Dragonforce

DragonForce is a speed metal band from London, England, formed in 1999. They are known for fast guitar solos, fantasy-based lyrics, and electronic sounds in their music to add to their retro video game influenced sound.

History

DragonForce was formed in 1999 by singer ZP Theart, bassist Steve Scott, guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li, drummer Didier Almouzni, and keyboardist Steve Williams. Sam Totman and Herman Li had former experience in the band, Demoniac. Initially the band intended to call themselves "DragonHeart", but found that a band with this same name already existed.

The band underwent various lineup changes before settling with the six current members. The band was introduced to the mainstream with their album Inhuman Rampage in 2006. The song "Through the Fire and Flames" is one of their most famous songs and is featured on the game "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock". Lindsay Dawson of Herman Li and Sam Totman's former band, Demoniac, appeared as backup vocalist for this album.

The first track and first single, "Heroes of Our Time", from their latest album, Ultra Beatdown, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance on December 3, 2008, losing out to Metallica. . "Heroes Of Our Time" is also featured in the video game Skate 2..

On January 22, 2009, the music video for their song "The Last Journey Home" was released to the Xbox Live Community a week before it was released on the internet.

Band members

Current members
ZP Theart - lead vocals (1999-present)
Herman Li - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1999-present)
Sam Totman - rhythm guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals (1999-present)
Frederic Leclercq - bass, guitars, backing vocals (2006-present)
Vadim Pruzhanov - keyboards, backing vocals, keytar (2001-present)
Dave Mackintosh - drums, percussion, backing vocals (2004-present)
Former members
Adrian Lambert - bass, backing vocals (2004-2005)
Didier Almouzni - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1999-2003)
Diccon Harper - bass, backing vocals (2001-2003)
Steve Williams - keyboards, backing vocals (1999-2000)
Steve Scott - bass, backing vocals (1999-2000)

Musical Style

The band have frequently referred to their style not just as Speed metal, but as extreme speed metal. Herman Li commented on descriptions of the band's style in an interview with Guitar World: "'Nintendo metal', 'extreme speed metal', 'Bon Jovi on speed', 'Journey meets Slayer', ... people are always coming up with weird labels for us." The band has sometimes been labelled power metal due to the fast tempos present in their songs, but always as a supplement to other types of metal descriptors.

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonforce