Ultra Beatdown

Victor issued it in Japan on 20 August, and Roadrunner and Spinefarm followed in Britain and Europe on the 25th and in North America on the 26th. It is the last DragonForce album with the singer ZP Theart, the first with the bassist Frederic Leclercq, and the first to get the band a Grammy nomination. Asked beforehand what the record would be like, the band were plain about it. Sam Totman, Theart and Herman Li all said it would not differ greatly from the previous albums but would be better in places. "It's not going to be majorly different. But hopefully the melodies will be nicer, the guitar solos will be better, the production will be better. You just try to improve in every area." And: "There isn't much to change, but yet there is. The last three albums have been very much guitar-oriented, and this one probably will be as well, but I want to try to do some extra colouring in with the vocals." On speed: "Bands always say, 'Our new album is faster and heavier,' and then it's never true, so we're not gonna say that. But playing fast just works for us. People who say we play too fast are probably right, but guess what? There's a million other bands that play slow." The first single, "Heroes of Our Time", went up on the band's MySpace page on 4 July 2008 with the video following on the 8th. The video for "The Last Journey Home" premiered on Xbox Live on 21 January 2009. The running order here is the original's as printed.