Infamous Dragonforce

[RIOgreatescapist]

I've started to take guitar lessons and practice quite a bit on the instrument itself. One of my favorite guitarists/references is dragonforce's herman li.
I checked out the band, started listening to their songs and watching their live performances @ utube and other websites streaming and my issue is, why the hating?
I personally think they are a great band, cool musics and that "superfast guitar playing" factor.
Dunno why they are so hated and trashtalked tbh so.. why?

 

[nick n stuff]

too fast to listen to comfortably. i just zone out and they all blend together. i listened to their first album once and once only. talented but a show off band.

also, never give up the guitar. taking up guitar is the best thing you can ever do.

 

[Dudemeister]

I like them myself. People say they're too fast but it's not that fast WHEN YOU'RE AS EXTREME AS ME!

 

[Shru1kan]

A lot of people hate it because it became "mainstream" on GH3. That complicates it quite a bit. For one, you're gonna have pricks who think they aren't cool anymore because more than 5 people like it, and two, you have "fans" who only know Through the Fire and the Flames, which really ticks me off too. It might also be because they're always drunk on live shows, and nobody can seem to decide wether or not Herman Li can actually play that fast because of it.

Plus it's power metal, which has a much smaller niche than most.

 

[Lexodus]

One bad gig (kind of drunk, singer had a sore throat and the equipment failed onstage, which wasn't their fault) and suddenly, "Oh, Dragonforce suck. They don't even play their own instruments/it's all sped up in the studio'.
I mean, sure, their song lyrics are ridiculous, but it's fantasy (D&D) metal, and for that they're brilliant. Also, the guitar solos are epic.

Another issue was their mainstreaming by means of Guitar Hero III. Suddenly, 12-year-old boys everywhere were screaming about Dragonforce, and that was the only song they knew.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Because people don't know how to rock anymore. Power metal is the way forward. (That and Beatles).

 

[Haberley]

They are generally bitched about because, despite the technical aptitude of the guitarists, he rest of the band tend to... well, suck on a musical level. The slower songs are halfways-decent, but once you hit a certain tempo the drummer only knows a single drumline, which is why most of them sound the same.

The fact that the lyrics are very samey as well doesn't help this fact - take ten keywords (fire, heart, night, eternal, etc.), and base three albums' worth of lyrics around them, and you'll pretty much have the Dragonforce repertoire. This has been proven in tests - a couple of my friends are very much the Dragonforce fans, and even they could not tell the songs apart by their lyrics alone.

I know all of this is pretty subjective, but I hope it helps you realise why most people don't really rate them

 

[johnnyjazz]

i always thought there were only 10 year old kids in there fan base, atlest thats the only people that thinks there cool ......we also have the guys that never gets a evolved taste in music.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

Non-metal fans look down on it because it's metal.

Metal fans look down on it because it's power metal.

Power metal fans look down on it because it's not Blind Guardian or Sonata Arctica or whatever.

I dunno.

 

[Xeros]

No idea. I love their music. Some of it, Revolution Deathsquad for example, makes me feel ready to take on the goddamn world. I use that song constantly as an alarm. Awesome way to start off the day.

 

[dehboy]

In my opinion, it is because all their songs sound alike. Their cd is like one big musical piece with a bunch of similar sounding smaller movements. While they are talented, their "OMG, look what I can do" guitar sounds all mesh together...

 

[NeutralDrow]

Personally, I think it's because some people go past not liking their style of music into missing the point of the music. The impression I always get from their music and their talking about music is, well...they're doing it this way because it's cool. Little-to-no deeper meaning beyond that.

Clearly, that and the speedy power metal vocals and instrumentation aren't to a lot of people's tastes. For my part, I love them. Ultra Beatdown is one of my favorite albums ever.

 

[Lord Legion]

Try Buckethead too, the variety of styles he plays is mind bogling, he doesn't just shred for speed, it is actually coherent.

Of course that doesn't mean he isnt fast...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yznw6W5rEu8

mmmmmm

 

[Plank of Wood]

Non-metal fans look down on it because it's metal.

Metal fans look down on it because it's power metal.

Power metal fans look down on it because it's not Blind Guardian or Sonata Arctica or whatever.

I dunno.

We have a winner.

 

[darth gditch]

*shrug. Personally I like Dragonforce. Not my favourite band, but they are very technically skilled, though their musicality leaves much to be desired.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Here's part of the problem I think people have with Dragonforce, they seem to be playing a serious type of music, but aren't serious about it. Those guys can shred, it's true, but just mindlessly shredding as the drummer pounds out the same beat every time gets old fast. I've tried listening to their albums from start to finish and the only time I notice the songs actually changing is when they hit a ballad and the tempo cuts in half for a little bit. Technical talent is great, but if you can't play with soul and taste then it does no good.

 

[reg42]

They record parts of songs and stick them together to make them seem like gods.
They frequently come onto stage drunk, thus fucking up their songs.
Herman Li is obnoxious. He actually said that he wrote Through the Fire and Flames to show off how good he is.
The aren't that technically proficient, they're just really fast.

 

[GruntOwner]

Inhuman Rampage. They're most popular and well known album was them trying to conform to the more mainstream view of metal, so heavier than most of their stuff. Unfortunately, they're far better at bombastic power than they are heavy, so the album sounded fairly samey, thus the argument that all their songs sound the same, even though their first album was a damn near masterpiece. The album got featured on Guitar Hero 3, as many poeple have mentioned, and this massive success made them arrogant and cocky. This meant that suring their Inhuman Rampage tour they'd get smashed off their faces to the point of being unable to play. This tour was their biggest and therefore got the most people watching going "Christ almighty, I guess they just sped it up in the studio". Having seen them live on their Ultr Beatdown tour they can, infact, play that fast and as you know, they have some awesome variety on their albums, but at the end of the day many people only know them for Inhuman Rampage.

 

[Bucket0Bones]

-Can't play their songs live
-Their lyrics aren't ridiculously bad and repetitive
-All their songs sound the same
-Their music is just stupidly fast
-They're aren't as technically proficient as they like to make themsleves look

By all means enjoy them and look up to Herman Li, anything that gets kids to pick up an instrument is good by my book.

Other people you may want to look up

Buckethead
Paul Gilbert
Shawn Lane
Rusty Cooley
Yngwie Malmsteen

I think you would like those last two considering you like Dragonforce. The other three are a little more tasteful when it comes to their music.