Vocalist Marc Hudson sounds an awful lot like Riot V's Todd Michael Hall, taking command of consistently powerful high registers, not to mention some impressive falsetto like 'In A Skyforged Dream'. Note, specifically Riot V the iteration that marched on after Mark Reale's untimely demise. In addition to that, I was surprised to get some Riot V vibes from this song too. It may sound strange, but this is what I routinely hope for from modern Malmsteen albums - a juicy blend of modern shredding that pixelates into brazenly 80's synth without even the slightest implication of self-consciousness.Īnother one of my favorites is 'Razorblade Meltdown', which manages to sound something like what Steelwing was concocting in their overlooked Zone of Alienation triumph. I particularly enjoyed the over-the-top keytar section that it builds up to. Portentous and bold, this track strides ahead with thumping riffs and a ghostly theremin that accents the melody, exuding a deep, appropriately spacey atmosphere. Its composition and subject matter is what would happen if Helstar's 'Winds of War' got caught in one of those spinning cotton candy machines. My personal favorite is the worrisomely titled 'Cosmic Power of the Infinite Shred Machine'. Still saccharine cheese-flavored bubblegum, but goddamn do these songs drill into your head like you wouldn't believe. Instead, this is merely a retread of their old formula with a much more effective approach to songwriting. So this is not, by any degree whatsoever, reminiscent of DragonForce's pre- Guitar Hero days, back when they wrote riffy, punchy, Persuader-esque power metal that sounded genuinely menacing. That is to say, get ready for overpowering synth stings, machine gun drumming that doesn't even pretend to be possible, sickly sweet chorus harmonies, and guitar solos that sound like malfunctioning microwaves. The first of many caveats is that Extreme Power Metal bears many of the hallmarks of their trademark goofy and quixotic power metal. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found it to be pretty damn good. At first glimpse, Extreme Power Metal looked less like an album and more like a cry for help, and I was so ill-disposed toward the band at this point, I was ready to "help them" in the Doctor Kevorkian sense. DragonForce in particular had repeatedly exhausted my patience with this shtick, and boy did last album's Death cover not help matters.
That album's sweat has since been lapped up by modern imitators like Gloryhammer and Victorious, much to my chagrin, for I find this genre unsatisfying and inorganic, as if bred in laboratories for maximum memetic growth. I'm aware DragonForce didn't exactly invent absurdist electro-power metal, but as far as "putting it on the map" is concerned, I still put the smoking gun in the hands of Ultra Beatdown.
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