DragonForce toured with several well-known metal bands such as " W.A.S.P" and " Iron Maiden". The tour was much longer than DragonForce's recent tour for "Valley of the Damned" and featured many more headline shows than the previous. It was around this time that DragonForce began becoming popular internationally and adopted nicknames such as "Bon Jovi on speed" and "Journey meets Slayer." When Mackintosh entered the band in 2004, they began referring to their style of music as "extreme power metal" due to his fast blastbeats and double bass rhythms. The album was the band's first album to feature Adrian Lambert on bass and Dave Mackintosh on drums. Sonic Firestorm (2004-2005) Main article: Sonic FirestormĭragonForce's follow-up and second most well-known album (the most being its follow-up album), Sonic Firestorm, proved to be even more successful with the lead single " Fury of the Storm". Since this concert, the band has returned to the same venue every tour. The entire show was pro-shot to be released on a DVD, however it has not yet been released. The Japan performance was the largest amount of people that the band had played for yet. The band's tour for Valley of the Damned lasted until 2004, with a performance in Tokyo, Japan. The title track, re-released in promotion of the album, it is one of the most known DragonForce songs to date and it is a staple of their live performance to this day. In 2003, DragonForce signed to Noise Records and begun recording their second released album and first full-length album, Valley of the Damned. Williams later went on form the power metal band Power Quest. Shortly after the demo was released, Steve Williams and Steve Scott left and they were replaced by Vadim Pruzhanov and Diccon Harper. The song was a huge success on MP3.com where it charted at #1 for two whole weeks as the most downloaded song. A promotional video featuring live footage from the band's tour around Europe was released along with the song. Their song " Valley of the Damned" was released as their first single shortly after they permanently changed their name to DragonForce in December 2001. A guest drummer Peter Hunt recorded after Satanc left. The original demo version is also extremely rare. Where Dragons Rule was included as a bonus track in the Japanese version of the demo album, but it was a remastered version of the original. Even though the demo didn't include the songs Black Fire and Heart of a Dragon, the original versions of the two songs exist but are extremely rare due to being unreleased, along with the original version of " Evening Star" (which the original version was called " Lands of Desire"). It was an autonomous release, however it was enough to make them one of the most popular independent power metal bands in the UK at the time. Valley of the Damned (2000-2003) Main article: Valley of the Damned (album)ĭragonHeart (what the band was known as at the time) recorded their very first album in 2000 (as a demo). Harper performed on the band's debut album, Valley of the Damned in its completion, but left in 2002 due to a tendon problem that required surgery. The ex-Demoniac bassist Diccon Harper joined DragonForce in November 2000 with keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov joining in February 2001 to complete the lineup for recording their first album. Steve Scott would later join Shadowkeep, then Power Quest (along with Steve Williams. Steve later rejoined and left once again in December 2000, days head of DragonForce's tour with "Halford" and "Stratovarius". DragonForce then parted ways with Steve Scott in November 2000 and Steve Williams in early 2000. ĭrummer Matej Satanc (just like Li and Totman, was also a former member of Demoniac) left Dragonforce in December 1999 in order to continue his studies in Slovenia. The other band's was "Dragon heart) already existed and changed their named to DragonForce in 2002. However, the band later found that another power metal band with the same name (although both spellings were different, DragonForce's was "Dragon Heart". Apparently, for the demo, the band managed to put Peter Hunt as drums (guest) for the demo instead of Satanc. Initially the band intended to call themselves DragonHeart, released a demo, toured with Halford and Stratovarius and headline their own show under that name. Sam and Herman were originally in the Black and power metal band, Demoniac, along with Lindsay Dawson, respectively. Herman and Sam later found singer ZP Theart through an advert, and not long afterwards, gained Demoniac's drummer, Matej Satanc, as well as the bassist Steve Scott, and the keyboardist, Steve Williams. 1.8 Reaching into Infinity (2016–present)ĭragonForce was formed in 1999 by the Herman Li and Sam Totman after they had left Demoniac.1.7 The Power Within and Maximum Overload (2011–2015).1.6 Twilight Dementia and departure of Theart (2010).