Life is full of little coincidences isn't it?
Having been a rather large fan of
Dragonforce since hearing a couple of their songs that someone burned on a cd for me around 2004, I slowly drifted away from them as they stagnated and became repetitive with their last couple of releases.
Then recently while walking home from work the track
Valley Of The Damned comes on my MP3 player randomly and reminded me that I really needed to go back and check out their early stuff again.
Two days after that I find out that vocalist ZP Theart has left the band and then the next day what should drop through my letter box but the reissues of the first two 'Force albums
Valley Of The Damned and
Sonic Firestorm. What better time for a reappraisal of their early works than this?
Both albums have been re-released with an extra track and a bonus DVD with live material and interviews. And most importantly, Valley Of The Damned, who's production has always been a bit suspect, has been totally overhauled and re-mixed to make it sound much more like the band imagined it.
All well and good I heard you say but are they really worth shelling out some cash for?
Without doubt Valley Of The Damned is worth a look even if you own the original. It's still my favourite
Dragonforce album and it brings back plenty of memories of hearing the band for the first time as an already massive power metal fan.
It was a bit of an eye opener, as even though I'd heard
Helloween and some of the faster bands out there I had never listened to a power band who played with so much sustained speed and the relentless tempos like they did.
Songs like the title track and the superb
Black Fire still stand as some of the most exciting moments in the bands career. Sure, they have played faster and with more variety and skill in their solo techniques but the power and innocence of their true metal anthems strike a chord with me still.
The remix is incredibly well done and brings out so many new sounds and notes that were never heard on the original even by the most attentive listener. The most noticeable change is that Vadim Pruzhanov's keyboards play a much bigger role than on the original. There are passages on almost every song where long buried keyboards now surface, triumphantly adding new elements to the songs.
The most noticeable songs for changes happen to be two of my all time favourite DF tracks
Black Winters Night and their wonderful ballad
Starfire. Not only are multiple keyboard parts unveiled, but the guitars of Sam Totman and Herman Li have been cleaned up and now have a much smoother sound with some of the of the solo's shining even brighter than before.
There have been some extra effects added to ZP's voice but nothing too drastic. The band had considered getting him to re-record some of his vocal parts but decided against it when they discovered that his voice had changed so much in the intervening years that it wouldn't have meshed with the older takes.
To be honest I'm glad they left as it as it was; there is something naively wonderful about ZP's performance on the album. He perhaps doesn't have the most memorable voice in metal but it works well within the band's music. It will actually be very interesting to see what kind of singer they replace him with.
I had never heard the bonus track
Where Dragon's Rule before but enjoyed it immensely; it starts off as a rather twee ballad before bursting to life in the usual
Dragonforce style. Listening to it made me realise how much I prefer hearing them sing about defending ancient lands from evil warriors than about
Operation Ultra-Mega-Supersonic Ground and Pound Beatdown or whatever they write about these days.
The DVD's on both albums are pretty much a total let down. Both offer a single, solitary live performance each (the title tracks of both albums on each respective DVD) plus some pretty dull interviews.
It's safe to say that while Herman Li is an excellent guitarist he is an awful interviewer/interviewee After struggling diligently through the interview material on both DVD's for the purposes of this review I can guarantee that you won't ever want to do it again.
The Valley Of The Damned DVD does include some semi interesting footage of the band during the re-mixing process but that's pretty much as exciting as it gets, unless you are desperate so see Sam Totman wandering aimlessly about Japan smiling and waving at the locals? Nah didn't think so.
Being that the DVD's value is pretty low it's not so easy recommending the reissue of Sonic Firestorm. It's still a great album; in fact it's probably better than I remember it being.
It terms of sound quality, it's faster, stronger and tougher than its predecessor, even with Valley in its remixed form. The musicianship has taken a massive leap in quality too, with more technical solo's and complex, blastbeat laden drum patterns (this time provided by ex Bal-Sagoth drummer Dave Mackintosh). The bass lines are still as buried as ever but let's face it, you will have a hard enough time keeping track of everything else that's going on without wondering where the bass is.
One negative aspect of Sonic Firestorm is that with this increased showmanship it feels like there are points where the songs sometimes get lost in the solos. Also there are a few solo sections in the earlier songs that are noticeably regurgitated later on in the album.
These sorts of occurrences coupled with the law of diminishing returns made the bands albums that followed much less appealing to me. In fact I can honestly say that I've only made it through the bands third release
Inhuman Rampage a handful of times in its entirety. Most of the time my attention waned long before the end was in sight. But anyway I digress.
I would without doubt say that if you love the first
Dragonforce album or have never heard it before then the reissue of Valley Of The Damned is a more than worthwhile purchase. Sonic Firestorm is also worthy buying in this format too, but only if you don't own the original.
If you already have it in your possession then I recommend downloading the bonus track
Cry Of The Brave (It's really rather good) and perhaps watching the live clip on Youtube, you don't need this version.
Valley Of The Damned - 8/10
Sonic Firestorm - 7.5/10 (4/10 if you already own the original)
Written by
Stuart Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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