Platinum-certified power metal outfit DragonForce have confirmed a March 19th release date for their 10th studio album. Arriving as a self-titled affair, that effort represents some big changes for the band. As they revealed last weekend, vocalist Marc Hudson has been forced to step back from the group due to ongoing issues with tinnitus. While he will remain active in a managerial capacity, he will not be front and center on this forthcoming album.
Rather, his previous vocal coach, Power Quest‘s Alessio Garavello, was brought onboard to handle the co-vocalist duties alongside the band’s other latest recruit Alissa White-Gluz (Blue Medusa, ex-Arch Enemy). The song “Hunger Of The Beast” is the first official entry in this new era for DragonForce, and a music video for it is now available below.
The band’s guitarist Herman Li went on to state of this newest evolution of the group he co-founded:
“Every time we begin making another album, we just think, ‘Wow – I can’t believe we’re still doing what we love after all these years.’ The approach of the tenth album is as important as the first one, or any of the albums, because the way we look at music is we’re making a piece of art that’s going to be frozen in time. We always try to use everything we’ve learned from our years of experience, and put that into the new music. This is unlike any DragonForce album you’ve ever heard, and unlike any metal albums out there. There’s just nothing like it, and everyone listening will realize that straight away. We’re not trying to be commercial. We’re not trying to be popular. We’re not trying to be famous. We make music because we want to make something that we love to hear and elevate our musicianship to the next level.”
Alissa added:
“I have loved the entire process of making music with DragonForce. It’s great to connect with such elite musicians and work together to really bring out the best of our respective styles. I think this new combo of speed and ferocity is refreshing and exciting. It’s going to be so much fun to perform live.”
Pre-order options for the record are now live through lnk.to/DF-DragonForce/napalmrecords. This fall will see DragonForce head out on a fall North American tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their gold-certified third studio album “Inhuman Rampage“.
That album of course produced their biggest hit to date, “Through The Fire And Flames“, which went on to achieve platinum status, bolstered by its placement as a the proverbial final boss in ‘Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock‘.
Dates for that celebratory tour include:
11/13 San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park
11/14 Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
11/15 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
11/17 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
11/18 Houston, TX – House of Blues
11/20 Lake Buena Vista, FL – House of Blues
11/21 Tampa, FL – The Ritz Ybor
11/22 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Heaven)
11/24 Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte
11/25 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring
11/27 Worcester, MA – Palladium
11/28 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia
11/29 New York, NY – Palladium Times Square
12/01 Montreal, QC – MTELUS
12/02 Toronto, ON – HISTORY
12/04 Chicago, IL – The Riviera Theatre
12/06 Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore Minneapolis
12/08 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
12/09 Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
12/11 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades
12/12 Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre
12/13 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
