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After 11 years and four studio albums the mighty Dragonforce have finally found the time to unleash a live album capturing their pure rock fury – with Twilight Dementia due this autumn.

The success of 2008′s Ultra Beatdown has piled the pressure on Herman Li and his mates to head back into the studio and head out on the road – simultaneously! But a long overdue live record was always on the Dragonforce agenda and Spinefarm will release what should be one of the highlights of the metal year on September 13.

“For years, fans have been asking us to record a live album but, honestly, we never really had the time due to our worldwide touring commitments and studio album recording,” explained Li. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that time of year again when our good mates at the world’s rockingest weekly deliver their perfect soundtrack to the summer.

And Kerrang! 2009 The Album is chock full of the tracks of the year with mega-sellers like Nickelback, Green Day and Slipknot sharing top billing with ambitious newbies Metro Station, Ghost Of A Thousand and In Case Of Fire. Phew!

With 42 tracks featuring the cream of rock and metal we can’t wait to get our hands on another meaty overview of a rejuventated scene. Our only gripe? There’s no classic rock.

But this time next year we’re pretty damn sure Kerrang! will be going back to its roots as more and more bands favouring that timeless sound infiltrate a mag once known as the home of everything from hair metal to thrash and all the hard and heavy stuff in between. Read the rest of this entry »

Metal heroes Dragonforce may have slayed Download this year but Herman Li and his mates aren’t about to slow the pace anytime soon. Still touring the brilliant Ultra Beatdown across the world, one of the craziest bands on the planet plan to bring a full UK headline tour our way again this winter.

Fresh from more awards glory at the 2009 Metal Hammer Golden Gods gig this week, the Grammy-nominated shredsters roll out their Hearts & Minds Tour from November through to mid-December with axe maestro Li promising the usual fret-burning fireworks. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve kept you waiting all week but here it is – one of the most amusing interviews you’ll read all year with the frontman of one of Europe’s most underrated bands. Edguy’s Tobi Sammet is a funny guy but his music is pretty serious stuff for all fans of melodic metal.

rushonrock: Edguy are still far from household names over here. What are you going to do about it!?!

Tobi Sammet: Raising our profile is not only a problem in the UK – the same goes for everywhere. Even where we sell a few records we’d like to sell a few more! If you play the kind of music we do then we can’t rely on the major media giving us much support so we just do it old skool style – tour, play, tour, play. That spreads the message better than anything could. It gives us the chance to show people that we’re the best band in the universe since Led Zeppelin!

rushonrock: That’s a point we can debate at another time but for now what’s the word on cracking the USA?

TS: Right now we’re trying to get ourselves out there in the USA. But I’ve got to say that touring the UK is more of a pleasure than touring the States. It’s tough over there but all we can do is keep releasing great albums and hope people will start to hear them.

rushonrock: Do you see yourselves as a successful band?

TS: I don’t know how a band like Edguy can measure success. The most important thing in a band as in most walks of life is that you’re happy with what you’re doing. All of us could have done something different. We were all going to school. Some of us even studied…All of us were starting to listen to our teachers and we had potentially great futures outside of music but we didn’t want to go down that road.

rushonrock: But we’re sure you’d like a few more Euros in your pocket?

TS: These days it goes without saying we want to have commercial success and when you reach the stage we’re at it means, at the very least, you can finance the big productions that make your records sound better. But for me success is not having to get up in the morning and work a 9-5 job. That’s the key. We have had a degree of commercial success in our own way but I suppose the thing is we’d never doing something in order to be successful. We don’t focus on any special market or group. We do what we like and hope other people like it too.

rushonrock: Will you ever be really big outside mainland Europe?

TS: It’s getting better for us in the UK. Slowly but surely we’re starting to make an impression on British audiences. If you want to be big in the USA you have to go there and stay there. I wouldn’t want to live in the USA in a million years! It’s a different planet and I don’t want to go there. That means we’re never going to be a big, big act over there but that’s OK. I just don’t want to make the sacrifices we’d have to make to break that market in a big way.

rushonrock: With new album Tinnitus Sanctus up your sleeves you must have a chance?

TS: Every musician says it but TS is the best album we’ve made for sure. It’s a combination of what we’ve done in the past and new elements without sounding too ridiculous. In a heavy metal band you have to be ridiculous to a certain extent but it’s important not to cross the line.

rushonrock: Are you worried about coming over all Spinal Tap in your old age?

TS: There are lot of Spinal Tap moments in every band’s history and we’re no different. But we’ve made a classic melodic metal album which has managed not to sound too ridiculous. That’s an achievement when you play our style of rock. Take Dragonforce. They’re at the extreme end of what we do but they’re ridiculous on purpose. We’re more mid-paced than those guys – they just like to push everything to the limit. They say look at the clothes that I’m wearing and listen to the stupid things that I’m saying and they love it.

rushonrock: So when are you next in our country?

TS: We’re coming over to England in January and playing a couple of shows in Derby and London. I don’t want to kiss ass but we love England and the English people and we’d play a whole lot more shows there given the chance. But the food in England is terrible. Luckily the rock audience is great. We’re staying in a haunted hotel in Derby so that should be fun…

It’s a while since a band has made me physically sick.

