Ultra Beatdown

{{Redirect|The Fire Still Burns|the 1985 album|Russ Ballard}} {{Use British English|date=September 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox album | name = Ultra Beatdown | type = studio | artist = DragonForce | cover = Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown.jpg | alt = | released = {{Start date|df=y|2008|08|26}} | recorded = November 2007 – April 2008 | studio = Thin Ice Studios, Surrey, LamerLuser and BATMAM Studios, London | genre = Power metal | length = 58:11 | label = Roadrunner, Spinefarm | producer = Karl Groom, Herman Li, Sam Totman | prev_title = Inhuman Rampage | prev_year = 2005 | next_title = Twilight Dementia | next_year = 2010 | misc = {{Singles | name = Ultra Beatdown | type = studio | single1 = Heroes of Our Time | single1date = 4 July 2008 | single2 = The Last Journey Home | single2date = 21 January 2009 | single3 = Reasons to Live | single3date = 15 June 2009 }} }}

'''''Ultra Beatdown''''' is the fourth studio album by British power metal band DragonForce, released on 20 August 2008 in Japan through Victor Entertainment and on 26 August 2008 worldwide through Roadrunner Records<ref name=blab-albdet>{{cite web |url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=98269 |title=DRAGONFORCE: New Album Details Revealed |access-date=2008-06-03 |date=3 June 2008 |publisher=Blabbermouth.net}}</ref> and Spinefarm Records.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dragonforce.com/discography.php |title=DragonForce – Official Discography |access-date=2008-06-03 |website=DragonForce.com |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080601214236/http://www.dragonforce.com/discography.php <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 1 June 2008}}</ref> ''Ultra Beatdown'' was the band's last studio album to feature vocalist ZP Theart and their first to feature bassist Frédéric Leclercq.

==Overview== On 4 July 2008, the first single from the album, "Heroes of Our Time", was posted on their MySpace profile.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=100261 |title=DRAGONFORCE: New Song Available For Streaming |access-date=2008-07-05 |date=4 July 2008 |publisher=Blabbermouth.net}}</ref> On 8 July 2008, the music video for ''Heroes of Our Time'' was released onto their MySpace profile. The songs "Heartbreak Armageddon", "The Fire Still Burns" and "A Flame for Freedom" were all played on 106.1 Rock Radio during an interview with ZP Theart on 15 July 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rockradiomanchester.co.uk/listen_live/?36 |title=106.1 Rock Radio – Manchester's ''First'' Classic Rock Station |access-date=2008-07-29 |publisher=106.1 Rock Radio |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206012210/http://www.rockradiomanchester.co.uk/listen_live/?36 |archive-date=6 December 2008 }}</ref> On 14 August 2008, the album was made available for pre-order in the DragonForce official web store. On 18 August 2008 the album became available for streaming on the band's Myspace page.

The music video for "The Last Journey Home" premiered on the Xbox Live Network on 21 January 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dragonforce.com/df/news/dragonforce-video-world-premier-on-xbox-live |title=DRAGONFORCE VIDEO WORLD PREMIER ON XBOX LIVE at DragonForce.com |access-date=2009-01-22 |date=21 January 2009 |website=DragonForce.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126045141/http://dragonforce.com/df/news/dragonforce-video-world-premier-on-xbox-live |archive-date=26 January 2009 }}</ref> Frédéric Leclercq announced that they may release a live DVD in 2009–2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lucemfero.com/dragonforce092008.php|title="Reasons to Live" – DragonForce bassist Frédéric Leclercq delivers an ''Ultra Beatdown''.|access-date=2008-12-16|website=Lucemfero.com|archive-date=24 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224140717/http://www.lucemfero.com/dragonforce092008.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> This did not happen; however, in September 2010, a live CD was released titled ''Twilight Dementia''.

''Ultra Beatdown'' is the final album featuring lead vocalist ZP Theart and the first album to earn the band a Grammy nomination.

==Sound== Before the release of ''Ultra Beatdown'', the band members were interviewed upon the topic of the album's structure and delivery. Totman, Theart and Li all generally stated that the sound of ''Ultra Beatdown'' would not vary much differ from their previous records but would improve in some categories.

