DRAGONFORCE
Biography and discography of DragonForce, the power metal band formed in London in 1999, with a page for each of their ten studio albums from the 2003 debut to DragonForce in 2027, including running orders, CD details, liner notes and a record of their concerts in Japan.
Biography
DRAGONFORCE
Biography
DragonForce are a British power metal band formed in London in 1999 by the guitarists Herman Li, born in Hong Kong, and Sam Totman. They call the sound of their two guitars racing through each other "extreme power metal", and bill themselves as the world's fastest band. "Through the Fire and Flames", the opener of their 2005 third album Inhuman Rampage, travelled the world as the final hurdle of the video game Guitar Hero III and was certified platinum in the United States. The band's bond with Japan runs deep, from a first visit in 2004 through five Loud Park festivals and a run of headline tours. In 2026 they welcomed the former Arch Enemy singer Alissa White-Gluz as their first frontwoman, and their tenth album, DragonForce, arrives in March 2027.
Formation and the debut (1999-2004)
Herman Li and Sam Totman started the band in London in 1999 as DragonHeart, changed the name to DragonForce on finding that another band already used the first one, and signed to Noise Records. With ZP Theart singing, Vadim Pruzhanov on keyboards, Didier Almouzni on drums and a session bassist, they recorded the debut Valley of the Damned, released in 2003. In Japan it first made its name on import, and when a Japanese edition followed that May the band's following took off.
In early 2004 the band made their first trip to Japan as the opening act on Helloween's Japanese tour, and released their second album, Sonic Firestorm, straight afterwards. It was the first record with bassist Adrian Lambert and drummer Dave Mackintosh, and it was Mackintosh's speed behind the kit that led them to start calling their music extreme power metal.
Inhuman Rampage and the world beyond (2005-2009)
The third album, Inhuman Rampage, came out first in Japan, on Victor on 28 December 2005, and around the world on Roadrunner Records in January 2006. Just before it appeared the band sold out a showcase at Club 1ne 2wo in Takadanobaba, Tokyo; in June 2006 they made their first headline tour of Japan, and that October they played the first Loud Park festival. Adrian Lambert left in November 2005, after the recording but before the release, and Frederic Leclercq took his place.
Its opening song, "Through the Fire and Flames", became known as the last great obstacle in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and carried the band's name far beyond metal. The song was certified platinum in the United States; the album went gold there and silver in Britain, and stayed on the Billboard 200 for twenty-three weeks. The band rose to the main stages of Ozzfest in America and Download Festival in Britain.
The fourth album, Ultra Beatdown, reached number eighteen in America and number nine on Japan's overall Oricon chart in 2008, and its song "Heroes of Our Time" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. That October they played Loud Park 08, and in spring 2009, with All That Remains as their guests, they toured seven Japanese venues: Fukuoka, Osaka, Kawasaki, Tokyo, Nagoya, Sendai and Sapporo.
ZP Theart leaves, Marc Hudson arrives (2010-2014)
Two Shibuya Club Quattro shows planned for March 2010 were cancelled so that the band could concentrate on writing, and that same month ZP Theart left over differences of musical direction. In September the band released Twilight Dementia, their first live album, recorded on the last leg of their tour.
His successor, chosen by audition, was Marc Hudson, born in 1987, whose arrival was announced in March 2011. His first official show was opening for Iron Maiden in Belfast that August. The fifth album, The Power Within, followed in April 2012, and on 27 October that year the band played Loud Park 12.
For the sixth album, Maximum Overload, released in 2014, they worked with an outside producer for the first time, Jens Bogren. Dave Mackintosh left that June, before its release, and Gee Anzalone took over the drums. On 18 October the band played the Ultimate Stage at Loud Park 14, and the set became their first live film, In the Line of Fire… Larger than Live, in 2015.
A changing line-up and Warp Speed Warriors (2015-2025)
In September 2015 the band made their first headline tour of Japan since 2009, through Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, and in October they returned as the "Secret Band" of Loud Park 15. In April 2016 they played two showcase nights in Tokyo around the best-of Killer Elite, and in 2017 the seventh album, Reaching into Infinity, came out in Japan ahead of the rest of the world, with a June tour of Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo to follow. Keyboard player Vadim Pruzhanov sat out those tours and left in 2018.