My stomach churned throughout the mid-90s as grunge grabbed hold of the rock high ground and almost destroyed my favourite kind of metal.

I felt pretty nauseous the first time I saw the reformed Twisted Sister sweat their way through a live show at Newcastle’s Arena.

And I think I actually puked when first faced with Celine Dion. Or at least the time I saw Gwar.

This week it was like a night with those monster metallers all over again. And I can’t even blame it on fake blood or bad beer.

I’ll say it here and now. Dragonforce should come with a health warning.

Throughout Turisas’s war-mongering, alcohol-worshipping, nubile young women-pillaging set I felt fine. Absolutely top notch.

Nothing whatsoever was going to upset my stomach on this magical night of old school metal.

And as the Finnish warriors finished off a stunning set in style I couldn’t wait to watch Herman and his pals tear through a fret-burning set.

The first few tracks got the adrenaline flowing as Dragonforce did the business. Anthem after anthem and all delivered at breakneck speed.

Perhaps it was the unforgiving pace. Maybe the lights set me off. Or perhaps it was the fact that crazy Vadim boasted a keyboard that looked like vomit.

Anyway, half an hour into Dragonforce’s set I started to feel a tad queasy. At the 45 minute mark I was swaying. And after an hour my mate was driving me home faster than a Herman solo to avoid his freshly valeted car being peppered with that evening’s meal.

In the cold light of day Dragonforce is a blur. But maybe that’s how it’s meant to be.

Maybe there’s something in those solos that messes with your karma. Maybe keyboards have always made me feel sick.

Or maybe it was the pork scratchings.

Simon Rushworth

@ Newcastle Carling Academy, October 8 2008

It’s taken two days for the rushonrock team to get its head around one of the craziest live shows this year and even 48 hours after two of metal’s hottest bands went head to head our minds are still in meltdown.

Was this a gig to go down in history? Or will the novelty wear off quicker than luminous socks and will this show ultimately end up consigned to history? Right now it’s hard to tell but one thing’s for certain – if you missed this then you missed out.

Turisas tread that fine line between supreme self-confidence and not taking themselves too seriously. Sure, the fur-wearing, paint-daubed Vikings look and act like a sextet who mean business and their Battle Metal could really scare the under-fives. For the rest of us a set boasting the staples One More and To Holmgard And Beyond simply brings a smile to the face as wide as the river Tyne.

The lack of plastic swords in the crowd meant this wasn’t quite as memorable as rushonrock‘s first taste of Turisas, in a sweaty club north of the border, but it was still pretty damn good. The mind boggles when it comes to what these Finnish fools could achieve on the arena circuit – Spinal Tap eat your heart out.

And talking of Spinal Tap the dudes from Dragonforce don’t need anyone reminding them that certain sections of the media still regard them as a comedy act. On this evidence this is one serious band hell bent on reclaiming the speed metal high ground – regardless of the criticism which continues to stalk their every move.

When you have two brilliant guitarists trading delicious licks and an old school keys man called Vadim to boot what is the problem? Simple answer – there isn’t one. Everything about Dragonforce’s Newcastle gig was good from the big production – for this venue, anyway – to the faultless musicianship and the obvious on-stage banter.

Turisas had upped the ante by cheekily referencing Guitar Hero midway through their set and if Herman hates the very mention of that game then he did little to dispel his growing reputation as one of metal’s premier fret burners. At times it was like watching a youthful Yngwie Malmsteen rip through the scales (yes, that good) and axe buddy Sam Totman did his level best to keep up.

Pity Vadim and the rest of the band. With Dragonforce’s twin guitar attack in full flow it was impossible to focus on anything or anyone else. Our heads were spinning – and they still are. 

rushonrock rated: 9/10 Pure Metal Meltdown

It’s yet another rushonrock exclusive and just 48 hours before the boys from Dragonforce bring Newcastle to its knees we track down guitar hero Herman Li. Enjoy and see you Wednesday…

rushonrock: How’s the UK leg of the Ultra Beatdown tour going right now?

Herman Li: I guess we’re just over halfway through now and it’s been great. Every show’s been sold out and it hasn’t been too bad at all. Nothing’s really gone wrong apart from Sam (guitars) jumped up during one show, slipped on his beer and landed badly on his ankle. He was laughing about it and I would have been – had he hurt himself! Unfortunately he was OK.

It’s all been pretty insane and the crowds have been full on every night. I suppose it’s just par for the course for a Dragonforce gig and we’ve still got the crazy folk of Newcastle to come…

rushonrock: Are you putting yourself under pressure by bringing along the sensational Turisas as your support?

HL: Well we’re a really good band which doesn’t fear anyone. But they also play a really different style of music to us and that’s why we wanted to bring the band on tour with us. There’s zero competition but we both go out to do our very best every night. Our fans can appreciate Turisas’ music and everybody’s a winner. We’re taking them with us through the UK, Europe and the US so we clearly like them. People who’ve seen the shows in the last few days say we’ve put together the best tour on the road right now.

rushonrock: In the past you’ve claimed everyone thought Dragonforce was a joke. Why?

