DragonForce - Valley Of The Damned [Review]

The debut album from British power metal band DragonForce.
First let's start with the album art. Obviously, originally the band were called Dragonheart but due to 'not wanting to cause a fuss' with the Brazilian band of the same name, they changed their name to DragonForce.
The album art for the album by DragonForce 'as Dragonheart' was just the band logo over a lightning background, but the new DragonForce version was slightly more epic. It remains one of my favourite album covers of all time.
A warrior queen with two horses either side of her, on their hind legs, surrounded by ice and mountains (and conveniantly an eagle is flying past at the same time)

Which brings us onto the actual album itself: 9 tracks excluding bonus tracks (damn Japanese releases)

1. Invocations Of Apocalyptic Evil - Famous for being ridiculously short..between 13 and 15 seconds long. Erie sounds (assuming they come from hell itself), - I also think of the ice on the album cover whenever I hear this track, because it can be interpreted as the ice cracking below the characters on the album cover.

2. Valley Of The Damned - Invocations Of Apocalyptic Evil changes so well into this song that if you didn't know that they were two different tracks, you wouldn't assume it. The first "song" on the album and what a way to make your debut. Stand up Mr Theart and take the applause. Flawless from all members of the band, although as you will notice if you ever listen to this album is that the recording equipment is not very good. Obviously this has improved greatly as the band has matured, (Ultra Beatdown being a perfect example of DragonForce's new found wealth going towards a great quality of music). Also, a great solo in Valley Of The Damned. This song has become a favourite with most of the true DragonForce fans (i.e. fans that know that DragonForce have more than one song [Through The Fire And Flames])

3. Black Fire - What Black Fire lacks in the atmosphere that Valley Of The Damned has at the beginning, it certainly makes up with in speed. One thing that we all know about DragonForce is that they obviously play their instruments very, very fast at times, with vocals from ZP that don't quite match the speed. Now this can sound very good and very effective, but there are a few songs that leave you wondering just how he manages to sing through the song without collapsing (eg. Revolution Deathsquad). Black Fire is like this, and features outstanding twin guitar work from Herman and Sam. The lyrics in Black Fire seem to be very epic

I mean:

Ride with the steel and the power of the sword
Stand up and fight now and forever more
Rise through the night sky with daylight's desire
To be free there must be black fire

Through the day and through the night with dragons heart the warrior strikes
This is the day that they'll be known as my enemy

--Now that is pretty epic for a band first stepping onto the scene. Yes Herman and Sam had already been in Demoniac before this but that was black metal, and the guitar parts that they had to play in Demoniac weren't quite stretching them enough. And DragonForce could provide them this. But for ZP to come leading this new band and sing lyrics like that was outstanding and to be quite honest....at the time, very exciting.

4. Black Winter Night - One of my favourites. Lyrics wise this is the best DragonForce song. And Nobody try and convince me otherwise because I just won't listen. This song is not the best for the guitar solos, keyboard solos or any of that, but it was lyrically GENIUS. The addition of brass instruments and church bells truly aided the atmosphere to this song, and it is such a rush to listen to, all the way through the song. One thing you will learn about me is that I won't stop defending this song while we are talking in this forum. It is just 'too' good. I will leave it there.

5. Starfire - The first of 'the ballads'. In every DragonForce album (and indeed in a lot of metal albums) there is always a ballad. Where the sounds become less heavy, they become slower, and the keyboard is temporarily thrown in the bin to make way for a piano. I, in my own opinion (sorry to say it if you love this song) don't like Starfire particularly. Don't get me wrong, the lyrics are okay and the instrumental sections are played fine as always, but something about ZP's vocals in this one, hit me as odd. I know that it is just his style, and it can partly be blamed on the bad recording facilities (as mentioned earlier in this post), but it just doesn't cut it for me! A nice ballad for their first album, but as I say it isn't my favourite. Trail Of Broken Hearts from Inhuman Rampage is a great song and a great ballad, and a nice slow song that I listen to when I am tired (but whilst still trying to keep it metal!)
Sorry for spending quite a few lines on explaining why I dislike this song but to cut it short:

Electric Keyboard Piano
Fast Slow
Jonas Brothers Rock DragonForce!!!