The eighth album, Extreme Power Metal, released in 2019, was partly recorded live on Herman Li's Twitch channel, with Coen Janssen of Epica playing the keyboards. Frederic Leclercq left that year, and Alicia Vigil, who had played bass on tour since 2020, later became the band's full-time bassist.
After signing to Napalm Records, the band released their ninth album, Warp Speed Warriors, in March 2024; in Japan it was their first release on Victor in twelve years. The same year "Through the Fire and Flames" featured in the trailer and the film of Despicable Me 4, and the band wrote "A Draco Tale" for the game Brawl Stars. In 2025 Marc Hudson sang as the vocalist of the fictional band HAYASii in the English dub of the Japanese anime Dandadan.
Alissa White-Gluz and the tenth album (2026- )
On 6 May 2026 the band announced the former Arch Enemy singer Alissa White-Gluz as their new vocalist and their first frontwoman; her first show with them, at Welcome to Rockville on 9 May, also opened the twentieth anniversary of Inhuman Rampage. On 19 September they announced that Marc Hudson, troubled by tinnitus, was stepping back from performing while staying involved behind the scenes, and that his one-time vocal coach Alessio Garavello would take the male vocals.
On 22 September the band announced their tenth album and first self-titled record, DragonForce, for release on Napalm Records on 19 March 2027, and shared its first single, "Hunger of the Beast". Jens Bogren produced it, his third album with them, and it is the first on which White-Gluz and Garavello share the singing. A North American tour for the twentieth anniversary of Inhuman Rampage runs in November and December 2026, a twenty-two-date European tour follows in spring 2027, and the band are booked for Wacken Open Air that July.
The members
The current line-up is Herman Li (guitars), Sam Totman (guitars), Alissa White-Gluz (lead vocals), Alessio Garavello (vocals), Alicia Vigil (bass) and Gee Anzalone (drums), with Billy Wilkins adding guitar and backing vocals on stage. Li and Totman are the only members who have been there from the start.
Past members include ZP Theart (vocals, until 2010), Marc Hudson (vocals, 2011-2026), Vadim Pruzhanov (keyboards, until 2018), Dave Mackintosh (drums, 2004-2014), Frederic Leclercq (bass, 2005-2019), Adrian Lambert (bass, 2004-2005), and Didier Almouzni, who drummed on the debut.
Discography
The ten studio albums, in order of release; each has its own page with the track list, the CD details and liner notes. Besides these there are the live albums Twilight Dementia (2010) and In the Line of Fire… Larger than Live (2015), the best-of Killer Elite (2016), Re-Powered Within (2018), a remix of The Power Within, and the game singles "Power of the Saber Blade", "A Draco Tale" and "Dragon Smash Goblin".
| Released | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Valley of the Damned | Noise |
| 11 May 2004 | Sonic Firestorm | Noise |
| 28 December 2005 | Inhuman Rampage | Roadrunner / Noise |
| 20 August 2008 | Ultra Beatdown | Roadrunner / Spinefarm |
| 17 April 2012 | The Power Within | Roadrunner / Electric Generation |
| 19 August 2014 | Maximum Overload | earMUSIC / Metal Blade |
| 19 May 2017 | Reaching into Infinity | earMUSIC / Metal Blade |
| 27 September 2019 | Extreme Power Metal | earMUSIC / Metal Blade |
| 15 March 2024 | Warp Speed Warriors | Napalm |
| 19 March 2027 | DragonForce | Napalm |
Concerts in Japan
This site has confirmed twenty-two Japanese concerts down to the date from first-hand sources. The opening slot on Helloween's 2004 tour, the 2005 shows, the showcase before Inhuman Rampage and the first headline tour of June 2006 are left out because no source found gives their days. Two Tokyo shows planned for March 2010 were cancelled.
