Ultra Beatdown

As I've said before, if you don't like DragonForce then you are a waste of DNA and shut up.

I've been patiently waiting like a good, little metalhead for their new album to drop and, thankfully, the standard bearers for the "extreme power metal" movement haven't let me down.

Beatdown doesn't stray far from the formula that propelled DF's breakthrough 2006 album Inhuman Rampage. The band is very unapologetic for sticking to their guns, and, in all honesty, don't have much room for growth short of changing genres.

Like most DF fanboys, I'm here for the relentless twin-guitar assault of Sam Totman and Herman Li, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of prog-rock in this 8-track shred-a-thon. Totman & Li share a bit more of the stage with keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov, whose furious work on the synthesizer offers an nice occasional breather from the band's signature six-string shock and awe campaign.

Fortunately, though, the band holds true to its word, never straying far from their winning formula and gleefully amplifying everything the we in the mullet set dig about metal down to the superepic Dungeons-and-Dragons inspired album covers, lyrics and song titles. (Allow me to be the first to nominate "Heartbreak Armageddon" as the greatest tag ever.) And, of course, the guitars still run wild and reign surpreme.

There's much to love here, and DragonForce deserves much credit for both handling their newfound albeit modest success and for giving us fanboys everything we love about the band without simply retreading "Through the Fire and Flames" a half-dozen times on the new disc.

CURRENTLY LISTENING: Figure it out, genius...