Any artist who wants to put a bid in for delivering “Album Of The Year” put your hand up now!!! Yes, DragonForce we now have your submission with “Reaching Into Infinity”… and holy crap what an entry it is. I don’t normally like to use the word “perfect” to describe an album, but that is certainly the right adjective to describe what DragonForce have delivered here… the perfect album.
When writing down notes while listening to “Reaching Into Infinity”, one phrase seemed to be written over and over as the tracks went by–amazing guitars. Yes, it is a big call, but this is an album that contains some of the most amazing guitar playing that you are every likely to hear. From the opening intro track, you know that you are onto something special as together Herman Li and Sam Totman’s guitar playing builds to an amazing crescendo and ends up exploding into Ashes Of The Dawn, – a track that blows you away with its true symphonic power that is bolstered by consists of a brass section.
The orchestral and choir sound remains for Judgement Day and then resurfaces later for Hatred And Revenge. One of the things that make this album so special is the fact that DragonForce is willing to try different things throughout the album from an old-fashioned almost Iron Maiden sound on Curse Of Darkness, to slowing things right down on Silence, right through to the more brutal side of things with War! And even moving into death growls on the fantastic The Edge Of The World, which strangely starts off as one of the slowest tracks on the album.
There are no weak tracks on “Reaching Into Infinity”, instead DragonForce put on a lesson of power metal with Midnight Madness and Land Of Shattered Dreams being two stand-out tracks that do show guitarists out there just how special this band has become over the years. The guitar-playing throughout this album is phenomenal and needs to be heard to be believed.
Reaching Into Infinity is a stunning display of a band at the top of their game. This is power metal at its best, and this will be hard to beat as one of the albums of the year.
