Sean McLennan

March 15 marks the release of Warp Speed Warriors, the ninth studio album from the all-powerful Dragonforce. With each album, the band consistently outdo their work prior, throwing the kitchen sink of epic metal components-light speed riffing, dexterous shredding, complex percussion, soaring vocals, and symphonic magnificence-into each song to create a mind-blowing experience for the listener.

However, with Warp Speed Warriors, founding members and string sorcerers Herman Li and Sam Totman-joined in battle by singer Marc Hudson, bassist Alicia Vigil, and drummer Gee Anzalone-have developed an even more fearless vision for the band. Following intuition as their main guide and not allowing external judgment to penetrate their forcefield, Dragonforce open up their sound with new story-telling dynamics, in addition to enhancing all of the aspects fans have come to love about them.

“I think the biggest challenge that comes into play when doing stuff that you love is to not care what people think,” Li states. “Around 2018, we stopped having managers from the outside and took on managing ourselves. There’s good and there’s bad to this, but I think the main thing is the music part, where we don’t have to listen to people. We didn’t listen to them before, but everyone has always got an opinion to say about your album…but this is us. We’re doing what we want, it’s great. You’re free. You don’t have to hear any opinions while creating…We felt much more free to express ourselves in every single way, which became this new album.”

Having gotten to a point in their career where the band have experienced so many different aspects of the music business, Li explains, “we’ve seen the dark side and we’ve seen the good side, but fuck it, I’ll take the path where the music counts the most first and deal with all the rest later.”

Pushing forth with a renewed sense of independence and a burning heart, the band make two things very clear on the new album: Their ability to create new scenery through a wealth of video game inspiration and, of course, their continued capabilities in writing some of the most intricate songs within the rock universe.

“We’re always improving, fixing little details,” Li shares. “At this point in Dragonforce, there are so many more elements than just playing fast. When it’s time to make that fast and long song, we do like to go over the top and inject everything into it. But when it’s time to play the mid-tempo style of Dragonforce, now we’re able to emphasize melodies and hooks in a different way. We want it to be epic, even if it’s sad. A minor key is still an epic feeling, right? And that major key is a different epicness.”

With inspiration from the gaming world pushing the band to expand their atmosphere and develop new layers to their sound throughout the latest album, Li mentions, “we’re always learning something somewhere else that’s able to contribute to the album.”

He continues, “We wrote about Zelda on ‘Power Of The Triforce’ and we wrote about Warhammer 40K on ‘Space Marine Corp.’ ‘The Killer Queen’ is also based on video games with strong female characters-Bayonetta and these kinds of games. So, finding inspiration from a lot of story-driven games helped us drive the lyrics further.”

In terms of growing as a guitarist, Li credits collaborating with other musicians online via Twitch as a way in which he’s been able to “get much better.”

“It pushes you to think harder and faster and be able to work with other musicians,” he explains. But in regards to continuing the mission to build Dragonforce, Li attributes the hard work ethic and persistence he’s developed over the years to his “stubbornness.”

“There’s got to be an aspect of being stubborn if you want to follow something that really fulfills you; following your dreams, so to speak. I’ve experienced that myself, for better or for worse. This is the kind of music I like, and that’s what I’m going to do. No one’s going to stop me. And it’s very easy to get deterred or get distracted by the outside world, so you’ve got to be tough and be strong, mentally.”