Thursday 4 January 2018

DragonForce – Ashes of the Dawn


"Reaching into Infinity" is the seventh studio album by British power metal band DRAGONFORCE, released on 19 May 2017. It is the first studio album to feature drummer Gee Anzalone and the second by the band to be produced by Jens Bogren.

A music video for "Ashes of the Dawn" while a music video for "Midnight Madness" was released on 20 September 2017. Long-time keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov was not featured in either of these videos, nor in any of the shows that the band had performed in by the time of the album's recording. In a video published on his official YouTube channel, he explained that he wanted to have more time for his daughter and that due to contractual obligations, he had to choose between performing in all or none of the shows; as a result, he was also absent from the album's promotional tour.

The album was mostly written by bassist Frédéric Leclercq and guitarist Sam Totman, with one song being written by Pruzhanov and most of the lyrics being handled by vocalist Marc Hudson.

Leclercq stated he is more into traditional heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal and progressive metal than he is into power metal, which is why the album sounds different from DRAGONFORCEs previous efforts. When asked about Leclercq's songwriting work and the possible influence of his extreme metal side project Sinsaenum, guitarist Herman Li replied: "We try to make use of everyone's skills, which is something we didn’t do much at the beginning of the band. I don't think Sinsaenum made too much of a difference, because there are still so many ideas we haven't been able to put into DRAGONFORCE yet, and if you introduce too many new ideas you lose focus”. The band at first wanted to have a guest for the harsh vocals, but they eventually had Hudson give it a try and they were happy with the result.


Li describes the album as their "most diverse" one and also as "escapist", saying people are supposed to listen to it to temporarily get away from the craziness of the World. Indeed, the album title was conceived to be a reference to how the band wish their music to take people from anywhere to any time.

This is the band's longest standard edition studio album at 60 minutes and 46 seconds, thus beating Ultra Beatdown by over two minutes. The album also features the song "The Edge of the World", which is DRAGONFORCEs longest song to date at 11 minutes and 3 seconds. When asked about the inspiration for writing that song, Totman explained they had the idea from the title track of IRON MAIDENs Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. "Silence" was written after a friend of Leclercq who committed suicide.

Album cover was according to Li, the portal in the middle of the cover is a wormhole. It symbolizes the timeless energy of DragonForce's music, since a considerable amount of energy would be required to open one wormhole, if it is ever possible. Also, it symbolizes how people from anywhere in the world can reach different times through it, strengthening the album's escapist vibe. The dragon in the cover represents the band's spirit.

Much of DRAGONFORCEs idiosyncratic style comes from the high-speed dual guitar sounds of Herman Li and Sam Totman. By playing at a high tempo within the upper registers of their instruments, their sound becomes similar to the "bleepy" arpeggios and quick pitch-bends normally associated with chiptunes, usually heard in the third generation of video game music. The band often pays homage to this influence in their music videos. Although the band has frequently referred to their style as power metal, Li commented on descriptions of the band's style in an interview with Guitar World: "'Nintendo metal', 'extreme power metal', ’BON JOVI on speed', 'JOURNEY meets SLAYER', ... people are always coming up with weird labels for us." The band has sometimes been labeled as a speed metal band.


Today’s tune "Ashes of the Dawn” was released on 15 May 2017 and it’s taken from the seventh studio album "Reaching Into Infinity"



More info @

Official DragonForce Web

Listen to ”DragonForce - Ashes of the Dawn" on Spotify!



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