We challenged dragonforce’s Marc to make us the most epic playlist ever. He happily obliged.
Dragonforce’s singer loves prog, videogames, anime and… German technical death metal? Well, at least one’s a surprise…
“The Whole of The Odyssey by SYMPHONY X is amazing, but the title track is what the whole record is actually about. It’s an epic blend of prog and symphonic, almost film score-sounding stuff and I’ve always been a fan of their guitarist, Michael Romeo, who is just one of the best out there. PLINI came up as a Youtube recommendation when I was going down a rabbit hole of different stuff and is really uplifting-sounding technical prog.
JUPITER are a visual kei band from Japan, much like X-japan or Malice Mizer. The visuals are almost as important as the music – its all very theatrical. We were on tour in Japan when they played with us and I was blown away by how technical and visual they were. We played a show with GYZE
in Taiwan and the guitarist got up during soundcheck to start playing Through The Fire And Flames, which I found pretty funny. I sang on the song The Rising Dragon, but this whole record is phenomenal.
In terms of all-time greatest albums, the best is DREAM Theater’s Metropolis Part II: Scenes From A Memory. I borrowed it from my brother not knowing what to expect, and it was a bit too theatrical for me at first – too soft. It took a while to really grab me, but it was the first time I really noticed what was going on with the music in terms of arrangements and instruments. These guys were playing time signatures that I couldn’t even count in my head! SITHU AYE is another one of those virtuoso guitar-player types. Oh Shit! I’m Late For School
has that feeling that comes from watching an anime or Studio Ghibli film. It’s as good in the car as it is in the gym and I don’t feel like enough people recognise his talent. What’s even funnier is… he’s not even Japanese – he’s from Scotland!
A lot of the time when you’ve been out on the road for a while you gravitate towards listening to things that are as far away from what you’re actually playing, so I find myself not listening to metal and going for something like DEVIN The DUDE. I discovered this guy from Snoop Dogg’s GGN News channel and this hooked me – five years later I’m still listening to it. The track I’m Just Gettin’ Blowed tells you all you need to know about that album.
YES are one of the bands who had the biggest influence on me, separating me as a fan into somebody who wanted to write and play songs. The combination of Jon Anderson’s voice and Rick Wakeman’s keyboards just created this ethereal sound that is otherworldly. There are only three songs on Close To The Edge – all really long – but it’s epic and each is split into sections, with the real standout being And You And I, which is my favourite Yes song of all time.
I just love how full-on NECROPHAGIST are. Every single riff is well thought out and has a groove, two elements that are very hard to combine but they always nail it. Death metal doesn’t come into things much for me, but I find it all so technical that it’s almost humorous. Culinary Hyperversity is the one to play – it’s just so fun and nobody sounds like them.
Powerglove make such an amazing interpretations of what was already fantastic music, covering videogame songs but messing with them in interesting ways. There’s stuff from Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII… I also sang Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid, which is on the album and was just so much fun to record. These guys do the best job of this; they’re all massive nerds and incredibly talented. The song Highwind Takes To The Skies is my youth in a nutshell.”
EXTREME POWER METAL IS OUT NOW VIA EARMUSIC. DRAGONFORCE TOUR THE UK NEXT MONTH – SEE p.113 FOR DATES
“I WAS GOING DOWN A RABBIT HOLE OF STUFF”