DragonForce & Lovebites, The Tramshed, Cardiff
Back to The Tramshed for the originators of Extreme Power Metal. First though it was Lovebites (5) from Japan. Unfortunately we had missed synthwave/virtuoso McRocklin & Hutch, but we were there in enough time to see all of Lovebites set who h failed to ignite any excitement in this writer. The guitar/video game loving crowd were well into it but Lovebites' speed metal style is a little one dimensional, the vocals are pitchy and their entire set was mired by too much dry ice and muddy sound.
With a change over finished and photographers warned about the CO2 cannons and confetti explosions it was time for a band who will be forever known as "the ones who did that song on Guitar Hero" yes Through The Fire And The Flames was their final number but they have embraced their video gaming based audience fully decking out the stage with two huge arcade machines that played loops of old Sega games on top of which guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman would climb for a few of their guitar solo duels (of which there are many). Kicking off the evening with Highway To Oblivion from their latest album Extreme Power Metal and oldie Fury Of The Storm, they had the crowd eating out of their hands from the off, fists held high voices full singing back every fantasy tinged lyric. The video game theme was continued The Last Dragonborn, which is based around Skyrim and Heart Demolition, which apes some Whitesnake lyrics against the frantic power metal assault.
Back to The Tramshed for the originators of Extreme Power Metal. First though it was Lovebites (5) from Japan. Unfortunately we had missed synthwave/virtuoso McRocklin & Hutch, but we were there in enough time to see all of Lovebites set who h failed to ignite any excitement in this writer. The guitar/video game loving crowd were well into it but Lovebites' speed metal style is a little one dimensional, the vocals are pitchy and their entire set was mired by too much dry ice and muddy sound.
With a change over finished and photographers warned about the CO2 cannons and confetti explosions it was time for a band who will be forever known as "the ones who did that song on Guitar Hero" yes Through The Fire And The Flames was their final number but they have embraced their video gaming based audience fully decking out the stage with two huge arcade machines that played loops of old Sega games on top of which guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman would climb for a few of their guitar solo duels (of which there are many). Kicking off the evening with Highway To Oblivion from their latest album Extreme Power Metal and oldie Fury Of The Storm, they had the crowd eating out of their hands from the off, fists held high voices full singing back every fantasy tinged lyric. The video game theme was continued The Last Dragonborn, which is based around Skyrim and Heart Demolition, which apes some Whitesnake lyrics against the frantic power metal assault.
With a much bigger production value than ever seen from them before and also the best sound I've heard from them for a few years (let's not talk about that disastrous show at The Globe) things became rather weird in the middle of the set due to vocalist Marc picking up a guitar to play the themes from Castlevania & Final Fantasy 7, after which Herman quipped that "the one thing we need is more guitars" before he introduced the girls from Lovebites and Sam in tweed and carrying a Banjo to run through the theme tune of Farming Simulator (yes this actually happened) Herman then made the best joke of the night after Marc asked how it felt to be out played by two Japanese women, I won't repeat it here but needles to say Herman was the only person that could make it. As the set wore on with Black Fire from Valley Of The Damned they introduced Damien Rainaud on bass, who not only produced Extreme Power Metal but had learnt the entire set in 2 weeks!
With time running short Cry Thunder led into the last track of the main set was ballad Remembrance Day which was more emotive due to the show taking place one day removed from Armistice Day itself, leaving the arcade machine screens on during the song was a little crass, however this may have been an oversight. Before 'that song' came their ridiculous cover of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On which incited a pit building the excitement for Through The Fire And The Flames. This was probably bone of the best Dragonforce (9) shows I've seen, sublimely silly, full of virtuoso performances, big anthems and now a stage show with ambition it seems like Dragonforce have levelled up before our eyes!