Artist: Dragonforce
Title: “Sonic Firestorm” (remaster)
Label: Spinefarm Records
Release Date: 2/23/2010
Genre: Supersonice Power Metal
Rating: 4.25/5

The “Sonic Firestorm” album by Dragonforce was originally released on Noise Records in 2004 and while it was the bands sophomore effort, it would be the first album by them that I had ever heard. I reviewed it as one of my very first features and since much of that text is still the way in which I feel I am re-presenting that for you below with some minor alterations and then going into a little more detail about the remaster. Read on.

“The band Dragonforce is a very interesting unit indeed. They not only combine the factors of being musically diverse along with a completely technical level of play; but they include a level of speed that at times will make you surely think that your CD is skipping instead of playing through. I was literally blown away when I first heard “Sonic Firestorm” and as you listen yourself you will find that you are in the middle of the musical equivalent of a hurricane. Starting off with “My Spirit Will Go On”, you are quickly brought into the band’s world and what they opt to accomplish on a record. This track will quickly become a favorite for many a listener. As I said there are blistering fast moments at almost every turn and while there are bands that play for the sake of speed sake alone this is not the case with Dragonforce because throughout each song the members never seem to lose pace with one another. The songs maintain their structure and do not ever seem to fall apart where you could expect such action to be the case under these conditions. It was really something to close my eyes and envision this being done in a live sense because you knew it just had to be awesome. In most cases playing music fast simply for the sake of it will not impress me all that much so it was refreshing to see this level of speed being showcased on top of killer technical prowess. Chops would be an understatement for Dragonforce. A lot of the album follows along the same course of speed as the first track, but that does not mean to be taken as the songs sound all alike. They just use the same formula on the entire CD. There is one track that effectively serves as the ballad of the disk and that is “Dawn Over A New World”. The tune is nicely done and being in the middle of the disk it allows you a breather before the ass-kicking again.
Continue reading “Sonic Firestorm” (remaster) by Dragonforce →