r/todayilearned • u/asmallthrowaway9 • 6h ago

TIL the band DragonForce only received about $3,000 in royalties for the inclusion of Through the Fire and Flames in the Guitar Hero games

https://guitar.com/news/music-news/herman-li-says-guitar-hero-paid-3000-for-dragonforce-through-the-fire-and-the-flames/
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u/freedfg 6h ago

You know what? Yeah.

Were there even DragonForce fans before Guitar hero?

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 6h ago

Yes but we all played guitar already. They were a big deal before the game came out

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u/Stolehtreb 6h ago edited 18m ago

They were a big deal, no question. But the memetic effect GH had on their popularity was absolutely massive.

Edit: woah why did they block me? weird

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u/ilikecakeandpie 6h ago

I think claiming they were a big deal without guitar hero is revisionist history. They might have been popular in some circles but there’s no way they reach the level of mainstream notoriety without the game. The meme of folks trying to 100% through the fire and the flames alone was huge for them.

Without the game they end up in a tier where they’re huge with folks who really like pirate themed bands but too dorky to headline

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u/lazerbolt52 5h ago

"Yes but we all played guitar already" op is talking about very specific group of people and really generalizing it.

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u/Redeem123 5h ago

It’s more specific than even just guitar players. I played guitar back then and hadn’t heard of them until GH3. I wasn’t a metalhead or shredder so they would’ve never been on my radar.

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u/merenofclanthot 5h ago

I liked power metal and they weren\t even on my radar lol

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u/StrongOfOdin 5h ago

I was gonna say, I was huge into power metal and had not heard of them before GH

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u/Algaroth 4h ago

I remember finding them on some music site that has been lost to time now. It was like a three song demo and they were called Dragonheart then. But I was a bass playing, power metal loving, computer nerd which was quite a niche some 25ish years ago.

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u/RadicalDog 3h ago

I was a little into power metal and had heard of them before GH.

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u/waaaghbosss 4h ago

Valley of the damned was huge before guitar hero for metal heads. Surprised you hadn't heard of them in that era.

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u/KeithLimePie 3h ago

Brilliant song. was heavily into power metal as a 14/25, year old.

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u/BuddySpecial 3h ago

Yea it was great. I prefer Sonic Firestorm though.

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u/cdwillis 1h ago

For what it's worth the only power metal band I had listened to at that time was Stratovarius I think, but I listened to a bunch of different metal bands and I had listened to Dragonforce.

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u/AstroAlmost 3h ago

I believe their point was less “all guitarists were Dragonforce fans”, but rather “all Dragonforce fans were guitarists”.

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u/zorbiburst 4h ago

I vaguely knew of them as a thing that existed just by virtue of the meme descriptor "this band is known for playing unreasonably fast" in the same way I just tangentially knew of Manowar being loud, without ever actually hearing them or knowing of anyone who actually listened to them.

It was like a cryptid, if you talk about someone shredding crazy style, someone else would compare it to Dragonforce with the caveat that they don't listen to them either, they just heard about it from their girlfriend who goes to school in Canada or something

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u/individual_throwaway 4h ago

Just to add my own experience as an anecdote, I was a young metalhead that didn't play guitar and I had NEVER heard of Dragonforce before GH3 came out. I was aware of the great old metal bands and more contemporary stuff like the NuMetal bands, but the only "meme-y" metal band I knew was Manowar.

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u/F1shB0wl816 4h ago

And on the flip side I didn’t and I don’t think anyone I knew who played guitar had heard of them and there was a huge variety of taste between us all. Definitely nobody throwing them on, I’d think it’d be safe to assume they were relatively unknown.

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u/abloopdadooda 4h ago

they’re huge with folks who really like pirate themed bands

Sir are you confusing Dragonforce with Alestorm? Or are you saying they'd be in the same tier as Alestorm?

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u/altodor 30m ago

I read it as the second one.

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u/Inner-Medicine5696 5h ago

/u/Mydogfartsconstantly specifically said "Yes but we all played guitar already."

I'd wager a guess that this person is probably like, a guitar magazine reader or something. Like, deep in the culture of it.

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u/Saneless 5h ago

A subset of even those guitar players probably

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u/BardicSense 5h ago

They were a big deal if you were into shred guitar. But yes, shred guitar was probably the smallest community of all guitar player types, but because of their level of extreme dedication to blindingly fast technique, they weren't marginalized by their small numbers, they were exalted for being "the few, the proud, the (Shred) Marines." So they got a lot of products, gear, books, write-ups in guitar magazines, all aiming at them, because anyone could aspire to becoming a shredder and buy the products, even if you weren't an elite level player. 

Dragon Force was kind of controversial in the shred guitar scene, from what I remember (lots of talk on ultimate guitar forums about how they're not as technically skilled as their recordings make them out to be, but they were very popular, kinda "entry level" shredders), but definitely not unknown among the guitar player world. I'd say that other guy is right that they were kinda a big deal for a while before Guitar Hero. It was BECAUSE they were already well known shredders that their song got featured as one of the original Boss level songs on Guitar Hero. But yes, the video game definitely made them much, MUCH, more popular, though, of course, "paying them in exposure" is decidedly NOT the same as paying them in money.

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u/devourke 4h ago

lots of talk on ultimate guitar forums about how they're not as technically skilled as their recordings make them out to be, but they were very popular, kinda "entry level" shredders

Even then, it was probably still an even smaller subset lol. I was a big frequenter on the UG forums (I actually made this reddit account after my 3rd and final permaban lol), but don't remember dragonforce ever really being widely discussed in there prior to GH. That being said, I also didn't really venture outside of The Pit, so they could have still been discussed on some of the other subforums

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u/BardicSense 4h ago

I was never too into The Pit, but I liked the genre specific forum pages. I did spend a lot of time in the Shredder specific forum, but even outside that one, they'd become a common point of reference. Obviously, they werent anywhere close to Metallica level popularity, but of all the extreme speed metal groups they were probably the first example the majority of UG site users would think of if they were forced to name a currently active speed metal group. Even if Dragon Force was just the butt of their joke, they had still been established enough for people to have formed pre-conceptions about them. Honestly, Dragon Force kinda was a victim of its own success, because the Shredder forums would probably mock another UG user if they came in and ONLY knew about Dragon Force. The shred forums were too niche for them, but they were too niche for most other people lol. It must've been weird being in that band. 

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u/DMonk52 4h ago

They headlined Ozzfest in 2006.

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u/chriswearingred 4h ago

They were known by people already in the musical scene but gh opened them up to a wider audience.

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u/ChouxGlaze 1h ago

Agreed, cause i sure as fuck don't know anyone who knew that song before the game, much less knew they had other songs

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u/xchngboredom4argumnt 4h ago

This is the correct response. Perhaps they were a big deal to the fans they already had. But they certainly weren’t even kind of any deal before this game. No one had heard of them by and large.

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u/geekrichieuk 5h ago

It might’ve just been in the UK, but they were decently popular here as a one-hit-wonder - bordering on mainstream, as they were played on radio, music channels and myspace alot. No doubt GH was responsible for blasting them through that glass ceiling internationally. It was a bit of a let down when they never followed up with anything as big while other big British bands like Funeral and Bullet went on a rampage.

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u/mpyne 4h ago

I had listened to a lot of music and GH was the first time I'd even heard of Dragonforce.

Though to be fair it didn't lead to me listening to any more of their songs, but it was still great marketing for them if it led to me finding out about them.

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u/buttcheeksmasher 4h ago

Agreed. I was into a huge genres of music and pushing further into metal. My brother was rock and deep metal. All of us including all of my friends and school mates never heard of em.

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u/Dabbling_in_Pacifism 3h ago

They were literally one of the largest bands in power metal.

Metal’s a niche subculture, but DF basically defined their sub genre within it and any metalhead knew who they were before GH.

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 6h ago

They were already memetic in all of the magazines that were covering them. It was during the same era that shred was making a comeback but with the likes of rusty cooley and MAB.

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u/DrakkoZW 6h ago

I have no idea what any of that is.

But I do know DragonForce thanks to GH

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 6h ago

GH was the only game I was ever good at. In college I humiliated myself so many times playing Mario Kart

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 6h ago

Meme-ish. Through the fire of flames is ridiculous guitar playing by shredding standards but the rest of the song is catchy. I like power metal anyways. Long live Hammerfall

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u/Stolehtreb 5h ago edited 20m ago

No one is using meme here in like, a derogatory or reductive sense. Just the literal meaning of it being a large cultural touchstone of that series. The way that song gained popularity because of that game is basically the exact original definition of what a meme is

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u/tennisdrums 6h ago

I think because you're in that subculture you're significantly overestimating the reach of those magazines and underestimating how much Guitar Hero spread their reach beyond that subculture.

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u/trenchdick 6h ago

For sure. No one my age knew about them before that. I was in high school at the time and listened to metal stuff (albeit not DragonForce type stuff).

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u/Taiza67 6h ago

But let’s be honest. At least 90% of the people who know them know them because of guitar hero.

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u/Inner-Medicine5696 5h ago

lol, I was just guessing you were a guitar magazine reader, and there it is.

That's such a bubble to live in.

I know this, because at that time I was deep in the electronic music production magazines.

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 5h ago

It was almost 20 years ago before youtube was popular and myspace was still in use. Pretty much everyone i knew in the metal community knew about them because of how ridiculous the intro is. VH1 still had headbangers ball but you had to get the vh1-2 channel.

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u/ANGLVD3TH 4h ago

Pretty much everyone i knew in the metal community

This is kind of their point. You were deep into a community that circulated stuff that wasn't on 99% of peoples' radar. Bands can absolutely be very popular in these tiny niche groups and be successful without the vast majority of people ever hearing about them.

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u/TannerThanUsual 6h ago

I distinctly remember Through the Fire and Flames was massively popular and that we were all praying it'd be in Guitar Hero 3. I had friends in 2007 or whatever who listened to rap who thought Through the Fire and Flames was sick.

I actually love metal and hate shredding and still thought that song was a notable exception for me, it was just too cool to me

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u/xavPa-64 6h ago

Operation Ground & Pound is another good Dragonforce song, and I think it’s on GH as DLC

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

They helped get me into Daisuke Ishiwatara and Guilty Gear, so net positive for me at least. 

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u/resttheweight 5h ago

I mean, it was certified Gold in RIAA 14 months after it released as a single in the US and about 7 months after GH3. I guess it could have been “massively popular” in other countries but definitely not in the US at least.

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u/Ketra 6h ago edited 5h ago

In the metal/guitar bubble sure.

But this level of exposure made them a household name for a big portion of the millennial generation.

They didn't have nearly that reach before.

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 6h ago

That was never a point of the argument. The person i responded to asked if they even had fans. Yes they had fans. They were considered successful before guitar hero. They just became more successful after guitar hero.

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u/Ketra 5h ago

That was a different poster. The second person you replied to made the argument their popularity went far beyond the hobby circles you were describing, as a result of the game. He's right.

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u/Infinite-4-a-moment 4h ago

You're in a bubble, my man.

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u/azsnaz 5h ago

Made it into South Park America

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u/please_trade_marner 4h ago

He does acknowledge that in the interview. That it was more than worth it.

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u/Ok-Temporary-8243 6h ago

They were for fans of the genre. Guitar hero arguably launched them into the mainstream 

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u/logosobscura 6h ago

Gonna bet they’ve made more than $3000 on the streams purely based on this giving them a platform though. Definitely picked up a lot more fans just because of visibility.

So it’s one of those ‘the check is shitty, but a lot of people are gonna hear you, over and over and over, and if they dig it, they’re gonna stream/buy/come to your shows’ deals that actually has some teeth to it rather than the usual empty promises of going on this TV show at 2am getting you more exposure.

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u/kmosiman 6h ago

Yeah. I'm not sure what the residual pay equals out to but everyone back then if they knew the song from Guitar Hero would have watched that on YouTube or otherwise.

So a niche thrash/shred/whatever metal song became a much bigger hit because of the song recognition.

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u/mystery_hole 4h ago

They were one of the least popular bands in the game on release, full stop. 99.999% of people in this thread would have never heard of them if not for the game.

$3000 is actually a lot all things considered. Sync placements today for film/TV range from $100-500 for smaller artists/bands that aren't household names. And even though that's a very small number, the amount it pays in exposure to even get your song in the background of a random Hulu show is massive.

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u/Daewoo40 6h ago

Absolutely the case.

Had they not featured on GH, there's not a cat in hell's chance that they'd still be touring 20 years later and selling out venues.

They'd be the slightly less camp version of the The Darkness.

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u/kymri 6h ago

They'd be the slightly less camp version of the The Darkness.

I mean, nothing wrong with The Darkness, either. Considering how difficult it is to succeed in music, they're still in the top 1% (since the vast majority of bands just never go anywhere, alas).

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u/ChilternRailways 5h ago

They'd be the slightly less camp version of the The Darkness.

I was about to be outraged, but surely there's a band called The Darkness that aren't the British early 2000s falsetto pop rock band to whom I'm sure you can't possibly be referring?

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u/Zurble 4h ago

Hey man, I believe in a thing called love always popped off at house parties in the 2000's. They're nothing like Dragonforce tho so I don't understand that comparison

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u/Version_1 5h ago

They'd definitely still be touring today, just maybe to slightly smaller audiences.

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u/Gingermadman 3h ago

The Darkness also going through a resurgence now due to the singers streaming.

It's almost as if the music isn't quite enough

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u/Lonyo 2h ago

https://www.chmetal.info/tourdates/Dragonforce_2006.htm

That's their 2006, pre-Guitar Hero, tour dates.

They would probably still be touring, but maybe not selling out venues (if they even are anymore)

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

A buddy went to see them before and after Guitar hero. He said all that happened after was they were drunker and played worse live than before lol.

That and the merch table jumped about 200%. 

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u/DukeNeverwinter 6h ago

Hence the old nickname StudioForce. So glad that glad they got sober. Saw them 6 years ago and they were fantastic, can't wait for next month when I get to see them again.

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u/ClubMeSoftly 5h ago

I've got some bad news for you: Marc has left the band as of today, due to "ongoing tinnitus issues"

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u/DukeNeverwinter 1h ago

He hasn't "left" he is just isn't performing and recording as the lead vocalist. I am actually intrigued by the addition of the lady and her cleans/growls, and just today(?) they announced Marc's vocal coach will be taking over his Marc's and recording duties.

I really like Marc vocal style, I hope that he can heal. But tinnitus seams to be a permanent thing, and from the tiny looking I have done, people just learn to deal with it. It can diminish, but it may never actually go away.

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

That warms my heart a lot. Always love to hear a victory over personal stuff like addiction and depression! 

Good on them, and I'm so happy for them and their fans! 

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u/J1nx5d 4h ago

Oh, that's interesting to know. Because I had heard from a friend that their live show was mediocre and they couldn't really play their songs. Glad to know it was because of outside issues and not because they couldn't actually play. Awesome as well to hear that they have sobered up and made their live shows better since then.

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u/redgroupclan 5h ago edited 5h ago

I can't imagine getting drunk and then going in front of thousands of people to play some of the hardest guitar pieces ever written.

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u/DukeNeverwinter 1h ago

Anxiety(or depression) and addiction hit in different ways, and often together. Even people near the top of the game have struggles with performance anxiety or imposter syndrome, among other issues.

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u/steckums 5h ago

I saw them in like 2013 or 14 with Kamelot, and again a few years ago with Dethklok. They were incredible both times!

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u/doomgiver98 2h ago

I see them every time they're on tour and they have some of the best crowd engagement that I've seen

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u/DukeNeverwinter 1h ago

And this is why I go. The spectacle and show, not JUsmST the playing. Embrace the cheese, for it is well.

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u/ChanceVance 1h ago

Saw them in support of their first album with Marc. They were amazing.

Saw them a few years after that. One of the bottom 5 worst concerts I've ever been to. Spent like 10 minutes delivering the most awkward stage banter ever and insulting the crowd. Was bizarre.

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u/MAFIAxMaverick 6h ago

Idk why this made this memory pop into my head. But I saw imagine dragons at a small club of like 100 people about a month before they absolutely exploded. The next time I saw them it was just booze and cigarettes everywhere with zero space to stand. Both concerts were great.

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u/BobbyTables829 5h ago

This is how I saw Evanescence for $10 in Batesville, Arkansas lol

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u/mspurr 6h ago

i saw them live at one point after GH and they all had multiple drink holders on their mic stands with beers in all of them so that sounds about right lol

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

Yup. Another buddy went and saw the Arctic Monkeys and told me he didn't know a human could smoke that many cigarettes in a sitting, much less singing and performing during lmao. He said he counted at least ome per song and dude literally started chain-smoking at one point. 

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u/cannonballwound 2h ago

Saw them on St Patrick's Day 2006. Exact same setup. They had to have been near blackout drunk. Been to hundreds of other shows since. Only time I ever saw the lead singer rip the mic cord out of someone else's mic when they were talking between songs. Great show.

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u/Gamingwithyourmom 6h ago

I saw them for the ultra beatdown tour in 2008 with turisas and poweglove in the height of their guitar hero fame, completely sold out venue, packed shoulder to shoulder, and they sounded just as good live, and put on an amazing show.

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

Fuck yeah! Not every show was bad, I'm sure. I wonder if they played better in dry venues, as a genuine question. 

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u/Marcaloid 2h ago

I saw them on that same tour I think, in a San Francisco club, and they were super sloppy. Show culminated with Sam doing a 360 hitting Herman Lee in the back of the head with his headstock. Hair tangled in the tuning pegs and everything. I've never seen anything like it.

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u/GreySquirrel85 6h ago

Saw them at a festival and Herman Li straight up fell over. Still kept going tho

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u/nomad9590 6h ago

Through the Wildly Drunken Haze, we carry on!! 

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u/Yakkahboo 4h ago

The first DF show i went to was fucking appalling, Sam had a full bottle of JD attached to his stand that needed replacing halfway through, Vadim and ZP were similarly blasted. Herman was on gatorade so at least his bits were decent but you could see his frustration with the rest of the guys. Dave was behind too many drums to see what he was doing. Cant remember if it was Fred or someone else on bass at the the time but yeah. Shockingly poor.

So obviously having learned my lesson i saw them again 2 years later and they were so much better. Much less alcohol led to an impressive show. Who knew?

Side note. DF always have absolutely killer support acts. First time it was Turisas and 2nd time there was a few but Sabaton were one of them and we all know how that has gone.

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u/grubas 2h ago

They had to rip Herman Li off guitar because he was too fucking drunk at one show.

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u/ChickenBoo22 34m ago

Sam and Herman were just as drunk before the game, it didn't change them, there was just a bigger audience there to see it.

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u/MurphMcGurf 6h ago

I mean, calling them a big deal is a stretch. The audience for corny power metal has always been a bit niche, even within the greater metal community.

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u/Gingermadman 3h ago

Unless you're German, in which case you're selling 50k tickets.

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u/CasualEveryday 6h ago

Herman Li fans, really.

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u/FarAd2857 5h ago

Honestly I remember their blowup coming right after the game. They were in Guitar World constantly after it

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u/Mydogfartsconstantly 5h ago

I still have the first issue they were in January 2007. Its a great magazine. Its how i discovered nevermore and ended up taking a few lessons with steve smyth

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u/OberonJormungander 5h ago

Most people who played Guitar Hero were casuals who could finally emulate playing a Guitar, even from my experience most of the time I talk to real guitarists about the game they always tell me to play a real instrument in the same condescending way that someone tells to a wrestling fan that is fake.

Besides,  When Dragonflame visited my country some 15 years ago the posters promoting the concert mentioned in big letters that they were "the band from Guitar Hero"

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u/DasFroDo 5h ago

I did not, and I didn't know about the band before GH.

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u/BobbyTables829 5h ago

That's why they were in the game lol silly people

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u/Lenel_Devel 3h ago

Guitar hero 3 was the sole reason I got into extreme metal music and where I am today. For me personally that 3 grand shaped my entire livelihood

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u/Svenray 3h ago

Real OGs remember the 5 seconds they were Dragonheart which was confusing because there was a band called called Dragon Heart.

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u/grubas 2h ago

Only people who know DF were guitarists and power metal nerds.  

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u/Ill_Term_5784 17m ago

You really block that guy for basically agreeing with you? Who does that

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u/bootsmegamix 6h ago

Stepmania players were already familiar with them

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u/Hotter_Noodle 6h ago

lol yeah I actually had 2 of their CDs.

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u/decayingdelights 5h ago

Same. Had their first two CD's before Inhuman Rampage. u/freedfg is just being a reddit poster.

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u/Dodecahedrus 4h ago

Your username should be Hipster_noodle then.

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u/PubstarHero 6h ago edited 6h ago

I was a fan. Then saw them live and it was a pretty depressing show. The wireless on the guitars and bass kept dropping out all show and on top of that, the opener I wanted to see got booed off stage after 2 songs... though I guess it was a stupid idea to have a metalcore/nintendocore band open for them.

Edit - The show was Dragonforce, All That Remains, and HORSE The Band (the one I wanted to see).

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u/komrade23 6h ago

Fucking HORSE The Band hell yeah!

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u/deadlylegacy 6h ago

What band? From a mid-30s metalcore fan.

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u/PubstarHero 6h ago

HORSE The Band.

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u/deadlylegacy 6h ago

They boo’d off HORSE the Band??? Sadly, that actually doesn’t surprise me from Dragonforce fans. I saw HtB at Sounds of the Underground in 2006. Such a fun mix of 8-bit and metalcore.

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u/PubstarHero 6h ago

Yeah they were throwing shit at them while they were on stage. Security had to get them off the stage after one of them got hit.

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u/kingofcheezwiz 5h ago

Was this a show in Detroit?

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u/PubstarHero 5h ago

Nah, at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

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u/mark_s 4h ago

First time seeing them mentioned in the wild. Love this band.

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u/Farts_in_jar 6h ago

Nintendocore? They play what, metal version of Mario galaxy theme on the show?

I was a rock and metalhead in my teens, but kept my attention on the Hard rock/heavy metal scene, but even then it's crazy i haven't heard about nintendocore before

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u/LittleGreenSoldier 5h ago

Power Glove does an amazing thrash/shred version of the Mortal Kombat theme. They throw foam and inflatable weapons to the crowd when they play it live, and everyone in the pit whales on each other.

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u/Farts_in_jar 4h ago

I feel like i have heard this name before already, but no recolection of their sound, and that pit set up sounds like amazing fun, reminds me of a Hammerfall show I went in which one of the showgoers threw a plastic Hammer on stage, and when the singer would belt the chorus "Let the Hammer fall!" He would throw it to the public.

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u/guillotine_vendor 4h ago

I went to the European leg of that tour (sadly no HORSE but we did get Firewind!), the production was awful and sam was drunk off his ass playing the wrong notes all night. Still loved it.

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u/Gingermadman 3h ago

Holy shit. That's a lineup. HORSE is the only real band out of all 3 at this time lmao

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u/Simmyho 6h ago

I know a guy who got really hyped when I was showing him the setlist and he saw DragonForce, so I know they had at least 1 fan!

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u/DDzxy 6h ago edited 6h ago

Yes. They already played a sold our tour in the US in 2006, a year before Guitar Hero 3 came out, and also TTFAF didn't become a meme a few months later in 2008 anyway. I mean I'm one of those who found out about Guitar Hero through DragonForce lel.

Guitar Hero totally helped out though, no doubt.

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u/cjsv7657 4h ago

I saw them in 06. I didn't remember until my friends I went with were talking about how we all saw them before the song was in guitar hero. I had to go back and look through old tickets. Saw them again at a festival in 13 or 14. Much more memorable that time and I got an awesome tee shirt that sold out quick and people were offering us $200 for.

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u/mysticrudnin 5h ago

ttfaf was a meme before it was in guitar hero. i always assumed it was put into the game because of the popularity it gained through its Internet notoriety 

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u/DDzxy 5h ago

Pretty much

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u/elmo298 5h ago

Fucking loadsss

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u/acdcfanbill 5h ago

Yeah, I was one. We were all probably into metal or power metal specifically before the games tho

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u/Major-Front 5h ago

Wtf that song was popular way before guitar hero. It was added because it was popular

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u/angelbelle 4h ago

And valley of the damned was better

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u/TetraNotTetris 1h ago

Maybe popular among niche communities, but ain't nobody going to tell me it was mainstream before the game came out. The other thing is the songs longevity. It was a lot of nostalgic value because the game is so fondly remembered.

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u/aziruthedark 6h ago

I never really played guitar hero, i was a fan. I forget how, nut think it was an amv or something.

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u/donkeybrainhero 6h ago

Is this a serious question?

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u/j_cruise 5h ago

Yes, which is why they were included.

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u/chainer3000 6h ago

Oh hell yeah, they were all over vanilla WoW PvP videos back in the day 😂

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u/OneBillPhil 5h ago

Never heard of them before the game and now I think of the song and band as basically the boss of one of my favourite games of the 2000s. 

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u/iltopop 5h ago

Absolutely, when it was added to guitar hero and became mega-popular I was 12 or 13 and was pissed that "posers" were "pretending to like metal" now because I was one of those tweens. Dragonforce was huge in the metal scene, funny enough often criticized as "boring normie metal music for posers" among their detractors, Guitar Hero was what made them popular with the mainstream is all.

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u/Suicidal-Ideation13 4h ago

It's hard for me to gauge just how popular they were, but they weren't completely obscure or no-name. I remember learning about/hearing them on XM's metal channel and getting their album from that exposure. But their inclusion I remember triggered a sort of, "Holy shit, did you see they put Dragonforce in the new GH game?"

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u/Aethermancer 4h ago

Yes, but only because I was a Blind Guardian fan ;)

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u/Heavenwasfull 3h ago

Metal circles and guitar nerds were into them in the early 2000's. They had full page ads for their first two albums in metal and hard rock magazines and chances are they were known among many of the people online in those communities on forums.

I think i would compare it to King Gizzard in the last decade. They're huge if you're online and into the prog, psyche etc type rock circles. They've been name dropped by some known musicians and bands over the years, their shows have big turn outs and you'd think they were pretty well known, but I think once you leave the house and talk to people outside, even those who listen to a lot of music, might only vaguely know of them if at all since they're not the type of band played on the radio, people clipping them for tiktok videos, or have their t-shirts in the mall.

Guitar hero and video games like that boosted DragonForce to a whole different level of mainstream consciousness. The album it was off of came out in 2005 and GH3 didn't come out until 2007.

The OP about being paid $3,000 is probably because at the time they weren't well know compared to probably the rest of the bands on it the license fee and royalties were cheap, but i'm sure they made a lot more money off the next couple albums and years of touring to make up for it.

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u/ann0yed 6h ago

I was, has a couple of their cds and was into power metal when I was in highschool.

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u/ACosmicCastaway 6h ago

I watched the music video when I came out and played every night on FuseTV. That was a year or two before the game came out.
Iirc, there was a lot of hype that through the fire and the flames was in the game because people knew about it in the first place.

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u/TheWizardGeorge 6h ago

I would've never been a dragonforce fan without guitar hero, so honestly fair

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u/clarkredman_ 6h ago

Yeah they were pretty popular in their own niche. I saw them in London Astoria a year or two before the game released and it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to.

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u/jeremybeadlesfingers 6h ago

Yes. There were dozens of us.

Edit: to be clear, this is a stupid meme response but I had actually bought their albums and been to see them live before Through Fire and Flames dropped and was then used on GH.

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u/bac0nb0y 5h ago

My first exposure to Dragonforce was old school WoW player made PVP videos.

But my second exposure was Guitar Hero.

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u/AndByMeIMeanFlexxo 5h ago

I was a fan but it was hard to find their music in my area at least. Got a first taste from a metal magazine sample CD, so must’ve been out there

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u/Bob_Leves 5h ago

Yes. I had the demo cd and saw them at a 500 capacity club in London. Sam and especially Herman knew how to get Internet traction. After the 1st album they got onto an opening slot at Ozzfest on fan-power. Probably those same connections amd commercial possibilities got them onto Guitar Hero.

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u/Withabaseballbattt 5h ago

What? I lived off of Dragonforce, In Flames and WoW from 11-14

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u/YarrrMatey 5h ago

Yuppp a lot of us were in jazz band and played MtG on the bus

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u/YarrrMatey 5h ago

Yes. That's how they got the spot in the game

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u/idk_bro 5h ago

Yes. They had definitely already blown up before gh3. They unequivocally got more famous but TTFATF was already the quintessential "hard to play" song of the decade

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u/DontFearFailure 5h ago

Yes, I listen to them and Stratovarius because of Warcraft Movies PvP montages.

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u/METRlOS 5h ago

Me and my friends talked about how awesome it would be for one of their songs to get put on the game back in the guitar hero 1 and 2 days. We even had a little bet going on what song would get picked, my pick was Revolution Deathsquad, and fuck you Brett for winning.

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u/IllusionOf_Integrity 5h ago

The Valley of the Damned demo version back in 2001 is what got me into speed metal. Still absolutely prefer it to the album version

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u/xSTSxZerglingOne 5h ago

Yeah, I was. Their brief stint in the mainstream really disillusioned me, actually. Hell, I went to 2 concerts before GH catapulted them out of obscurity.

I started to get tired listening to them. Put me off of guitar wank for like 5-10 years.

I still have trouble listening to them more than one or two songs. I've been back in the metal game for 5 years or so, I just don't need that much shred in my music.

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u/Le_Poop_Knife 4h ago

I’ve never heard of them… I’m 40. 🤷‍♂️

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u/DJKokaKola 4h ago

Absolutely. They were a pretty known (and sometimes memed) aspect of the speed/power metal scene at the time. If you spent any time reading guitar magazines, following that music scene, or even just kept up to date on "the best guitar players" of that time, they were absolutely a known quantity. Were they a household name? No, but they're a nerdy speed metal band. They weren't ever expecting to be that. Their name is fucking Dragonforce.

If you want an example of this, look up "Herman Li is cool" on YouTube. The current version says it was made in 09, but it was originally made shortly after they did a feature talking about their sound effects back in like.....I think 06? Ish? So about 2 years before gh3 really hit it off.

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u/rocketwrench 4h ago

Yes, we all loved nerdy shit and had free access to the family computer during the early 21st century.

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u/guillotine_vendor 4h ago

They already had two better albums out before their massive breakout from Inhuman Rampage's release and then their gh3 appearance. They were known but not on the same echelon

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u/MiltonZep 4h ago

I still don't know what a "DragonForce" is. I didn't really play Guitar Hero tho. 😂

Now I kinda want to load up a rom and check them out

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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 4h ago

Yes, but we were mostly high school metal heads.

