DragonForce is somewhat of a rarity, based in London England, they play a brand of music that is almost non-existent in their location. Formed in September 1999, formerly known as DragonHeart, the band changed their name in December 2001 to DragonForce to avoid confusion with other bands, record labels and movies under the same name.
The band is powered by the twin guitar assaults of Herman Li and Sam Totman, with singer ZP Theart, drummer Didier Almouzni, and keyboard player Vadim Pruzhanov. An ordinary line up it may seem at first, but DragonForce is uniquely backed by a diverse, multi-culture international line up (Hong Kong, England, South Africa, France, Ukraine) never seen before from a young new band.
In short, DragonForce's sound can be best described as a mix of modern melodic power metal with the fury of speed metal, but the band's influence comes from wide across the metal spectrum. Catchy melodies that stick straight into your head, combined with outrageous speed, power and totally over the top dual guitar wizardry are just some of their qualities which separate them from the masses. Most importantly underneath this sonic fury lies the band's indisputable strength, their song writing. Take any of their songs and you will find enough hooks to fill an ocean, enough technical process to satisfy progressive metal lovers, guitar solos to have you playing air guitar combined with catchy melodies and the strong voice of an outstanding metal shouter.
Well known in the underground, DragonForce has already toured with Halford, Stratovarius, Virgin Steele and successfully headlined their own show across England without an album out then. Previously known simply by the word of mouth among metal fans, and their songs on mp3 through the internet (over half a million download of their demo tracks from mp3.com alone), the band is now more than ready to take on the world with their long awaited debut album 'Valley Of The Damned'
'Valley Of The Damned' was recorded in 3 different locations between May and October 2002. The drums were recorded at Jailhouse Studio in Denmark with producer Tommy Hansen (Helloween), further recordings took place at Thin Ice Studios with producer /guitarist Karl Groom (Threshold) and at band guitarist Herman Li's home studio. The album truly shows the band's talent from performance, song writing, all the way to production!
Update (13/09/2003)
Just before DragonForce embarked on a series of very successful European festival dates including Sweden Rock Festival, bassist Adrian Lambert joined Dragonforce as a full time band member after having played session for them for a year.
However, with the last band member vacancy filled another soon appeared. Torres Rock festival in Spain was the last gig that long time sticksman Didier Almouzni would play with the band. Time honoured musical differences had taken their toll and Didier left to pursue other projects. Despite Didier's departure DragonForce marched their way across Europe's festivals, always amazed at how many fans came from such great distances to catch their already reputed live shows.
After an incredible show at UK's Bloodstock 2003 festival, DragonForce are preparing to enter the studio to record the follow up to their very successful debut album 'Valley Of The Damned'.
Official biography (2002)
