by JOHNSON CUMMINS

With bands like Iced Earth leading the charge, it seems that there is a definite resurgence of power metal lately. Hardly metal revisionists, the U.K.’s DragonForce sneak the obligatory shredding arpeggio guitar solos in with the blast beats on their momentous new CD, Inhuman Rampage. They tend to put emphasis on melody, as opposed to being heavy for heavy’s sake or relying too much on their technical ability. Their skill may be one thing, but also their love of fantasy-based lyrics and staple metal graphics marks them as the most unlikely band to ever be championed by the fickle U.K. press. The Mirror talked to guitarist Herman Li over the phone.

Mirror: There’s always been a metal following in the U.K., but are you surprised that metal has recently been getting a nod from the mainstream there?

Herman Li: Well, I don’t know if the mainstream has really come around to power metal bands or us. We have three-minute shredding guitar solos in our songs and I can’t see the mainstream liking that. I actually think that the power metal thing has gotten smaller, but the better bands are just getting more attention now.

M: It seems that you have a lot of classic metal influences. Do you think that you may be turning on a younger portion of your audience to more classic power-metal bands?

HL: I think that’s one of the most exciting things for us when we play live, because we do see a lot of younger people in the audience. We get a lot of people who are from a punk or thrash background, and so it’s exciting for us to know that we may be exposing them to something a bit different.

M: You have been called the heavy metal band to watch. Do you feel any pressure to live up to the expectations?

HL: Not really, we have never really changed styles or anything and I think there are a lot of other great power metal bands happening right now, which definitely takes the pressure off of us. There are always going to be more great metal bands coming up all the time.

M: You toured with Iron Maiden in support of your last record. Was that a dream come true?

HL: It was really great. They treated us really well and we got to play to another audience with the shows going off great. I think we were able to pick up a lot of new fans from that tour. As cool as that tour was, though, we still like playing headline shows more.

Axes of evil

M: You’ve mentioned that a lot of the fantasy-based lyrics, fast tempos and record graphics were born out of your love of video games.

HL: Yeah, sometimes we will come up with songs and say, “Wouldn’t that make a great video-game soundtrack?” Sam [Totman, guitarist] and I actually play a lot of games and, when we’re on tour, we end up playing a lot more just because there is so much downtime on the bus.

M: You’ve been getting a lot of fans that have been showing up to your shows with plastic swords and axes. How did that start?

HL: I guess people started showing up to shows with them as a laugh, and we thought it was funny, so we took pictures of them and put them in our second record, and now it happens all the time. It’s kind of funny to see these swords and axes while you’re playing, but now it’s their way to show that they’re hardcore fans.

M: Your first demo was downloaded half a million times. Do you think that was the seed of your success?

HL: Definitely. We actually got money to get started from that because people had the option to buy our demo CD when they went to download the songs. We were starting to sell out places before we even had a record out. I think we would’ve gone over the half-million mark if MP3.com didn’t get shut down. We just kept checking the numbers every day and couldn’t believe it. It was really after that that people really started taking notice of us and our record deal came around. When you start a band, you just want people to hear your music and you don’t really care about money, and not that much has changed since then.

With Sanctify and Icewind at le Medley
on Saturday, April 29, 8 p.m., $27

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