6. Disciples Of Babylon - The shredding at the beginning of this one reminds me very much of Hammerfall - The Dragon Lies Bleeding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QSCFI9y3SA&feature=related
But apart from that similarity, they are two completly different songs. Quite surprising that they show biblical references in the title of this song. Don't remember much of that from other DragonForce songs apart from the end of 'Heroes Of Our Time' when part of the Lord's Prayer is recited. With long lasting screaching epic vocals from Theart on this one, e.g. 'Ecstacyyyyyyyyyy', this is sure to be one that tingles your ear drums.
That is until.....for some weird, weird, strange reason, it starts to sound like jazz and you can just imagine Herman ditching his Ibanez and opting for a double bass and playing pizzicato improvisation for about an hour. But no! After exactly 5mins and 9secs, the electric guitar kicks in again. Reminds me of Eric Johnson's - Cliffs Of Dover with a somewhat echoey sound. Great stuff. I was taken aback by the jazzy bit when I first heard it, but it all comes good in the end.

7. Revelations - With a similar sounding guitar into to Valley Of The Damned earlier in the album, Revelations was an instant hit for me. As also with VOTD, Revelations suits the album art perfectly. The whole album seems to focus on quests and journies a lot more than the other albums. Sonic Firestorm is predominantly about war, inhuman rampage is a mixture of the two, and Ultra Beatdown plays on their own fame and comes up with great results at the end (see TCJacko's review of Ultra Beatdown - read it, great review). Epic vocals in this track and one thing we must not forget in this album is the drumming. Great work on each of the tracks on the album (with the exception of Invocations of course, where nobody does anything). Revelations has melodic vocals, but the guitar work, talented though it is, is more towards the raw speed metal side of the spectra. Altogether, a great song.

8. Evening Star - The beginning of the song sounds like a ballad will ensue, quite WRONG! ZP's vocals on the intro sound very feminine and although I personally wouldn't take that as a compliment if someone said it of me, it just shows how soft his voice can be. It has to be said that this album really displays and puts on show his full repetoire of vocal abilities. After the opening 20 seconds or so it undergoes a tuen of speed in true DragonForce style. EVERYONE IN! Doesn't matter what instrument you're playing, you're in. This track possesses one of the more impressive guitar solo sections on the album and the drumming on the outro is...well...listen for yourself....great fills. All in all, a decent/good song. Not my favourite but if you're feeling in a guitar mood - go for it!

9. Heart Of A Dragon - A very similar intro to the later Soldiers Of The Wasteland on the Sonic Firestorm album of 2004. Vocals to begin with, no instrumental introduction, just straight in with ZP to capture the attention. Come to think of it, Flame For Freedom sort of has a similar beginning. Anyway, Herman Li once said in an interview on a different site, that he never thought DragonForce were really about dragons. I mean, fair enough, other bands such as Rhapsody and Blind Guardian have more mythological influences, but Li cannot deny the references to dragons in this one. He must have just been joking! Insanely long and sustained notes flood the end of 'Heart Of A Dragon' and it is a great ending to DragonForce's great debut album Valley Of The Damned (Unless you have 'Where Dragons Rule' - [which I do have but I'm not reviewing the bonus tracks])

And now for the rating:

A great album, and brave, might I add. Brave to come out with such epic stuff early on. Really got them on the map among power metal fans.
Unfortunately though, the sometimes poor recording lets it down. But hey! That's fixed now, as Ultra Beatdown showed us!

Rating - 4.5/5

Nice review dude. Valley Of The Damned was my favourite, then Black Fire and then Black Winter Night. All awesome. Check out my Ultra Beatdown review.

