Multi-national epic power metallers DRAGONFORCE have released the video for “The Game,” a song from their forthcoming Maximum Overload album. The video – which features a guest appearance from TRIVIUM’s Matt Heafy – can be viewed below.
Maximum Overload will be released on August 19 in North America via Metal Blade and August 18 in Europe through earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group. The CD was recorded at Fascination Street studios in Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogren, who has previously worked with OPETH, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, AMON AMARTH, KATATONIA, SOILWORK and SYMPHONY X, to name a few. It marks the band’s first-ever album involving an outside producer, having historically opted to record themselves in association with Karl Groom.
“Working with Jens gave us a different perspective on the songs and a different sound dynamic,” said DRAGONFORCE guitarist Herman Li. “We always previously recorded in our own studios, but recording in Sweden made us focus and maybe drove us harder. Jens certainly did; he doesn’t believe in days off!”
He continued: “The album title and album cover artwork is inspired by the constant bombardment of information we are subjected to during our daily lives.
“We were in an airport departure lounge surrounded by TV screens, flight information screens and advertising screens. We then looked around and no one was saying a word, they were all looking at more screens on tablets, laptops and mobile phones. There’s no escaping it; it’s complete information overload!”
Maximum Overload will be released on standard CD, standard digital version, special edition CD with five bonus tracks and a bonus DVD, special edition digital version (same bonus material as special edition CD), and vinyl. The effort features a couple of surprises, notably a guest appearance on some of the songs from TRIVIUM’s Matt Heafy.
“We’ve always gotten on really well with the TRIVIUM guys and it was great when Matt had a couple of days to spare and agreed to weigh in on some of the songs,” said DRAGONFORCE bassist Frédéric Leclercq.
Maximum Overload also features an all time first for DRAGONFORCE… a cover version! Guitarist Sam Totman explained: “Just before the last Australian tour, our manager suggested it might be interesting to do a cover for the next album, something we’ve always refused even to consider. Because we had all had a couple beers, every bandmember wrote down three songs each and we compared them all, just for a laugh. I wrote down ‘Ring Of Fire’ by Johnny Cash, an idea which the rest of the band loved, so we’ve DRAGONFORCE-ized it.”
Maximum Overload is the follow-up to 2012’s The Power Within, which was the band’s first with vocalist Marc Hudson. Since his live debut with the group in July 2011, Marc has gone on to front over 100 shows with DRAGONFORCE in 32 countries across the globe, including arenas with IRON MAIDEN as well as a mammoth headlining world tour to support the CD.