Usually, when a band tries to surpass their previous musical efforts, especially when the stage is set to such a high standard, they hit a block of musical creativity. This block sounds like an attempt at something new and original but falls quite short of that, and what you hear makes you look back at the CD case to see if you bought the right item. Dragonforce's Inhuman Rampage is a perfect example of this failure. Their two previous albums, Valley of the Damned and Sonic Firestorm, are excellent pieces of epic power metal, crafted at speeds that no blacksmith could forge. However, Dragonforce's most recent guitar onslaught, Inhuman Rampage, doesn't take flight quite like it used too.
Not to make Inhuman Rampage out to sound like a complete failure, there are plenty of classic battle friendly anthems and three minute guitar solos that won't have you dozing off into the frozen land beyond. "Through the Fire and Flames" is the first and hands down the best song off the album. It's in the vein of the previous Dragonforce efforts and annihilates every one of the 421 seconds of its fiery existence.
I cannot stand another second of these goddamn techno parts corrupting an already sketchy solo. Eiffel 65 is not tough, or metal so please don't use that crap sound in your soundtrack for battle. I'm not sure if Dragonforce recently sealed a deal with a foreign gaming company-agreeing to include their Tetris sounding riffs in the songs, but it sucks and needs to end.
It's hard for me to comprehend the mindset these fantasy fools were in while writing this record. But if anyone has a copy of this record and is as confused and troubled by what they heard as I was, it's best not to share these feelings with anyone else. Tens seconds of vocal harmony won't save Dragonforce from being stamped as the biggest letdown of 2006.