| Date | Venue | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 14 October 2006 | Makuhari Messe, Chiba | Loud Park 06 |
| 18 October 2008 | Saitama Super Arena | Loud Park 08 |
| 26 March 2009 | Zepp Fukuoka | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 27 March 2009 | Zepp Osaka | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 29 March 2009 | Club Citta', Kawasaki | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 (added show) |
| 30 March 2009 | Zepp Tokyo | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 31 March 2009 | Zepp Nagoya | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 2 April 2009 | Zepp Sendai | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 4 April 2009 | Zepp Sapporo | DragonForce Japan Tour 2009 |
| 27 October 2012 | Saitama Super Arena | Loud Park 12 |
| 18 October 2014 | Saitama Super Arena | Loud Park 14 (Ultimate Stage) |
| 5 September 2015 | Hiroshima Club Quattro | Maximum Overload World Tour Japan 2015 |
| 7 September 2015 | Bigcat, Osaka | Maximum Overload World Tour Japan 2015 |
| 8 September 2015 | Diamond Hall, Nagoya | Maximum Overload World Tour Japan 2015 |
| 10 September 2015 | Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo | Maximum Overload World Tour Japan 2015 |
| 11 September 2015 | Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo | Maximum Overload World Tour Japan 2015 |
| 11 October 2015 | Saitama Super Arena | Loud Park 15 (the Secret Band) |
| 21 April 2016 | duo Music Exchange, Shibuya | Special Showcase Live in Tokyo (added show) |
| 22 April 2016 | duo Music Exchange, Shibuya | Special Showcase Live in Tokyo (sold out) |
| 14 June 2017 | Umeda Club Quattro, Osaka | DragonForce Japan Tour 2017 (sold out) |
| 15 June 2017 | Bottom Line, Nagoya | DragonForce Japan Tour 2017 |
| 16 June 2017 | duo Music Exchange, Shibuya | DragonForce Japan Tour 2017 (sold out) |
About the sources
This page draws on the band's own site at dragonforce.com (its band page, the release page for every record and its news posts), Napalm Records' product page, the official Loud Park site (each year's line-up and timetable pages), the Japanese promoter Creativeman Productions' event pages and its Loud Park 12 artist profile, Tower Records' news, pages from Kyodo Tokai and Warner Music Japan, MusicBrainz, Wikidata, the streaming information on each Spotify entity, and the English Wikipedia articles for the band and for each album. Where sources disagree: Inhuman Rampage came out first in Japan and the band itself dates it by that release, so it is treated here as a 2005 album. Sources give both 2001 and 2002 for the change of name to DragonForce, so no year is written. The day Valley of the Damned came out also varies between sources, so only the year is given. The tenth-album announcement names Billy Wilkins as a new addition while the band page lists him as a live member; this page follows the band page. No performer and no concert date is written here from inference.
Trivia
Reaching into Infinity, the seventh album, came out in Japan on 17 May 2017, two days before its worldwide release on the 19th. Warner Music Japan, which issued it there, also put out a short version of the Japanese bonus track "Gloria" around the release. The band's Japanese tour the following June took in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, and the Osaka and Tokyo shows sold out.
DragonForce's following in Japan began with imported copies. According to the profile the promoter Creativeman Productions published on the Loud Park 12 site, the 2003 debut Valley of the Damned caused a stir in Japan's import market, and when a Japanese edition followed in May that year the band took off further. Their first visit to Japan came in early 2004, as the opening act on Helloween's Japanese tour, and their second album, Sonic Firestorm, came out straight afterwards.
The bill for Sunday 11 October at Loud Park 2015 included a slot listed only as a Secret Band. It was DragonForce, as the band revealed on their own site on 3 October. They had just finished a five-date headline tour of Japan, and the festival set became the last Japanese show of the Maximum Overload World Tour; Herman Li said a stage production the band had been working on for some time would make its debut there.
The band's first live film, In the Line of Fire… Larger than Live (2015), captures their headline set on the Ultimate Stage at Loud Park 14, Saitama Super Arena, on 18 October 2014. According to the band's own site it was shot with more than fifteen cameras. Between the songs it cuts to backstage and off-tour footage, some of it shot in Japan, in segments with titles such as "Tokyo Party", "Japan Show Day" and "Marc's Tokyo Adventure".
In 2025 Marc Hudson voiced the singer of HAYASii, the band in the Japanese anime Dandadan, in its English dub, performing the "Exorcism song" in which heavy metal drives out a spirit, in the sixth episode of the second season. Having already made Starbound Stories, a solo album steeped in anime, Hudson said that being invited to actually sing in an anime felt as if everything had come full circle.
