Dragonheart - Valley Of The Damned

*=Staff's pick	Black Winter Night* Diciples Of Babylon Revelations* Valley Of The Damned* Starfire

Genre	Power Metal	ZP	Vocals
Tracks	5	Herman Li	Guitar
Runningtime	33 Min.	Sam Totman	Guitar
Label	Selfreleased demo	Diccon Harper	Bass
Release	June 2000	Didier	Drums
Country	England	Vadim	Keyboards
Similar artists	Heavenly, Stratovarius, Freedom Call

An english sextet that has been around for a while, and even toured with Halford and Stratovarius at various occasions. Good powermetal that origin from the United Kingdom is a rare sight these days, but this proves that the scene is moving over there too.

We got all the ingredients that makes a really good power metalalbum - swirling solos, catcy riffs, bridges and choruses out of the ordinary. Nothing typically english over these guys(if there really are something that can be called typically english), but instead the pure german/euro powermetal spirit is their guiding light. The titletrack Valley of the Damned is alone a song worty of 10 chalises which has pretty much everything, and the rest following a few points behind. It is pretty clear after a few minutes of listening to this that the band consists solely of very talanted musicians, with wellplayed double or triple harmonies, an excellent vocal performance and very tight all together.

This demo perhaps doesn't show the group from it's very best side due to the production - which isn't bad at all - but it perhaps lacks that little extra. I am positive that when their first fullength album is released later on this year, they will establish them selves pretty high up in the ranks among metalfans worldwide. Herman Li is one hell of a guitarist, I must say. Info about him state that he is a self-taught guitarist, and've been playing guitar since 1992 from the age of 16. And he sure can deliver the most magnificent licks and solos. Watch out for these guys debutalbum Valley of the Damned to be releases on Noise during 2002!

Noticable is also the fact that this release was made during the time the band was known under the name Dragonheart - today they have gone through a namechange, and answers to the name Dragonforce.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7,5	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy