Why I Love Dragonforce aka My Childhood in Musical Disappointment; A Rope of Sand

For my first review type post I have chosen to talk about the band known as Dragonforce. If you haven't heard of them check them out here. Some of you will call them fantasy metal and, quite frankly, I don't give a shit.

To understand my love for the beat blasts, the non-existent bass, the endless guitar solos and the cliched lyrics, you need some background as to my musical experience. When I was twelve years old and starting to get into music I had to sources as to what was good; my sisters. The only problem was that they themselves had no clue what to listen to. The mid-to-late-nineties were such a confusing time when it comes to music. It really broke down into three categories to me (and I know, there are sub genres and such, but I never really cared about them as a kid); rock, pop and rap.

Now I never liked rap. To be honest, until very recently I never gave any rap, hip hop or R&B their dues. But either way, it had very little to do in shaping my musical preferences.

As far as rock went, I was exposed to most mainstream forms. From Megadeath to No Doubt, Chili Peppers to Limp Bizkit. What I found was that the rock I liked the most was old rock. The rock of the 60s and 70s. Even those modern bands I did like had been around since before my musical awakening.

I never really minded pop in general. I've always seen pop as a joke that's can be aware of itself, but usually isn't. As such, I liked quirky pop like Aqua, but hated boy bands who took themselves entirely too seriously.

This was all well and good when I was dealing with the generation of music before mine. I always figured that a new generation of music would come, just has had always happened. So I waited... and waited. The new generation never came, or at least no music that I could relate to. There continued to be pop but with a more hip hop feel. There continued to be rock, but it had turned into the new pop, were the whole thing was a sad joke in which nobody realized how ridiculous they were being.

What I was looking for was something that rocked, as the instrumentation and musical quality of metal had always appealed to me, but was also silly. Silly in every component, not just the persona of the band, like Blink 182 or Sum 41, but in their lyrics, in their attitudes and in their music.

To me silliness is what defines my generation. Or at least boredom. I mean sure, as a teen I got sad once in a while, but how does the boredom of suburban life warrant the creation of songs like Adam's Song or Nothing to Lose (not that I dislike these songs) or even the creation of Emo. I mean even the music of the 60s wasn't all sombre, in fact most of it was hopeful.

And it's not just punk and emo that have been depressing. Metal has become a forum for political stances and anger. I mean sure Black Sabbath were agressive, but were they angry?

Ok, so this trend of overly dramatic music is not new. It's been around since the end of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when life became tedious for teenagers at large, or even earlier. The grunge movement that was entirely made up of teens that were bitching because they were bored (or because of the drugs that had ensued from said boredom).

I was never willing to ignore the ease of my life. I was never going to subscribe to the idea that it's hard to be a middle class teen in the suburbs; it simply isn't true.

I was also not willing to listening to silly music that I don't enjoy. What would be the point of listening to OutKast and Gwen Stefani if I didn't enjoy it?

So I've listened to the music I enjoy while ignoring the lyrics and band members, focusing on what I enjoy, good drums and guitars (and sometimes bass). I've continued to wait until someone would just make music and sing about random crap, something I could relate to as a someone who rarely speaks with reason.

And then came Dragonforce. Sure, there lyrics aren't really random, but rather a collection of cliches. But the cliches work as well as randomness because it isn't serious. And to be honest the lyrics aren't what's important, the music is.

Needless to say, the music itself it high quality, with Herman Li and Sam Totman lead the way with some of the best guitar skills around. But it isn't just the fact that the two can solo for days, it's that they do so jokingly. They battle each other not only with really fast and good sounding melodies, but also with sound they have developed that are meant entirely to mimic video game noises: like the pacman. Dragonforce doesn't just sound good, they are enjoyable to listen to. It is the difference hearing a song and smiling while it plays and hearing a song and smiling for long after it ends. This is in the energy of the band, the joking sound of the guitars and the lyrics, uplifting to the point of ridiculousness.

That's my reasoning. Disagree with me about the musical history, I'm probably wrong. But that's how it's been for me. Maybe there have been bands for me in the past and I've missed them, but nothing I've heard sounds as good to me as Dragonforce, at least that I can think of.