Ultra Beatdown

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Ultra Beatdown
Studio album by DragonForce
Released Japan August 20, 2008 (2008-08-20)[1]
Global August 26, 2008 (2008-08-26)[1]
Recorded 2007 – 2008
Thin Ice Studios, Surrey, LamerLuser & BATMAM Studios, London.
Genre Power metal
Length 58:18
76:49 (special edition)
Label Roadrunner, Universal, Spinefarm
Producer Karl Groom, Herman Li, Sam Totman
Professional reviews
DragonForce chronology
Inhuman Rampage
(2006)		 Ultra Beatdown
(2008)
Singles from Ultra Beatdown
  1. "Heroes of Our Time"
    Released: Web 4 July 2008
  2. "The Last Journey Home"
    Released: XBLN 21 January 2009
  3. "Reasons to Live"
    Released: Web 2 July 2009
Alternate cover
Special Edition cover

Ultra Beatdown is the fourth studio album by English power metal band DragonForce, released on 20 August 2008 in Japan through JVC and on 26 August 2008 worldwide through Roadrunner Records [4] and Universal Music.[5] On 4 July 2008 the first single from the album, "Heroes of Our Time", was posted on their MySpace profile.[6] On 8 July 2008, the music video for Heroes of Our Time was released onto their MySpace profile. The songs "Heartbreak Armageddon", "The Fire Still Burns" and "A Flame for Freedom" were all played on 106.1 Rock Radio during an interview with ZP Theart on 15 July 2008.[7] On 14 August 2008 Ultra Beatdown was made available for pre-order in the DragonForce official web store. On 18 August 2008 the album became available for streaming on the band's MySpace page.

Prior to the album's release, DragonForce's shortest recorded song (excluding "Invocation of Apocalyptic Evil", the 14-second intro track to Valley of the Damned) was the song "Dawn Over a New World", (Sonic Firestorm), which clocked in at 5:13. This honour now goes to the special edition track "Strike of the Ninja", which is 3:18. This song also holds the honor of being the first and, so far, only unedited song recorded by DragonForce with a length of less than five minutes, albeit due to it being a re-recorded version of "Feel the Fire" by Sam Totman's side project Shadow Warriors.

The music video for "The Last Journey Home" premiered on the Xbox Live Network on 21 January 2009.[8] Frédéric Leclercq announced that they may release a live DVD in 2009-2010.[9]

"Reasons To Live" was released as a single on 2 July 2009, almost a year after the release of "Heroes of our Time", the first single.

Ultra Beatdown is currently the only DragonForce album to be released in a vinyl LP format.

Contents

[edit] Sound

“ It's not going to be majorly different. But hopefully the melodies will be nicer, the guitar solos will be better, the production will be better. You just try to improve in every area. ”

—Sam Totman, [4]
“ There isn't much to change, but yet there is. The last three albums have been very much guitar-orientated, and this one probably will be as well, but I want to try to do some extra colouring in with the vocals. ”

—ZP Theart[4]
“ Bands always say, 'Our new album is faster and heavier,' and then it's never true, so we're not gonna say that. But playing fast just works for us. People who say we play too fast are probably right, but guess what? There's a million other bands that play slow. People listen to DragonForce and go to the show because they know that we're doing something other bands aren't doing. ”

—Herman Li, [4]

[edit] Release history

Year Region Date Format Label Catalogue # Notes
2008  JPN 20 August CD Victor Entertainment VICP-64299 All bonus tracks [10]
2008  USA 26 August CD Roadrunner 1686-179372 [11]
2008  USA 26 August LP Roadrunner 1686-179371 Free Download Coupon
2008  USA 26 August CD, DVD Roadrunner 1686-179378 Special Edition [12]

The album was set for release first in Japan on 20 August 2008[1] then on 22 August in Germany[13] and the day after, on 23 August, in Australia[citation needed] before being released to the United Kingdom on 25 August and globally the following day.[1]

[edit] Touring and support

The first round of DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown World tour started on 25 September 2008 in the The Zodiac, Oxford with Turisas. The US/Canada tour also includes Powerglove. The band toured almost constantly up until April 2009 in several countries with support by Dååth and Cynic. They had planned to carry out their World Tour to Latin America in May 2009, but have delayed their arrival to November 2009 due to the Swine Flu Epidemic as well as "exhaustion" according to what Herman Li stated in a recent interview. The band plans to release a live DVD in Summer 2009.

