DragonForce at the Belasco LA

British Power Metal titans DragonForce played the Belasco in Downtown Los Angeles Friday night (4/22) The original  big four in Metal are Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, but when it comes to Power Metal, DragonForce is part of the big four with Sabaton, Helloween, and Sabaton. The support acts on the tour are Firewind, Visions of Atlantis, and Seven Spires. This show was the second last of the tour and the first time Firewind played L.A. in six years. DragonForce formed in 1999 with shredders Herman Li and Sam Totman and since 2011 Marc Hudson (not to be confused with producer Mark Hudson) has been the front-man and this year their tour bassist Alicia Vigil became a full time member. Drummer Gee Anzalone has been the drummer since 2014. DragonForce has released eight albums with the most recent being 2019’s Extreme Power Metal. They are best known for their video game sounds like “The Pac-Man Noise,” “The Dive Bomb Noise,” and the “Motor Bike Noise.” The group is also known for not only insanely fast guitar playing, but also soaring vocals, and ultra-fast double bass drumming. When DragonForce released their debut album Valley of the Damned, Totman and Li reinvented guitar playing and broke all kinds of boundaries.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic DragonForce made parodies in the style of groups like Blink-182, Rammstein, Amon Amart, and Nightwish as well as a collaboration with Bowling for Soup’s Jaret Reddick. For Guitar Hero fans you may remember “Through the Fire and Flames” from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock which included Slash and Tom Morello as playable characters. DragonForce restarted their tour nearly two years from the day they played their last show as the Covid-19 Pandemic forced all tours to be canceled. Their last show was March 11, 2020 in Denver, Co and their first show this year was March 7th in Santa Ana, CA.

DragonForce played a total of 13 songs and a guitar solo. DragonForce opened with Highway to Oblivion with Totman and Li each on top of two giant arcade machines which had various vintage video games on the screen throughout the show. Totman and Li came out sporting LED glasses similar to the ones Kanye West made popular from Graduation. In the first three songs alone there had been Co2 and confetti that was Miami Vice color (Blue/Pink). Song two was one of their biggest songs “Fury of the Storm,” and before the next song “The Last Dragonborn” from their latest album the giant dragon behind the drums spoke. After the fourth song “Operation Ground and Pound,” the screens played a compilation of Sega commercials. For video game fans they played “Dracula’s Castle” from Castlevania and Fight on from Final Fantasy. Hudson picked up guitar for those songs. Next came a banjo solo from Totman dressed in a plaid shirt overalls and a farmer hat and was joined by Former Ozzy guitarist Gus G (Firewind) and some of the other guitarists that played earlier for a whole shred fest. After “Valley of the Damned,” DragonForce played a two-song encore of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” and “Through the Fire and Flames.”

Setlist:

Point of Origin- Yanni (Intro)

1. Highway to Oblivion

2. Fury of the Storm

3. The Last Dragonborn

4. Operation Ground and Pound

Sega Commercial

5. Heart Demolition

6. Dracula's Castle/ Fight On -Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Final Fantasy VII

7. Banjo Solo/ Guitar Solo with Gus G

8. Heart of a Dragon

9. Strangers

10. Cry Thunder

11. Remembrance Day

12. Valley of the Damned

Encore

13. My Heart Will Go On- Celine Dion

14. Through the Fire and the Flames