Review | DragonForce – Warp Speed Warriors

Napalm Records

‘Warp Speed Warriors’ is the ninth studio album by the extreme power metal band DragonForce. I really found their previous album ‘Extreme Power Metal’ (2019) a blast. A MUST for lovers of twin guitar speed metal and anthem-like power metal. The first single of their new album was ,,Doomsday Party”, and the version of that track with guest vocals from Elize Ryd of Amaranthe is really something. While the album track features great eighties rock influences with epic guitar solos like we know from guitar virtuosos Herman Li and Sam Totman, ,,Power Of The Triforce” is one of my favs on this new album. It was the second single and a tribute to the legendary video game ‘The Legend of Zelda’. It is a real headbanger with an astonishing addictive chorus.

FAVOURITE TRACK

The album opens with ,,Astro Warrior Anthem’’, also being the third single. This is 100% DragonForce, meaning: fast, heavy, and featuring lots of speedy melodic solos by Herman Li. Yes, this is my favourite track of this album, so play it F… LOUD; love it! ,,Kingdom Of Steel”, is a mid-tempo power ballad featuring great vocals by Marc Hudson and in my humble opinion it is not the obligatory ballad on a metal album! ,,Burning Heart” is up next and that one sounds a bit like the early DragonForce songs. I even hear influences from old school bands like Stratovarius and Hammerfall which give this track a nice variety of musical influences.

SIMPLISTIC

,,The Killer Queen” is again a superb typical DragonForce track. Featuring Li’s breakneck speed guitars solos and a singalong (try it if you can…) power metal anthem for sure! So far, so good, but then ,,Space Marine Corp” catches my ears and I really do not like that one. It kicks off with a marching band style introduction, featuring rather simplistic, very patriotic and anthemic lyrics. The chorus is something that sounds like we are in the navy.

AIR GUITAR

Luckily the album ends with another amazing speed metal track, called ,,Pixel Prison’’.
This is DragonForce at full speed. A track packed with a fast set of tempos and melodic guitar shreds combined with nice keyboard moments. So, no need to state that you must play ‘Warp Speed Warriors’ extremely LOUD and try keeping up with your air guitar seems again rather impossible!!

SUPERFLUOUS

By the way, as a bonus track you can enjoy an unexpected cover version of Taylor Swift’s ,,Wildest Dreams”. This seems to become a tradition as on the previous album we were treated to a cover of Celine Dion’s super boring ballad ,,My Heart Will Go On”. For me, these covers are, needless to say, completely superfluous.

Listening tip: ,,Astro Warrior Anthem”.

Release date: 15 March 2024