 (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten Closing off the night was DragonForce. As "Reaching Into Infinity" played on the P.A, they entered the stage and launched into "Ashes Of The Dawn". This was honestly the cleanest-sounding show I've ever seen at the Opera House. Whoever did the sound for DragonForce deserves a raise. The crowd was absolutely insane during the set. Keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov was absent from the show and will be absent for the remainder of this album cycle due to family commitments, which is understandable. The band treated us to several fan-favourites like "Operation Ground & Pound", "Seasons" and "Fury Of The Storm" as well as new material like "Judgement Day", "Curse Of Darkness" and "The Edge Of The World". Before the latter, Marc Hudson asked the crowd bring out their phones and lighters to light up the venue during the song's intro. Fred later came out to have some fun with the crowd by having the audience sing back melodies and notes he would play on guitar. He then followed it up with a medley of video game themes, starting off with the "Ken Masters" theme from Street Fighter, then Marc came out with a bass and they | Written by: Alex Stojanovic Photography: Rob Botten (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com @ The Opera House Toronto, ON Canada July 24, 2017 Interview with Marc Hudson can be seen here. Lots of great shows happening in Toronto this summer. On July 24th, DragonForce returned to Toronto for a headliner at the Opera House for the first time in six years. I've only seen the band once before when ZP Theart was still in the band back in 2008, and I finally got to see them again nine years later. Wow, I'm feeling old, hahaha. I listened to DragonForce a lot when I was in high school due to the fact that they were getting a lot of recognition for "Through The Fire & Flames" being the ultimate song on Guitar Hero 3. Remember those days? There was a period in my life where I forgot about most of the old songs, not because I started to hate them, but because I was focusing on many other bands, but I still kept up on what DragonForce were doing with the new stuff after the welcomed Marc Hudson into the band. In the last couple of years, I went back to the old songs from the first four records. Listening back to stuff like "Through The Fire & Flames", "Operation Ground & Pound", "Fury Of The Storm", "Heroes Of Our Time", "Valley Of The Damned", "My Spirit Will Go On" and "Storming The Burning Fields" was a total nostalgia trip because they were all a big part of the soundtrack to my high school years. The Opera House was nearly packed to the gills, which is always cool to see, especially on a Monday night. I would say that this show blew away the first time I saw them. Starting things off were Once Human. The main focus of this band is that it features Logan Mader on guitar, who we all know played with this little band you might've heard of called Machine Head on the first two records. They took the stage to a packed house, which is usually rare for an opening act, and it kept filling up as the night went on. The crowd was also very receptive to the band. Vocalist Lauren Hart may look small, but her vocals contradicted her appearance as she unleashed some brutal growls. Vocally, she seemed like a combination of Angela Gossow and Alissa White-Gluz. Close to the end of the set, we were treated to a cover of Machine Head's "Davidian", during which Fred Leclercq from DragonForce came out and sang with them. (C)2017 All rights reserved by metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten |
jammed to the "Overworld" theme from Super Mario Bros. 2. Gee Anzalone would then have the opportunity to shine with a drum solo and the medley closed off with the "Green Hill Zone" theme from Sonic The Hedgehog. Oddly enough, Fred was playing a guitar with a Sonic paintjob.
Starting off the second half of the set, the band dug pretty deep into Valley Of The Damned and treated us to "Heart Of A Dragon". One of the best parts was during "Cry Thunder" where Marc wanted to split the audience in half to see which side could sing louder, but the crowd mistook that for a wall of death request and proceeded to do one, leaving the band completely surprised. They even stopped playing and the let the moshers mosh in silence. I've never seen that before. They even brought a fan up on stage to sing the chorus during this segment. The band's in-between-song banters are incredibly entertaining as they unleash their goofball sides. It's pretty funny to see that even after 14 years, Herman Li and Sam Totman still display their playful competitive attitude towards each other when it comes to soloing. The encore started off with "Valley Of The Damned" and their Johnny Cash cover of "Ring Of Fire". The band even decided to go over their required stop time and give us two more songs, which were "Three Hammers" and "Through The Fire & Flames". A great ending to a great night of metal at the Opera House. It definitely won't be another nine years before I catch DragonForce live again.
Starting off the second half of the set, the band dug pretty deep into Valley Of The Damned and treated us to "Heart Of A Dragon". One of the best parts was during "Cry Thunder" where Marc wanted to split the audience in half to see which side could sing louder, but the crowd mistook that for a wall of death request and proceeded to do one, leaving the band completely surprised. They even stopped playing and the let the moshers mosh in silence. I've never seen that before. They even brought a fan up on stage to sing the chorus during this segment. The band's in-between-song banters are incredibly entertaining as they unleash their goofball sides. It's pretty funny to see that even after 14 years, Herman Li and Sam Totman still display their playful competitive attitude towards each other when it comes to soloing. The encore started off with "Valley Of The Damned" and their Johnny Cash cover of "Ring Of Fire". The band even decided to go over their required stop time and give us two more songs, which were "Three Hammers" and "Through The Fire & Flames". A great ending to a great night of metal at the Opera House. It definitely won't be another nine years before I catch DragonForce live again.
| DRAGONFORCE Marc Hudson - Vocals Herman Li - Guitars & backing vocals Sam Totman - Guitars & backing vocals Frederic Leclercq - Bass & backing vocals Vadim Pruzhanov - Keyboards & backing vocals (Absent) Gee Anzalone - Drums Label: Metal Blade Records (US) Cadence Music Group (CAN) Website: www.dragonforce.com | ONCE HUMAN Lauren Hart - Vocals Logan Mader - Guitars Max Karon - Guitars Skyler Howren - Guitars Damien Rainaud - Bass Dillon Trollope - Drums Label: EarMusic Records Website: www.killermerch.com/once-human |
RSS Feed
