford, then gigging with his eponymous solo project. One of the songs from the demo, Valley of the Damned, even rose to number one on MP3.com as the site’s most downloaded track for a couple of weeks.
The band’s fame would later peak in 2006 with their third album, Inhuman Rampage, which featured the hypnotically speedy track Through the Fire and Flames. The song quickly became the Dragonforce anthem thanks in part to it being featured on the guitar geek video game Guitar Hero III. The album would go on to shift approximately half a million copies worldwide, catapulting Dragonforce into metal’s upper echelons.
Totman and Li have never been ignorant of what got them where they are today. People go to see Dragonforce for the same reason Formula 1 fans flock to the race track: they wanna see people go fast.
One change that was made after the 2010 departure of vocalist ZP Theart was a shift in the lyrics away from the Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy-type themes toward more pertinent subjects ranging from the band’s personal battles to issues of social unrest. But that chip-tune on speed sound is still there. Don’t worry. No amount of self-parody can take that away.
■Dragonforce plays tomorrow at The Wall, B1, No. 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Tickets are NT$1,500 in advance, NT$1,800 at the door. Doors open at 7:30pm, and the show gets started at 8pm. Support comes from Sapporo and Japan’s Gyze.
Tonight was to feature a show in Taipei by legendary Floridian progressive metal/rock band Cynic. However, late on Tuesday the announcement came that the show, along with a scheduled gig in Beijing, had been canceled. The statement given on the band’s Facebook page simply said that the promoter had done all they could to sort out the situation (whatever that might have been), but to no avail.
Cynic was able to complete the Japan leg of their highly-anticipated Asia tour. Why the China and Taiwan legs were canceled is anyone’s guess, but when it comes to gigs in the Middle Kingdom (which can at times be tied to the shows scheduled in Taiwan), issues with performance visas, or total lack thereof, have been known to arise before.
At other times, shows are simply given the kibosh by overzealous government censors at the last minute. At any rate, there are at least a few disappointed fans in Taipei who were hoping to get their prog on tonight.
Also happening tomorrow night is a gig featuring some up-and-coming speed freaks. Heading up the billing is Psychopress, a Taipei progressive thrash act featured in the lines of this column before. The band has been building up some good momentum of late, and it’s always heartening to see some young blood do good things without the inevitable crush of the compulsory military service or filial piety taking the instruments out of their hands.
Also on the bill is old school death/thrash band Iron Fist (鐵拳), a new band on the block. With influences listed as Morbid Saint to Dark Angel and Sodom, expect a heavy dose of straight-ahead 1980s style retro aggression for those who never let their patch-strewn battle vests get too moth eaten in the interim between then and now.
Rounding out the lineup is one-man goregrind band Fetus Slicer. Fresh off an appearance at Japan’s Koiwa Death Fest, vocalist/guitarist/drum programmer Varg Huang (黃少亨) has been slinging his brand of necro-brutality for a couple of years, and is now gigging behind his first full-length release, Metamorphoses of Sickness.
■ Psychopress, Iron Fist and Fetus Slicer perform tomorrow at Revolver, 1-2 Roosevelt Road, Sec 1, Taipei (台北市中正區羅斯福路一段1-2號). Tickets are NT$300 with one drink, and the show gets started at 7:30pm.
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