DragonForce - Inhuman Rampage

There are always one or two bands or groups in every genre that will pull you in and make you want to listen to more of that genre. For example, The Offspring, Green Day and Minor Threat and The Dead Kennedy’s are the most common bands for introducing people to punk, metalheads will often quote Pantera, Slayer, Sepultura and most recently Slipknot. So what about power metal? Judas Priest? Helloween? Manowar? Recently, there has been one band responsible for the rise and rise of power metal (in the UK anyway). This band is Dragonforce.

Inhuman Rampage is the follow on from 2004’s fantastic Sonic Firestorm album and I’m gonna stick my neck out on the line and say it’s probably the best collection of songs they have released.

In the press release Herman Li (guitarist) stated “On the new album we have come up with the ultimate formula that has never been done before. Combining intensity, chaos and melody, with all the DragonForce trademarks plus some more. For us, this is the next evolution in DragonForce's sound. I have never heard an album sounding like ‘Inhuman Rampage'....the title says it all! It's seriously gonna blow some heads off around the world next year.”

The album opens up to midi sounding keyboards but soon kicks off in style. The first two songs clock up more than 14 minutes, but I didn’t even notice!

In pretty much every song you are treated to a solo of one kind or another (c’mon, it’s DragonForce, what else did you expect?) be it keyboard or guitar or in the case of one song, there is even a small bass solo…!

Finishing of the album is a nice ballad, and please don’t lynch me for saying this, but it reminds me of Meatloaf!

I have no idea how they will pull this batch of songs off live, but then again, that was said about that last album!

If you are a DragonForce fan, you will notice similarities to previous DF releases, but that is to be expected. That is what makes it a DragonForce album. If you are not a fan of DragonForce then this album will not make you change your mind and suddenly like them.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Through the Fire and Flames
2. Revolution Deathsquad
3. Storming the Burning Fields
4. Operation Ground and Pound
5. Body Breakdown
6. Cry for Eternity
7. The Flame of Youth
8. Trail of Broken Hearts