Moderate Adequateload

The United Kingdom’s DragonForce have become somewhat emblematic of a power metal (sometimes speed metal) subculture that remains blissfully ignorant of all the bleakness, sorrow and morbidity that permeated heavy metal—and popular music in general—from the 1990s on. Instead, DragonForce keep rocking like hair metal never went out of style, like the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) never crested and rolled back. One can picture the band praying before a shrine containing a small but perfect Yngwie Malmsteen figurine before each show.

DragonForce cemented their fame among the kiddos with 2006’s “Through the Fire and Flames,” which made a huge splash for being so got-danged impossible to play in Guitar Hero III. The naked excess and shameless fantasy optimism displayed on “Fire and Flames,” among other songs, have served DragonForce well, bringing them crossover success with gamers, anime fans, chiptuners and cosplayers yearning for power and speed who are unwilling to suffer through heavy metal’s traditional negativity.

Titled Maximum Overload, DragonForce’s latest full-length is allegedly a comment on the data glut endemic to the information age, but it may well be a self-aware nod to the band’s image, and a promise of MORE MORE MORE. However, despite the name, Maximum Overload is not the over-the-top technical wankfest one might expect. In fact, some might even say Maximum Overload is a fairly well-rounded, reasonably-paced and thoughtfully-written album. How this will go over with DragonForce’s fans remains to be seen.

Opener “The Game” sets Maximum Overload’s tone. Dual guitar leads chug through the central progressions, breaking off occasionally to leap and dance through acrobatic flourishes. Vocalist Marc Hudson sings in a chirpy, sympathetic style that contains no rasp whatsoever. In fact, he sounds like a would-be Arnel Pineda, the Journey resemblance becoming especially pronounced on Maximum Overload’s everyday-life themed songs. Keyboards and backup vocals round out and embiggen DragonForce’s sound, with Trivium’s Matt Heafy dropping in vocally on “The Game” and two other songs. The chorus of “The Game” is brilliantly catchy and melodic, like several on the album.

And that’s about it. Maximum Overload is a well-varied, but not particularly progressive album. There are no suites, interludes or experiments, just a number of generally fast, metallic songs with subject matter ranging from the epic to the quotidian. There is “No More,” which references voicemail and “the voice that breaks the awkward silence,” while the very next song extols the “Three hammers high in the burning red sky / forged in the fire, protectors of mankind.”

And as for the goods? Those infamous Gigahertz-fast Sam Totman/Herman Li guitar leads and solos do make themselves known on the album, but they often take a backseat to the songwriting. This restraint tends to focus the listener’s attention on the ultimately flimsy song themes, and makes for dull listening at times. When are they going to get to the fireworks factory? When the guitars are finally let out to play in earnest, they are intoxicating; only the speediest of guitar duos will avoid sounding like Sunn O))) in comparison.

The most “maximum” thing on Maximum Overload is the closer, a hyperactive cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” that would surely make the Man in Black say “What the hell?” DragonForce have put out an album that would also surprise the casual “Fire and Flames” fan, not with its spiraling extremity, but with its listenability and balance. There is nothing patently disappointing about this, but one wishes that DragonForce had picked a different album title.