DRAGONFORCE Completes Writing New Album

In a new interview with MetalSucks, DRAGONFORCE guitarist Herman Li confirmed that the band completed writing a new album during the coronavirus pandemic. He said: "I can't tell you anything just yet. Not until it's done, at least. Because things change all the time, and the pieces are constantly moving, shifting, and changing. Even though it's written, there are always going to be surprises in terms of what's going to happen to it. But I can tell you that we are slowly working on it."

Asked if he and his bandmates had a potential release date in mind, Herman said: "To be honest, no. And the reason is that the music industry is changing quickly now with streaming and everything. With all the changes, releases take a long time to set up — longer than they used to be — so I don't know. I can tell you that I don't want to mix the album and then have it sit there because it's taking forever due to delays, and then no one gets to hear it. I'd rather give it away for free before that happens, but that's not even a guarantee anymore. So, to maximize the potential of the album's success, I've got to plan ahead. So, I don't know. It'll come out whenever, maybe next year, or maybe the year after. Stay tuned."

Last month, DRAGONFORCE released a music video for the song "The Last Dragonborn". The track is taken from DRAGONFORCE's latest album, "Extreme Power Metal", which came out in September 2019. Produced in Los Angeles, California by Damien Rainaud at Mix Unlimited, the LP was also recorded, in part, on Li's livestream channel on Twitch with participation from the fans.

"The Last Dragonborn" is the first DRAGONFORCE music video to feature new bassist Alicia Vigil, who first joined the band as a touring member in January 2020.

This past April, Li told Elliott Fullam of Little Punk People about the material for DRAGONFORCE's next album: "Well, you know, it's gonna be epic, triumphant, fun and catchy and uplifting. We're gonna carry on sounding like DRAGONFORCE."

DRAGONFORCE's platinum-selling single "Through The Fire And Flames" brought the London-based Grammy-nominated extreme power metal group international acclaim and was featured as the most challenging song on "Guitar Hero III".

In March 2019, the "Through The Fire And Flames" music video reached a new milestone: it surpassed one hundred million views on YouTube — DRAGONFORCE's first music video to do so.

"Through The Fire And Flames" is the leadoff track from 2006's "Inhuman Rampage" album, which was officially certified gold in July 2017 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales in excess of half a million copies.

In August 2019, DRAGONFORCE parted ways with longtime bassist Frédéric Leclercq. He has since joined German thrashers KREATOR.

Photo credit: Alice Baxley