''Ultra Beatdown'' is the fourth studio album by English
power metal
Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...
band
DragonForce
DragonForce are a British power metal band from London, England. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman, and are known for their long and fast guitar solos, fantasy-themed lyrics and retro video game-influenced ...
, released on 20 August 2008 in Japan through
JVC
JVC (short for Japan Victor Company) is a Japanese brand owned by JVCKenwood corporation. Founded in 1927 as the Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan and later as , the company is best known for introducing Japan's first televisions and for ...
and on 26 August 2008 worldwide through
Roadrunner Records
Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City.
History
The label was launched in 1980 in t ...
and
Spinefarm Records
Spinefarm Records is a Finnish independent record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. It is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
History
Spinefarm Records was originally founded in 1990 by Riku Pääkkönen as a mail-order distrib ...
. ''Ultra Beatdown'' is the last studio album to feature
ZP Theart on vocals and the first one to feature
Frédéric Leclercq
Frédéric Alexandre "Fred" Leclercq (born 23 June 1978) is a French musician and producer, best known as the former longtime bassist for British power metal band DragonForce. He is currently the guitarist and main songwriter in the death metal ...
on the bass guitar.
Overview
On 4 July 2008, the first single from the album, "
Heroes of Our Time
"Heroes of Our Time" is a song by English power metal band DragonForce. The song was released as the first single from their fourth album '' Ultra Beatdown''. It was first released via web streaming on their official MySpace profile on 4 July 20 ...
", was posted on their MySpace profile. On 8 July 2008, the music video for ''
Heroes of Our Time
"Heroes of Our Time" is a song by English power metal band DragonForce. The song was released as the first single from their fourth album '' Ultra Beatdown''. It was first released via web streaming on their official MySpace profile on 4 July 20 ...
'' 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. On 14 August 2008, the album 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.
The music video for "The Last Journey Home" premiered on the Xbox Live Network on 21 January 2009. Frédéric Leclercq announced that they may release a live DVD in 2009–2010. This did not happen however, though in September 2010 a live CD was released titled ''
Twilight Dementia''.
''Ultra Beatdown'' is the final album featuring lead vocalist ZP Theart and the first album to earn the band a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
nomination.
Sound
Before the release of ''Ultra Beatdown'', the band members were interviewed upon the topic of the album's structure and deliverance. Totman, Theart and Li all generally stated that the sound of ''Ultra Beatdown'' would not vary much differ from their previous records but would improve in some categories.
Touring and support
The first round of DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown World tour started on 25 September 2008 in
The Zodiac,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
with
Turisas
Turisas is a Finnish metal band from Hämeenlinna. They were founded in 1997 by Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström, and named after an ancient Finnish god of war.
Turisas are a folk metal band, incorporating elements of power metal and symp ...
. The US/Canada tour also includes
Powerglove. The band toured almost constantly up until April 2009 in several countries with support by
Dååth
Dååth is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta. Their music incorporates styles such as death metal, industrial metal, and some traces of gypsy jazz.
History
Dååth was started by Eyal Levi and Mike Kameron, who had been playing in ...
and
Cynic. They had planned to carry out their world tour to Latin America in May 2009, but delayed their arrival to November 2009 due to the
swine flu
Swine influenza is an infection caused by any of several types of swine influenza viruses. Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) refers to any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As o ...
epidemic as well as "exhaustion" according to what Herman Li stated in an interview.
The band had planned to release a live DVD in summer 2009 but instead released a series of videos entitled "DragonForce TV" which showed the band on tour as well as pro-shot footage of their performances at Graspop 2009 and Loudpark 2009. It also featured backstage footage of the band rehearsing and just hanging out. The rumoured DVD was never released due to lack of time when the band was touring. The DragonForce TV: Season 1 footage was uploaded during a break before the next-to-final leg of the tour in Latin America and North America. However, to make up for the false DVD, the band recorded the audio from every show on the final leg of the Ultra Beatdown World Tour to release the best cuts on a live compilation album. Herman Li stated in a 2010 interview regarding the album:
"The idea was to record every single show from the last leg of the tour, so we could pick the best take of each song without needing to do any overdubs in the studio; keeping the whole thing ‘LIVE’ like all the classic live metal albums.
"These recordings really capture the raw sonic energy of a Dragonforce show in fine detail. It is so real that you can hear the noise of the crowd and experience the show as it was that night – you can even hear the guitar pedals being stepped on!"
The album's official announcement was made on 22 June 2010. Titled ''
Twilight Dementia'', it was released in September 2010.
Critical reception
The song "
Heroes of Our Time
"Heroes of Our Time" is a song by English power metal band DragonForce. The song was released as the first single from their fourth album '' Ultra Beatdown''. It was first released via web streaming on their official MySpace profile on 4 July 20 ...
" was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality performances in the heavy metal music genre. The Grammy Awards is an annual ceremony, where ...
, losing to
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
's "
My Apocalypse
"My Apocalypse" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, and the second single from their studio album ''Death Magnetic''. On August 26, 2008, it was made available for streaming on the band's official website, as well as a download (f ...
".
On 28 August 2008, the album charted at No. 9 in Japan
it also entered the
Australian charts in the first week of September at No. 19
[ and in the same week at No. 18 in both the ]UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and the ''Billboard'' 200.[
Initial critical response to ''Ultra Beatdown'' was generally positive. At ]Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 77, based on 8 reviews. Both AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
and ''Alternative Press
Alternative press may refer to:
Individual publications
* ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine
Alternative journalism
* Alternative media
** Alternative media (U.S. political left)
** Alternative media (U.S. political ri ...
'' 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
A juggernaut (), in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. This English usage originated in the mid-nineteenth century and was adapted from the Sanskrit word Jagannath.
...
: "Look up the word "juggernaut" in the dictionary and you may just find Dragonforce's photo alongside the definition. Not only does it aptly describe the nature of their hyperkinetic "extreme power metal," but also their vertiginous ascent from utter music community obscurity to new media, errr...juggernaut, when their breakthrough single, "Through the Fire and Flames," became first a YouTube sensation and later a keystone of the Guitar Hero video game phenomenon".
Track listing
The ultra edition physical copy of the album contained a bonus DVD with the music videos for "Heroes of Our Time" and "The Last Journey Home", as well as videos ''The Making of Ultra Beatdown'' and ''The Making of the E-Gen Guitar''.
Notes
*On all non-standard physical editions of Ultra Beatdown, the length of The Warrior Inside is 7:44 as a 30-second gap of silence is added to the track.
*"Strike of the Ninja" is a re-recording of a song titled "Feel the Fire", recorded by Totman and Theart under the name Shadow Warriors, and is shorter than all the other DragonForce songs in the Theart era.
Personnel
Charts
Release history
The album was set for release first in Japan on 20 August 2008 then on 22 August in Germany and the day after, on 23 August, in Australia before being released in the United Kingdom on 25 August and globally the following day.
References
{{Authority control
DragonForce albums
2008 albums
Roadrunner Records albums
Spinefarm Records albums