As always, the musicianship is top notch, with new-ish vocalist Marc Hudson finally proving himself as a worthy fit within the band the melodies seem perfectly tailored to take advantage of his voice this time around. The songs are also shorter, meaning that the listener receives one quick dose of speedy power metal at a time rather than eight solid minutes of eardrum bludgeoning by way of dueling guitars (see: Inhuman Rampage). The band explores elements of melodic death metal ( The Game), thrash metal ( Defenders), вЂњepicвЂќ power metal a la Hammerfall ( Three Hammers) and even neo-Baroque ( Symphony of the Night). What makes Maximum Overload so good isвЂ¦ well, a lot of things, most notably its song diversity. The band has been reclaiming the mainstream metal spotlight again for the first time since their Guitar Hero debut thanks to an absolutely ludicrous cover of Johnny CashвЂ™s Ring of Fire (and also due to allegations of racism aimed at Herman Li and Sam Totman regarding their old black metal project Demoniac in a recent interview, news which is so old that itвЂ™s non-news), but they also deserve attention for another reason entirely: this new album, Maximum Overload, is damn good. Their brand of power metal has always appealed to me on a very primal level - they play fast and make nice melodies to sing along to, what more do you want? - and while I tend to lean towards music which is slightly more nuanced (okay, more than slightly) these days, Dragonforce has always held a special place in my cynical heart and the band always ends up sneaking into my playlist once every couple of months. Confession time: I really, unironically like Dragonforce.

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