On 6 May 2026 the band announced the former Arch Enemy singer Alissa White-Gluz as their newest member and their first frontwoman. The connection was not new: she had already sung "Burning Heart" with them on the bonus disc of Warp Speed Warriors in 2024. Her first show with the band, at Welcome to Rockville on 9 May, was also the opening of the twentieth anniversary of their third album, Inhuman Rampage.
When Marc Hudson stepped back from performing in September 2026 because of tinnitus, the man chosen to take the male vocals was Alessio Garavello, once Hudson's own vocal coach. Sam Totman said there had really been only one name on the list, and that Garavello understood the songs from the inside because he had helped shape Hudson's voice in the first place. Hudson himself stayed with the band, working behind the scenes with its management.
Two Tokyo shows planned for 4 and 5 March 2010 at Shibuya Club Quattro never happened. On 13 November 2009 the band explained on their own site that once the UK part of the Ultra Beatdown World Tour was over they would start writing a new album, then expected in 2011, and would need to concentrate on it completely — so every show of 2010 was cancelled, these two included.
News
DragonForce Announce A Spring 2027 European Tour With Visions Of Atlantis And Wings Of Steel
The 22-date headline run opens on April 9 at the Bataclan in Paris and ends on May 8 at Manchester Academy. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. CET on September 30, with local pre-sales from 10 a.m. CET on September 28. Herman Li says the band will play new songs alongside a special Inhuman Rampage set.
DragonForce Announce Self-Titled Tenth Album, Share 'Hunger Of The Beast'
DragonForce's tenth studio album and first self-titled record, Dragonforce, arrives March 19, 2027 via Napalm Records, produced by Jens Bogren. It is the band's first album with lead vocalists Alissa White-Gluz and Alessio Garavello, and the single 'Hunger Of The Beast' debuts with a live performance video. Previous singer Marc Hudson is temporarily stepping back due to an ongoing issue with tinnitus.
Play MVDRAGONFORCE Singer MARC HUDSON Is Stepping Back Due To An Ongoing Issue With Tinnitus; ALESSIO GARAVELLO Announced As Replacement
He is stepping back from recording and touring, including the forthcoming album and 2026/2027 tour plans, while staying involved with the band's management behind the scenes. Alessio Garavello, who filled in for him in 2016 and 2023, will handle the male vocals alongside frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz (ex-ARCH ENEMY), whose addition was announced in May. New songs start arriving next week.
ELECTRIC CALLBOY, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, KNOCKED LOOSE, Etc. Booked For 2027 ‘Wacken Open Air’
The bill also includes HELLOWEEN, CHILDREN OF BODOM, HEAVEN SHALL BURN, DRAGONFORCE, HALESTORM and many more; the festival takes place July 28-31, 2027 in Wacken, Germany.
Current Members
Current line-up as listed on the band's official site, verified on 2026-10-01.
Albums
DragonForce's tenth album and first self-titled record, due on 19 March 2027: the first with Alissa White-Gluz and Alessio Garavello sharing the vocals.
DragonForce's ninth album, from March 2024: the first with Alicia Vigil as a full member on bass, and the last Marc Hudson sang on.
DragonForce's eighth album, from September 2019: part of it was recorded live on Herman Li's Twitch stream, with Epica's Coen Janssen on keyboards.
DragonForce's seventh album, from May 2017, and their longest studio record, closing its run with the eleven-minute "The Edge of the World".
DragonForce's sixth album, from August 2014: the first made with an outside producer, Jens Bogren, away from the band's own studio.
DragonForce's fifth album, from April 2012, and the first with Marc Hudson, the singer the band chose by audition after ZP Theart's departure.
DragonForce's fourth album, from August 2008. It is the last record with the singer ZP Theart and the first with the bassist Frederic Leclercq.
DragonForce's third album, out first in Japan in December 2005: the record whose "Through the Fire and Flames" reached the world through Guitar Hero III.
DragonForce's second album, from 2004, and the first with bassist Adrian Lambert and drummer Dave Mackintosh.
DragonForce's debut album, from 2003. It is a re-recording of a demo of the same name, cut when the band were still called DragonHeart.