DragonForce - Maximum Overload

Published August 20 2014

*=Staff's pick	The Game Tomorrow's Kings No More* Three Hammers Symphony Of The Night The Sun Is Dead* Defenders Extraction Zone City Of Gold Ring Of Fire

Genre	Power Metal	Marc Hudson	Vocals
Tracks	10	Sam Totman	Guitar
Running time	50 Min.	Herman Li	Guitar
Label	Ear Music/ADA Nordic	Frédéric Leclercq	Bass
Release	19 August 2014	Dave Mackintosh	Drums
Country	England	Vadim Pruzhanov	Keyboard
Producer	Jens Bogren
Similar artists	---

This album marks the sixth full length studio effort from these British extreme power metallers and the second one with lead vocalist Marc Hudson. Since the recording sessions, drummer Dave Mackintosh has left the building and we will see Gee Anzalone as his replacement. DragonForce has through time, with its frequently very speedy music, proven the ability to generally create catchy and easy digested power metal songs and this new release doesn't step out of that direction.

It comes as absolutely no surprise that Maximum Overload shows exceedingly fast and captivating music, even if it's not a speed monster all throughout. The guitars are sometimes just insane and it seems like everybody's trying to defeat the next one in line. The computerized guitar plays are from time to time still present at this point and this feature is definitely a symbol to this band's outcomes. The riffs might be a little more attacking and we also occasionally get a few moments deriving from thrash metal, although the band never takes that side to the extreme, like they tend to do with most other attributes.

It definitely has its different songs, like the cover version of Ring Of Fire, originally recorded by Johnny Cash, and also a kind of progressive approach with The Sun Is Dead, which I personally see as this album's outstanding track, but at the end of the day I don't see any dramatic changes in the overall picture. In total, this record doesn't really differ much from the band's past work and to me it's pretty much the natural successor to 2012's The Power Within.

There are lots of good stuff on this record, although it's somehow reminiscent of past material. Perhaps this release doesn't really hit me big-time overall, but generally I like what I hear and a few songs are really awesome. If you're a fan of DragonForce's music, I can safely say that you will more or less like this effort as well. On the other hand, if you can't stand brisk, vivid and speedy power metal, you should probably check out something different.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	5	7	8	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe