Artist: Dragonforce

Venue:  Club Diesel, Budapest

Date: 12 February 2009  

Club Diesel is a strange venue. I had images of strolling along the Danube and stopping off at a gig before sampling the infamous Budapest nightlife; however this elusive club made things quite a bit less straightforward. Unknown by any of the locals, I was instructed to make my way to the Planetarium, located on the outskirts of Hungary’s capital. After being dropped off in a dark suburban park by a taxi driver who mumbled “club” and pointed at a strange, dimly lit building in between a cluster of trees, I warily made my way in the direction of what I hoped to be the venue for DragonForce’s debut appearance in the land of the Magyars. Without so much as a sign on the door, or indeed any hint of a gig taking place, I ascended the steps of the building and pulled open the door; allowing me to breath a sigh of relief. The deathlike silence of the Planetarium Park was shattered by the sound of soaring Finnish battle hymns, and my sole presence was replaced by Hungary’s beer guzzling power metal elite. 

While recent years has seen London’s extreme power metal heroes reach every corner of the world in support of their superb catchy/uplifting albums, Eastern Europe remains a territory relatively untouched. On arriving at the venue I was surprised to discover that this was indeed DragonForce’s first appearance in Hungary, a country arguably more Western than any of it’s former communist neighbours. 

Touring in support of last year’s “Ultra Beatdown” album, the band’s fourth, Herman, Sam et al are greeted like old friends by an extremely dedicated and energetic Budapest audience. As with the UK and Irish tours last year, Turisas open the show, although my difficulty in locating the venue meant that I unfortunately arrived just after their set had concluded, missing the Finnish battle metallers for the second time on this tour alone!

Choosing to introduce themselves to Hungary with “Hero’s of our time”, the album opener which gave the band their first Grammy nomination just weeks earlier, DragonForce power through a solid 90 minute set, although unfortunately choosing to include few songs preceding 2006’s breakthrough “Inhuman Rampage”. With the exception of “Fury of the Storm” and “Soldiers of the Wasteland” from their masterpiece “Sonic Firestorm”, and the title track from debut album “Valley of the Damned”, every track performed features on either “Inhuman Rampage” or “Ultra Beatdown”. 

Watching DragonForce play, one thing is evident, and that is the serious step up in quality of live performance in recent years. 2005 saw a band tear up stages across Europe and Japan, gaining a reputation as one of Europe’s hottest live bands, however performances took a sharp downtown in 2006 as alcohol and life on a long world tour took their toll. It was a shame to watch a band who were so fantastic and clinical on CD, miss notes and generally mess around onstage, and no doubt many are familiar with the disastrous Graspop performance from 2006, a live webcast which showed the band in a rather bad light. However all that is changed now, I’m glad to say! Reclaiming their crown as one of the most enjoyable bands you can find on any stage, renditions of “Revolution Deathsquad”, “Operation Ground and Pound”, along with new songs such as “The Last Journey Home” and the brilliant “The Warrior Inside” do not fail in bringing blood to every fist raised triumphantly into the air.

Finishing off with a truly electric version of fan favourite “Through the Fire and Flames”, which sees the crowd split in two, preceding absolute chaos,  DragonForce will no doubt stop off here at the next given opportunity

For the band, the near future sees a trip back into Russia, followed by familiar territories in Asia and the USA, however word on the street is that they will be home for a string of shows before the year is out.

Review by: Shadow Warrior

All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated.