Metal powerhouse Dragonforce are in the final stages of their first major tour back since COVID.
Taking in North America starting in early March, the Extreme Power Metal Tour is due to finish up in California on April 23, with Dragonforce not only playing to massive live crowds every night, but also taking their show to the masses via a live stream service that has captured each nightly show plus additional behind the scenes footage.
Guitarist Herman Li joined HEAVY to talk about the tour and finally being back out on the road.
"We have taken the Dragonforce show to another level,” he smiled. “We have never done something like this. I was actually pretty nervous before the tour started. I had only played in front of people on Twitch (laughs). It was kind of bizarre but also really good. The moment I played the first note everything was gone. All the worries and that sort of thing and then it was very natural. Playing to so many people has been wild."
Much of Dragonforce’s live energy comes from the twin guitar assault of Li and Sam Totman, with Li saying that despite the extended layoff it didn’t take long before that chemistry returned.
"(It came back) Pretty much instantly,” he shrugged. “We had a long rehearsal before the tour because there was so much production. You want dragons? You got dragons. You want fire and flames? You got that. You got everything. The tour is not just about playing to the audience now in front of us. We do a live stream every day on tour from the back stage stuff all the way to the stage stuff with nine cameras. You can watch the show from anywhere around the world. There's something like 300,000 views on the stream each nigh. You don't even play to that many people when you do huge festivals!".
In the full interview, Herman runs us through some new additions to Dragonforce’s live show, the importance of keeping the music fun, their last single Strangers and going glam metal, using Steve Vai’s guitar in the film clip, keeping busy in lockdown with regular videos, recording some of the parody songs from that period, the possibility of an Australian tour and more.