{{cquote|It's not going to be majorly different. But hopefully the melodies will be nicer, the guitar solos will be better, the production will be better. You just try to improve in every area.| | |Sam Totman|<ref name=blab-albdet />}} {{cquote|There isn't much to change, but yet there is. The last three albums have been very much guitar-oriented, and this one probably will be as well, but I want to try to do some extra colouring in with the vocals.| | |ZP Theart<ref name=blab-albdet />}} {{cquote|Bands always say, 'Our new album is faster and heavier,' and then it's never true, so we're not gonna say that. But playing fast just works for us. People who say we play too fast are probably right, but guess what? There's a million other bands that play slow. People listen to DragonForce and go to the show because they know that we're doing something other bands aren't doing.| | |Herman Li|<ref name=blab-albdet />}}

==Touring and support== The first round of DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown World tour started on 25 September 2008 in The Zodiac, Oxford with Turisas. The US/Canada tour also includes Powerglove. The band toured almost constantly up until April 2009 in several countries with support by Dååth and Cynic. They had planned to carry out their world tour to Latin America in May 2009, but delayed their arrival to November 2009 due to the swine flu epidemic as well as "exhaustion" according to what Herman Li stated in an interview.

The band had planned to release a live DVD in summer 2009 but instead released a series of videos entitled "DragonForce TV" which showed the band on tour as well as pro-shot footage of their performances at Graspop 2009 and Loudpark 2009. It also featured backstage footage of the band rehearsing and relaxing. The rumoured DVD was never released due to lack of time when the band was touring. The "DragonForce TV" Season 1 footage was uploaded during a break before the penultimate leg of the tour in Latin America and North America. However, to make up for the false DVD, the band recorded the audio from every show on the final leg of the Ultra Beatdown World Tour to release the best cuts on a live compilation album. Herman Li stated in a 2010 interview regarding the album:

"The idea was to record every single show from the last leg of the tour, so we could pick the best take of each song without needing to do any overdubs in the studio; keeping the whole thing 'LIVE' like all the classic live metal albums.

"These recordings really capture the raw sonic energy of a Dragonforce show in fine detail. It is so real that you can hear the noise of the crowd and experience the show as it was that night – you can even hear the guitar pedals being stepped on!"

The album's official announcement was made on 22 June 2010. Titled ''Twilight Dementia'', it was released in September 2010.

==Critical reception== {{Music ratings |MC = 77/100<ref name="metacritic"/> |rev1 = AllMusic |rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>[http://www.allmusic.com/album/ultra-beatdown-mw0000790695 Ultra Beatdown – DragonForce, by Eduardo Rivadavia]</ref> |rev2 = ''Alternative Press'' |rev2score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name=altpress /> |rev3 = IGN |rev3score = {{Rating|6|10}}<ref>[http://music.ign.com/articles/902/902967p1.html ''Ultra Beatdown'' review.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915135048/http://music.ign.com/articles/902/902967p1.html |date=15 September 2008 }} IGN</ref> |rev4 = ''Metal Hammer'' |rev4score = {{Rating|7|10}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Dave |last=Ling |date=September 2008 |title=Ultra Beatdown review |page=87 |journal=Metal Hammer }}</ref> |rev5 = ''Now'' |rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>[http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/discs.cfm?content=164651 ''Ultra Beatdown'' review]. ''Now''</ref> |rev6 = PopMatters |rev6score = {{Rating|7|10}}<ref>[http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/dragonforce-ultra-beatdown/ ''Ultra Beatdown'' review]. PopMatters</ref> |rev7 = Sputnikmusic |rev7score = {{Rating|2|5}}<ref>[https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/26929/DragonForce-Ultra-Beatdown/ ''Ultra Beatdown'' review]. Sputnikmusic</ref> |rev8 = ''Thrash Hits'' |rev8score = {{Rating|4.5|6}}<ref>[http://www.thrashhits.com/2008/09/album-dragonforce-ultra-beatdown/ ''Ultra Beatdown'' review]. ''Thrash Hits''</ref> }}<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot--> {{Expand section|date=August 2008}} The song "Heroes of Our Time" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, losing to Metallica's "My Apocalypse".<ref name=Grammy2009>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604545/20090208/story.jhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215063113/http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1604545/20090208/story.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 February 2009|title=Grammy 2009 Winners List|date=8 February 2009|publisher=MTV|access-date=1 December 2009}}</ref> On 28 August 2008, the album charted at No. 9 in Japan<ref name=oriconUB>{{cite web |url=http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/release/d/775479/1/ |title=ドラゴンフォース-リリース-ORICON STYLE ミュージック |access-date=2008-09-05 |language=ja |publisher=Oricon}}</ref> it also entered the Australian charts in the first week of September at No. 19<ref name=AUS/> and in the same week at No. 18 in both the UK Albums Chart and the ''Billboard'' 200.<ref name=UK/>

<!--Please note that Wikipedia is NOT the place to advertise your reviews!--> Initial critical response to ''Ultra Beatdown'' was generally positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 77, based on 8 reviews.<ref name="metacritic">{{cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/music/ultra-beatdown | title=Dragonforce:Ultra Beatdown (2008): Reviews | work=Metacritic | access-date=2009-04-07 }}</ref> Both AllMusic and ''Alternative Press''<ref name=altpress>{{cite magazine|title=''Ultra Beatdown'' review<!--this needs the proper article title here-->|magazine=Alternative Press|issue=242|page=152}}</ref> gave it four and a half stars out of a possible five. AllMusic gave it an "AMG Album Pick" and, in the opening sentence of the review, likened the band to a juggernaut: "Look up the word "juggernaut" in the dictionary and you may just find Dragonforce's photo alongside the definition. Not only does it aptly describe the nature of their hyperkinetic "extreme power metal," but also their vertiginous ascent from utter music community obscurity to new media, errr...juggernaut, when their breakthrough single, "Through the Fire and Flames," became first a YouTube sensation and later a keystone of the Guitar Hero video game phenomenon".<ref name=allmusic.ub>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/ultra-beatdown-mw0000790695 |title=Ultra Beatdown – Overview|access-date=2008-08-21 |last=Rivadavia |first=Eduardo|publisher=AllMusic}}</ref>

==Track listing== The ultra edition physical copy of the album contained a bonus DVD with the music videos for "Heroes of Our Time" and "The Last Journey Home", as well as videos ''The Making of Ultra Beatdown'' and ''The Making of the E-Gen Guitar''. {{Track listing | title1 = Heroes of Our Time | lyrics1 = {{hlist|Sam Totman|Herman Li}} | music1 = Totman | length1 = 7:13 | title2 = The Fire Still Burns | lyrics2 = {{hlist|Totman|ZP Theart}} | music2 = Totman | length2 = 7:50 | title3 = Reasons to Live | lyrics3 = {{hlist|Li|Totman}} | music3 = {{hlist|Vadim Pruzhanov|Totman|Frédéric Leclercq}} | length3 = 6:25 | title4 = Heartbreak Armageddon | lyrics4 = {{hlist|Totman|Li}} | music4 = {{hlist|Li|Totman|Leclercq}} | length4 = 7:40 | title5 = The Last Journey Home | lyrics5 = {{hlist|Totman|Theart}} | music5 = Totman | length5 = 8:12 | title6 = A Flame for Freedom | lyrics6 = Totman | music6 = Totman | length6 = 5:20 | title7 = Inside the Winter Storm | lyrics7 = {{hlist|Totman|Theart}} | music7 = Totman | length7 = 8:11 | title8 = The Warrior Inside | lyrics8 = {{hlist|Totman|Li|Theart}} | music8 = {{hlist|Pruzhanov|Totman}} | length8 = 7:14 | total_length = 58:14

}} {{Track listing | headline = Ultra and special edition bonus tracks | title9 = Strike of the Ninja | lyrics9 = {{hlist|Totman|Theart}} | music9 = Totman | length9 = 3:18 | title10 = Scars of Yesterday | lyrics10 = {{hlist|Totman|Li|Theart}} | music10 = {{hlist|Pruzhanov|Leclerq}} | length10 = 7:46 | total_length = 1:09:18 }}

{{Track listing | headline=Japanese bonus track | title11 = E.P.M. | lyrics11 = {{hlist|Leclerq|Totman|Li}} | music11 = Leclercq | length11 = 7:24 | total_length = 1:16:39 }}

===Notes=== *On all non-standard physical editions of ''Ultra Beatdown'', the length of The Warrior Inside is 7:44 as a 30-second gap of silence is added to the track. *"Strike of the Ninja" is a re-recording of a song titled "Feel the Fire", recorded by Totman and Theart under the name Shadow Warriors, and is shorter than all the other DragonForce songs in the Theart era.

