DragonForce: Ultra Beatdown

Power metal—that cheese-encrusted province

of swords, sorcerers, and curiously falsetto male singers—has never been

metal's subtlest offshoot, but since DragonForce's 1999 arrival, most other

power-metal bands have seemed timid in comparison. With its fourth album, the

transparently titled Ultra Beatdown, the English sextet again makes the most of its

most-ness: One lighters-aloft ballad ("A Flame For Freedom") aside, the album

just intensifies the dual-guitar fireworks, castrato caterwauling, and

hyper-speed 16-bit-videogame bleeping that—thanks to the combined

promotional impact of YouTube and Guitar Hero—catapulted DragonForce's

2006 single "Through The Fire And Flames" to worldwide recognition. True, the

lyrics (nearly all of which offer some variation on a battle/victory cliché)

are borderline brain-dead, the musicianship is all slippery soullessness, and

the production is so oppressive that the instruments might as well be

synthesized. But in a subgenre where understatement matters less than showing

one's might, these could just as well be merits.