DragonForce, the ultimate 21st century guitar heroes, have landed on the Billboard Top 20 albums chart with Ultra Beatdown, the band's fourth album of manic metal prowess.
Every album is different for us, says guitarist Herman Li. We never want to repeat what's done before. And that makes each record we do that little bit more difficult.
On this one, we rejected so much because it was going over old ground. We'd heard it before. We're not a band who get stuck with a formula and are just content to repeat the same thing over and over again.
Ultra Beatdown marks the studio debut of DragonForce's wall of Peavey amplification, including JSX Series 4x12 guitar enclosures and Triple XXX Series guitar amps for guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, respectively. BassistFrédéric LeClercq used a Tour Series bass rig loaded with Tour 700 heads and Tour 810 cabs.
Afterwowing fans during itsmain-stage slot on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem festival this summer, DragonForce is embarking on a global tour for Ultra Beatdown with its Peavey gear.
The JSX cabinets have incredible tone and are extremely versatile, commented Li. No matter how fast we play or how busy the stage is, my tone still cuts through the mix. And the direct output at the back of the cab sounds so good that my FOH sound engineer doesn't even bother putting mics in front of the cabs.