HL: I think that when we started out there was a perception, from people who don’t know about music, that everything under the banner of metal had to include shouting, screaming and growling at some point. We spent 10 years trying to persuade people different and to join that scene would have been the easy way out.

It was like if you play guitar solos and your singer’s good then you’re gay or pussy or something. The people who said that just had the wrong idea about what metal always was and always will be. There was a time when iron Maiden weren’t popular but they always stuck to their guns and we did the same.

rushonrock: Why have opinions changed?

HL: I don’t really know. The great classic bands are back and I think people have a better understanding of what heavy metal is all about. People do get influenced by the printed press and that’s a fact. The same magazines that gave us so much shit for so many years are finally starting to accept us and that’s played a part.

Everyone always said I was rubbish as a guitarist anyway, even when I was a kid. So the criticism’s never bothered me. The other kids said I played widdly diddly wanking music but you just have to do what you want to do. I’m mates with Adam Jones from Tool and one day I told him that when their band came out I couldn’t even play the guitar. He asked me if I liked the music and I said ‘no, it’s shit’. But for a while that was what metal was all about.

rushonrock: Where are your metal roots?

HL: As a kid I liked the usual stuff – Maiden, Dream Theater and Slayer – so you can see where I’ve always been coming from. I got my first Dream Theater T-shirt when they played the Marquee in London but the last time I saw them they were at Wembley Arena earlier this year. They’ve come a long way and we’re following hot on their heels

rushonrock: Your new album cracked the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. After all the shit you’ve been through do you really care about commercial success?

HL: You do get annoyed when you spend months putting together the perfect album and you can’t find it on the shelves of your local music shop. It’s a pain when you search high and low and then you have to buy it over the internet from some obscure mail order company. With our new record Ultra Beatdown it’s been different. You could see it the day it came out and there were even copies at the airport! Imagine that? It’s just good to know in the age of the download and illegal file sharing that so many people still want to buy our record.

rushonrock: Was there ever a time when the criticism got to much and you came close to quitting Dragonforce?

HL: These days we realise all the negative publicity didn’t mean anything to us. If it had made a difference then we wouldn’t have started this band in the first place. The only time I ever thought about quitting Dragonforce was when we nearly didn’t finish Ultra Beatdown.

Luckily we were given an extension but there was a period when time was running out and a great record wasn’t going to see the light of day. We hadn’t even finished laying down the guitar parts and the record company said ‘that’s it’. We’ve become pettier and pickier over the years and we just wanted Ultra Beatdown to be perfect. In the end we needed the pressure to push us to the limit and get it finished.

rushonrock: In what’s been a vintage year for rock records what’s your favourite new album?

HL: I’ve got to say Death Magnetic. It’s great that Metallica have come back with the record everyone wanted to hear. The big bands which inspired us are still doing great things now and it makes us want to achieve even more. Metallica and Trivium have both released two great records in the space of a couple of weeks and it sets the bar for the rest of the bands out there.

As a kid I was regimental listener to the UK Top 40.

Whether setting my tape recorder to capture the Sisters Of Mercy, Iron Maiden or Metallica, Radio One’s Sunday afternoon chart show was an invaluable source of hot rock.

Every Sunday I listened to every track. And on a Monday morning I’d rifle through The Sun until I saw Britain’s biggest songs in black and white.

Alongside the top tunes were the essential albums. And back in the day Guns ‘N’ Roses regularly jostled for position with Def Leppard, Slayer, Thunder and Little Angels.

You know, I even remember buying Odyssey, by Yngwie Malmsteen’s  Rising Force, at Our Price in the Metro Centre. In the chart section at a chart price.

Back then our music tastes were different. The Top 40 was peppered with rock and for every boy band there was a metal band.

For every cheesy hit there was a chunky riff and for every soul diva there was a demonic frontman.

But then things changed. Suddenly my music became fewer and farther between on the shelves which reflected the fastest shifting records of the week.

I don’t think it was because I was getting older. Around the mid 90s chart-busting rock and metal just disappeared.

Every new Maiden release would still impact. And occasional metal hits – including a load by the interminable Limp Bis-shit – would ruffle the latest pop idol’s feathers.

But on the whole there was no reason for me to check out the charts.

Yet, earlier this summer there was a time when Leppard, Whitesnake and Nickelback were all Top 30 album sellers at the same time.

And suddenly my interest was reignited.

So imagine my delight when this week’s Sun showed Slipknot, Dragonforce and the aforementioned Nickelback all nestled within the Top 20!

Now I’m not saying those three bands are truly representative of a healthy rock scene.

But I’d rather see Corey, Chad and the ‘Force giving the new kids on the block (they’re back, by the way) a run for their money than Duffy or the dreadful Babyshambles.
Rockers and metal heads have learnt to pay scant regard to music charts over the years.

But there’s no denying the fact it feels good to have one or two standard bearers fighting the cause in the upper echelons of Top 40-dom.

If only to scare the shit out of the rest of the pop-buying public. 

Simon Rushworth