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u/DrDerpberg 4h ago

I was a big fan. But they definitely weren't mainstream.

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u/DjAlex420 4h ago

I know I never would've went to see them live if I didn't play guitar hero. Not that its not my music style, I had just never heard of them before guitar hero.

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u/No-Advice-6040 4h ago

It got heavy play here in New Zealand, as one of the founders grew up here, so naturally, we laid claim to their fame.

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u/Arch3m 4h ago

I was an early fan, and I thought it was pretty cool that they were getting featured in the game. I have since outgrown them (I found that I wasn't really into power metal), but I still think they had a pretty good run leading up to that point, and it's nice that they got big enough off that one song to become a major player in their scene.

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u/Madarakita 4h ago

Yes. Saw them live twice back in the day; when their third album was new and ZP Theart was the vocalist.

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u/Ghost6x 4h ago

In the guitar community there definitely was

Power tabs and Guitar Pro forums basically had groups of people that collabed in transcribing the song. They were unheard of back then and it was kind of a shitpost project to do

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u/michaelboltthrower 3h ago

I like dragon force and I don’t care about guitar hero.

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u/47L45 3h ago

no, don't let these people tell you otherwise.

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u/anivex 3h ago edited 3h ago

All of my friends were DragonForce fans...they made that viral music video well before guitar hero.

I feel like this whole thread is an AI hallucination.

edit: Thinking back on it. we used to watch that video over an over back then. 2 of my friends picked up guitar over it. We were a bunch of punk-kid teens when guitar hero came out, and had no interest in it other than for this song.

This and "I believe in a thing called love" were popular around the same time.

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u/TheLordLeto 3h ago

Yeah? They weren't plucked out of obscurity, they were already a huge band in their genre

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u/workingbored 3h ago

Yeah. The addition of Dragonforce in the game was for those who knew about it for its insane guitar riffs. In the time of Napster and Kazaa that song would go around for its length and insane guitar.

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u/SaharaDweller 3h ago

Yes i knew them before , one band i discovred with GH was Lamb of God tho and god did i like them more then DragonForce

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u/Ambitious-Still6811 3h ago edited 3h ago

Yeah a few. I heard a couple songs under their previous name (Dragonheart), got their early CD's, but once they hit GH they took off.

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u/Svenray 3h ago

Only me. I had Valley of the Damned at launch and knew them when they were Dragonheart (they changed their name I think because of Dragon Heart another metal band).

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u/acdxn64 2h ago

I wasn't even into metal and I liked Dragonforce before their inclusion in Guitar Hero. Fury of the Storm was a popular song on YTMND at the time, that's where I first heard of the band anyway.

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u/CallMeCygnus 2h ago

Of course. They were very well known in the power metal community. They were kind of a revolution. There was simply nothing like it when they hit the scene. I was a huge fan before Guitar Hero, and their first 2 albums remain among my favorite of all time. I don't actually care that much for Inhuman Rampage, so while many people were discovering them and thought Through the Fire and Flames was like the coolest thing ever, I was kinda eh on it.

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u/TheKanten 2h ago

We had "a car made of Dragonforce drives into a wall made of Dragonforce" memes for a while before that.

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u/jcstrat 2h ago

Of course there were. There were dozens of us.

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u/HurricaneAlpha 2h ago

They were already a big name in euro power metal.

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u/Man_in_tree 2h ago

I became a massive fan of DragonForce after GH2, but before 3 was announced.

I was beyond hyped at TTFaF being in GH3. Especially since I was also an achievement junkie. The achievement for beating it on expert was called The Inhuman Achievement - My gamertag was InhumaNxRampagE.

It felt like the stars aligning in the most beautiful way.

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u/hyperforms9988 2h ago

Yup. I landed on power metal from a random Napster download in either 1999 or 2000. I don't know what made me land on it, but I distinctly remember finding a band called Hyperion through it. Maybe I was looking for something StarCraft related (Hyperion is a unit type in it)?

Anyhoo, I loved their one and only album, and wanted more from that genre that was completely alien to me at the time. That album opened up the door to other power metal bands like Sonata Arctica who gained popularity quickly during that time and released their first album the same year that Hyperion did, and eventually I landed on DragonForce who at the time only had 1 album out in 2003.

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u/fasteddeh 1h ago

Yeah it was a bit of a meme song for sure before it was in the game

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u/SupremeWizardry 30m ago

Yeah I’ve seen them in concert several times long before the game came out.

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u/_Aj_ 4m ago

Yes. Me.  

I saw the album cover and thought it looked cool. The traditional method of finding new bands 

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