Yeah nice review but my favourites are Disciples of Babylon and Evening Star(only because of the solo).

awesome review. you made me wanna buy the whole album as ive downloaded only heart of a dragon , black fire and valley of the damned only to see if it is good. well if you also dragonforce fans really like it you must have a point

great review
votd is obviously my fave of the album but disciples of babylon has imo the most unique solo section to date, starting with slow, misleading jazz than slammin your ears with amazing shredding

yeah the black winter night lyrics are epic. awesome review man.

Valley of the Damned actually makes a good Power Metal Christmas album.

Valley of the damned is an amazing Album i think it has the best songs of all on it :D:D:D Evening Star is awesome and Disciples Of Babylon omg all them are good on this album i cant choose :O:O:O lol

Yes I really love the solo for evening star. It's great.

nice review pmlo

Very nice!

I love Black Winter Night as well.

That is a metal review.

'On the endless seas of madness, we sail forever more!
And the endless tears of sadness, towards the distant shores!
When the flame has died forever, we stand one and all!
With the power of the almighty sword!

We fight the battle on the fields tonight!
To save us from the master of all evil sign
And to the battle on, forever standing strong
We feel the fire power of the night warriors!'

That is the prechorus and chorus to The Black Winter Night.

Lyrically, I would vote this song the best Dragonforce song.


DF FTW

Yes it has good lyrics but I like Warrior Inside and Operation Ground and Pound lyrics more.

Favorite song on this cd, Starfire. Cause its money baby, yeah.

Rokai wrote:

Yes it has good lyrics but I like Warrior Inside and Operation Ground and Pound lyrics more.

The Warrior Inside lyrics

Nothing left still searching for something, deep beneath the cries
Wait for the deafening silence.
Free forever more......

.....

Take my hand, this one last time
Face the world before us, The Warrior Inside
In a lifetime of disaster, it's a battle to the end
Final stand my life must carry on
And forever, this time
------------------
And OGAP

Cry far away as we reach for the day
Blasting our way through the punishment and the pain
Reach for the world, as the sky begins to fall
Rising through the darkened ashes praying that I'll see you all

Far away, will our eyes now see the day
For today, the everlasting eternal sun
Washed away, the dreams of a brighter day
Forever hold the dream inside,
The chance to fight another fight,
The breaking hearts that stand for all our lives
Live tonight!
Woaaaahhh Wooooooooooaaaaaaaaahhh

-------------------

Both epic as well. The lyrics are some of the best things about Dragonforce.

I actually meant the verse parts of these songs but come to think of it the whole lyrics are awesome.

DragonForce

I thiknk this was, by far, Dragonforce's best work yet.

Anyone of u guys know something about

Valley of the damned remixed and remastered CD+DVD????

Thx

Fred once said that "Sam was probably drunk and lost it" when asked about it but he might have been joking.

It's pretty cool since I wrote something like this in Wikipedia (I'm helpful)

Rokai wrote:

Fred once said that "Sam was probably drunk and lost it" when asked about it but he might have been joking.

It's pretty cool since I wrote something like this in Wikipedia (I'm helpful)

Yeah that was in interview after the Mayhem Festival I think it was.

It would be pretty amazing if a remastered Valley Of The Damned was made.

With Fred and Dave in the line-up, that'd kick ass.

Also they thought about issuing a live DVD, which would be amazing for them as well.

The future's bright for DragonForce I think

Well, fans will be able to recover from the shock caused by The Last Journey Home.

Rokai wrote:

Well, fans will be able to recover from the shock caused by The Last Journey Home.

I don't think it's THAT bad.

I mean, it's no 'St. Anger', but it was probably because the other three videos had set good standards, that lots of DF fans have reacted in a bad way to the 'video game' theme of the video.

The onstage part of the video is pretty cool I thought, and I also thought it was a good idea to have some sort of reference to live shows.

Yes the live part is good. I love it how those guys at the beginning stel ZP and Vadim's stuff. It reminds me of the haters. But in the end they get their instruments back (haters lose).

And anyways good bands make lame videos sometimes. (Iron Maiden - Rainmaker)

I love the part when Herman cast a kinda spell to a guy ... and his eyes shine soo cool !!

i think this was a really good vid... weird... but cool