Band:	DragonForce
Album:	Maximum Overload
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	August 18, 2014
A review by:	R Lewis

01. The Game
02. Tomorrow's Kings
03. No More
04. Three Hammers
05. Symphony Of The Night
06. The Sun Is Dead
07. Defenders
08. Extraction Zone
09. City Of Gold
10. Ring Of Fire [Johnny Cash cover]
11. Power and Glory [special edition bonus]
12. You're Not Alone [special edition bonus]
13. Chemical Interference [special edition bonus]
14. Fight to Be Free [Shadow Warriors cover] [special edition bonus]
15. Summer's End [Japanese bonus]
16. Galactic Astro Domination [Remixed] [special edition bonus]

Some wise guy in some forum recently said "Sure, DragonForce only has one song, but it's catchy as hell."

And never were words truer, since Maximum Overload, the band's sixth foray into their own fast world is tremendously catchy. Already after the very first listen, you'll find yourself humming every single melody in here, also thanks to some of those old DragonForce tricks, such as the guitars "singing" the chorus all over the track, bringing it back frequently and skilfully in different parts of the song. The old tricks, in general, still work great, like the dynamic yet predictable Li-Totman guitar duets, or those overused clichés like the "calm before the storm" before the last chorus. They still work. Therefore, the whole DragonForce thing still works.

Maximum Overload is a rather heavy album (for the band's standards, mind you), with no ballads and, as always, a huge influence of electronics, in the general sound but also with little background flourishes, noticeable only with a careful listen.

As the title states, the release is definitely Maximum, as the guys don't spare themselves some fun queerness (like the "instrumental" part in "Extraction Zone"; it is for posterity to judge if this was awesome or just awkward); but it's also Overload, since mammoth solos have made their comeback. Yup, the old DragonForce nemesis has been sleeping and thought dead throughout the whole of The Power Within, just to return now, even if not as disruptive as in the ZP years (coffee gag? seriously?).

This, though, doesn't affect the quality of the release, that demonstrates the good that hiring Marc Hudson has done to the band. Their sixth album will hardly buy DragonForce any new fans, since their musical horizon hasn't become any wider, but it'll surely be a tremendous pleasure for anybody who has ever liked the band throughout the years, having both the over-the-top ZP cheesiness and the relative seriousness regained thanks to Hudson.

DragonForce's luck is that, despite the fact that they've been more-or-less doing the same thing for more than a decade, they've been the only DragonForce around, the only band to manage to play this subgenre so comfortably to create itself a name that does not need anything more to say, both for fans and detractors. Together with the likes of other easily recognizable bands like Sabaton and such, they've been so influential that their style, like it or not, has become a solid trademark, and a testament to their career.

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On a side note - do check out the "Ring Of Fire" cover. Personally, having grown up listening to Johnny Cash's and Social Distortion's versions of the song, hearing it DragonForce-ized was... strange. It was as awkward and awesome as if Firewind ever made a Flashdance cover. Oh wait?