Dragonforce – “Sonic Firestorm”

You come to consciousness slowly. It’s morning. You realize your waking up, but you don’t want to because you’re having one of the most amazing dreams of your life. You were a ninja and you could fly. Your purpose was clear, defense of glory and happiness against the evil forces of lameness and ignorance. Your weapons: flying high on success, sword of destiny, justice knees, and the ability to harness the power of the sun in your fist. Your goal: to thrust yourself full blown warp speed hypertime into life and be so excellent that people everywhere transform into pure light energy.

How is this possible!? How can one human have such an amazing mental play abounding through their head. How is it that the chemicals of my brain allow me to see myself as such a glorious vessel of time and space? I’ll tell you how. I have heard the Dragonforce.

Who are they? The web site www.dragonforce.com will say “..DragonForce features a uniquely diverse, multi-cultural line-up (Hong Kong, UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Ukraine) never seen before…” and will claim them as ‘Extreme Power Metal’. I will say that they are rock warriors who have seen the centre of the universe in their mind and channeled the power through the medium of the guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. They form a rock pentagon that when combined together expel the unjust and defeat the negative emotions of all sentient beings. They are the Joy metal.

The newest album, released April 2004, is justly named ‘Sonic Firestorm’ and lives up to the claim. It opens with a 20 second soft intro to warm up your ears, into another 20 seconds of hard pounding to remind you that you really do love metal, and then busts into a furious roar of solos and ripping metal. This first song is an 8 minute tear threw the fabric of your soul that finds your happy place and makes it grow. Your pupils dilate, your jaw clinches, and you start to feel like your going into a seizure, and it doesn’t stop. You feel like you want run for no reason. You have been possessed by an excellent energy and it demands expression, AND it’s only the first song!! By the time the second song starts, making no attempt at an intro and just going straight into solos, you realize you’ve not only found a band that is technically god-like, you’ve found some of the fastest metal that exists. But there is something different about this metal. It is ascending, not descending. As you listen to it, you feel yourself being up lifted. You start to sing along and become consciously aware of the words, “…Into the fires of forever we will fly through the heavens. With the power of the universe we stand strong together!” These lyrics are like few others. You sing them and feel the light of the heavens shine down. This music is about happiness and challenging life to a game of success.

As the album progresses, with you in your euphoric state, you take a ride on the backs of solos and the winds of pumping drums. There is a timely rock ballad in there as well allowing you to catch your breath and take a metal inventory of what’s happening to you. After that you can only relax, give in and be swept away by this beast. By the end of it all, you may actually feel tired. You will probably have jumped on everything in the room, called your mom to tell your new job in life is awesomeness, and run past people driving on the highways. In the end, all I can hear in my head is, “…Once in a lifetime take a chance at the right time, the glory to see. Rise up for the time of your life, now the time has come for you to be free”, and I feel justified to be a more amazing ninja then ever before. In the end, I accept all mental delusions that I am more than I am, and if someone claims it not to be true I will play Dragonforce at them until they are converted or leave confused but with the seed of dragon burning in their subconscious. Either way my musical happiness is complete. I have found a similar vibration, I ride the dragon to destiny and its force shall propel me unto the most fantastic of journeys. GO LIFE!

Track Listing:

01. My Spirit Will Go On
02. Fury of the Storm
03. Fields of Despair
04. Dawn Over a New World
05. Above the Winter Moonlight
06. Soldiers of the Wasteland
07. Prepare for War
08. Once In a Lifetime
09. Cry of the Brave

Run Time: 62:41
Release Date: 2004