[edit] Critical reception

Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

The song "Heroes of Our Time" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, losing to Metallica's "My Apocalypse"..[citation needed] On 28 August the album charted at #9 in Japan[10] it also entered the Australian charts in the first week of September at #19[14] and in the same week at #18 in both the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200.[15]

Initial critical response to Ultra Beatdown was generally positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 77, based on 8 reviews.[16] Both Allmusic and Alternative Press gave it four and a half stars out of a possible five. Allmusic gave it an "AMG Album Pick" and, in the opening sentence of the review, likened the band to a juggernaut. [17][2]

However, some critics did not find the album very favourable. Sputnikmusic gave the album a 2.0 out of five, saying "Ultra Beatdown features the same guitar riffing, theatric singing and the rest of that stuff that doesn’t matter in regards to Dragonforce. Every song is a collection of verses used to show off ZP Theart’s voice, a bridge to maybe attempt a keyboard solo to solidify their video game worship/power metal-ness, and then a collection of solos that usually involve elements of their past songs played in a different key (if you’re lucky)".[18]

[edit] Track listing

# Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "Heroes of Our Time"   Totman, Li Totman 7:13
2. "The Fire Still Burns"   Totman, Theart Totman 7:52
3. "Reasons to Live"   Totman, Li Pruzhanov, Totman, Leclercq 6:25
4. "Heartbreak Armageddon"   Totman, Li Li, Totman, Leclercq 7:42
5. "The Last Journey Home"   Totman, Theart Totman 8:15
6. "A Flame for Freedom"   Totman Totman 5:20
7. "Inside the Winter Storm"   Totman, Theart Totman 8:11
8. "The Warrior Inside"   Totman, Li, Theart Pruzhanov, Totman 7:14
9. "Strike of the Ninja" (Special edition) Totman, Theart Totman 3:18
10. "Scars of Yesterday" (Special edition) Totman, Li, Theart Pruzhanov, Leclercq 7:49
11. "E.P.M." (Japanese bonus)     7:24
76:49
Special edition DVD
# Title Length
1. "The Making of Ultra Beatdown"   15:16
2. "The Making of the E-Gen Guitar"   9:35
24:51
  • *E.P.M. is rumored to stand for "Extreme Power Metal"
  • On the Special Edition of the album, there is a 30-second pre-gap between "The Warrior Inside" and "Strike of the Ninja."

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d "Ultra Beatdown at DragonForce.com". DragonForce.com. http://www.dragonforce.com/df/albums/ultra-beatdown. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
  2. ^ a b "Ultra Beatdown review". Alternative Press (Alternative Press Magazine, Inc) (issue 242): page 152. 
  3. ^ Ling, Dave (September 2008). Ultra Beatdown review. Metal Hammer. pp. page 87. 
  4. ^ a b c d "DRAGONFORCE: New Album Details Revealed". Blabbermouth.net. 2008-06-03. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=98269. Retrieved 2008-06-03. 
  5. ^ "DragonForce - Official Discography". DragonForce.com. http://dragonforce.com/discography.php. Retrieved 2008-06-03. 
  6. ^ "DRAGONFORCE: New Song Available For Streaming". Blabbermouth.net. 2008-07-04. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=100261. Retrieved 2008-07-05. 
  7. ^ "106.1 Rock Radio - Manchester's First Classic Rock Station". 106.1 Rock Radio. http://www.rockradiomanchester.co.uk/listen_live/?36. Retrieved 2008-07-29. 
  8. ^ "DRAGONFORCE VIDEO WORLD PREMIER ON XBOX LIVE at DragonForce.com". DragonForce. January 21st, 2009. http://www.dragonforce.com/df/news/dragonforce-video-world-premier-on-xbox-live. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  9. ^ "“Reasons to Live” - DragonForce bassist Frédéric Leclercq delivers an Ultra Beatdown.". Lucemfero.com. http://www.lucemfero.com/dragonforce092008.php. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
  10. ^ a b "ドラゴンフォース-リリース-ORICON STYLE ミュージック" (in Japanese). Oricon. http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/release/d/775479/1/. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
  11. ^ "DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown (#1686-179372)". Discogs. http://www.discogs.com/release/1439493. Retrieved 2008-08-31. 
  12. ^ "DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown (#1686-179378)". Discogs. http://www.discogs.com/release/1443753. Retrieved 2008-08-31. 
  13. ^ "Hear the Next Evolution of Metal" (in German). Blast! (Nuclear Blast) (Sommer/Herbst 2008): page 39. August 2008. 
  14. ^ "DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown". Australian-charts.com. http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?key=94322&cat=a. Retrieved 2008-09-01. 
  15. ^ "Chart Stats - DragonForce". Chart Stats. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=11611. Retrieved 2008-06-19. 
  16. ^ "Dragonforce:Ultra Beatdown (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/dragonforce/ultrabeatdown. Retrieved 2009-04-07. 
  17. ^ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "((( Ultra Beatdown > Overview )))". Allmusic. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?sql=10:0ifexzrkldje. Retrieved 2008-08-21. 
  18. ^ "DragonForce - Ultra Beatdown Review". Sputnikmusic. http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=29863. Retrieved 2009-07-23. 
v • d • e
DragonForce
Herman Li · Sam Totman · ZP Theart · Vadim Pruzhanov · Dave Mackintosh · Frédéric Leclercq
Adrian Lambert · Didier Almouzni · Diccon Harper · Steve Scott · Steve Williams
Studio albums
Singles
"Valley of the Damned" · "Fury of the Storm" · "Through the Fire and Flames" · "Operation Ground and Pound" · "Heroes of Our Time" · "The Last Journey Home" · "Reasons to Live"
Related articles
Categories
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