==Personnel== {| |-style=vertical-align:top; |width=50%| '''Band members''' *ZP Theart – lead vocals *Herman Li – guitars, backing vocals, producing, mixing, engineering *Sam Totman – guitars, backing vocals, producing, mixing *Vadim Pruzhanov – keyboards, piano, theremin, Kaoss Pad, backing vocals *Dave Mackintosh – drums, backing vocals *Frédéric Leclercq – bass, additional rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals '''Guest musicians''' *Clive Nolan – backing vocals | '''Production''' *Karl Groom – mixing, engineering *Mike Jussila – mastering *Android Jones – artwork *Matt Read – graphic design *Frank Strine and DragonForce – collage photos *Paul Harries – photos *Steve McTaggart – management *Josh Kline – agency representation {{small|(North America, with the Agency Group USA Ltd.)}} *Paul Bolton – agency representation {{small|(United Kingdom, with Helter Skelter Agency Ltd.)}} *John Walsh and Bruce Reiter – tour management *Penny Ganz – legal representation {{small|(P Ganz & Co. London)}} *Mark Howe – business management {{small|(Entertainment Accounting International Ltd.)}} *Ron Zeelens – visa paperwork {{small|(RAZco Visa's, New York)}} |}

==Charts== {| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |- ! scope="col"| Chart (2008) ! scope="col"| Peak<br />position |- {{album chart|Australia|19|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024|refname=AUS}} |- {{album chart|Austria|62|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|Finland|25|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|France|119|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|Oricon|9|M|url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/315487/products/775479/1/|title=ウルトラ・ビートダウン-スペシャル・エディション-|publisher=Oricon.co.jp|access-date=31 May 2024|rowheader=true}} |- {{album chart|New Zealand|28|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|Scotland|24|date=20080831|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|Sweden|50|artist=DragonForce|album=Ultra Beatdown|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|UK2|18|date=20080831|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024|refname=UK}} |- {{album chart|UKRock|2|date=20080831|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |- {{album chart|Billboard200|18|artist=DragonForce|rowheader=true|access-date=31 May 2024}} |}

==Release history== {| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em 1em 1em 0; float:left" !Region !Date !Format !Label !Catalogue # !Notes !class="unsortable"| |- |Japan |20 August 2008 |CD |Victor Entertainment |VICP-64299 |All bonus tracks |<ref name=oriconUB /> |- |United States |26 August 2008 |CD |Roadrunner |1686-179372 | |<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discogs.com/release/1439493 |title=DragonForce – Ultra Beatdown (#1686-179372) |date=26 August 2008 |access-date=2008-08-31 |publisher=Discogs}}</ref> |- |United States |26 August 2008 |LP |Roadrunner |1686-179371 |Free download coupon | |- |United States |26 August 2008 |CD, DVD |Roadrunner |1686-179378 |Special edition |<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discogs.com/release/1443753 |title=DragonForce – Ultra Beatdown (#1686-179378) |date=26 August 2008 |access-date=2008-08-31 |publisher=Discogs}}</ref> |} The album was set for release first in Japan on 20 August 2008<ref name=df.c.ub>{{cite web |url=http://www.dragonforce.com/df/albums/ultra-beatdown |title=Ultra Beatdown at DragonForce.com |access-date=2008-08-21 |website=DragonForce.com}}</ref> then on 22 August in Germany<ref>{{cite journal| date = August 2008| title = Hear the Next Evolution of Metal| journal = Blast! | issue = Sommer/Herbst 2008 |page=39 | publisher = Nuclear Blast | language = de}}</ref> and the day after, on 23 August, in Australia{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}} before being released in the United Kingdom on 25 August and globally the following day.<ref name=df.c.ub />{{clear left}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DragonForce}}

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Category:DragonForce albums Category:2008 albums Category:Roadrunner Records albums Category:Spinefarm Records albums Category:Albums produced by Karl Groom