I think most of us were honestly impressed when Valley Of The Damned hit the stores as DRAGONFORCE's debut album. The ultra fast guitar combined to the ala-HAMMERFALL with a touch of RUNNING WILD galloping rhythms gave this band significant publicity points. Adding to that , Herman Li and Sam Totman managed to create a powerful guitar duo that is already featured in the famous Guitar Hero video game with many new riff ideas. Actually, the fretboard melting guitar riffs and the original ways to torment the six strings comprise the registered trademark of this act from the United Kingdom.  
ULTRA BEATDOWN is the fourth addition to DRAGONFORCEs' catalogue and I consider it as the band's nodal point. So, give me some time to explain why...
First of all, I have to say that I am an almost fan of this band especially for Valley Of The Damned and Inhuman Rampage and for their restless supporting act to ANGRA's latest visit in Athens, Greece. DRAGONFORCE have managed to widen the rather strict boundaries of Epic/Power Metal by laying down some original ideas that fit to their classic influences. But this time I got the impression that the band has reached a creativity wall giving the impression of self repetition to come forth.
This is by no means a bad album; on the contrary is very good but it is kind of a compilation of their previous works. None of the eight songs managed to make me to push the replay buttons more than it is necessary to write a fair album review. On the other hand, my point of view says that this album will satisfy the band's die-hard followers; they will be totally blown away by the insanely fast twin guitars in Reasons To Live and enjoy the nice legato melodies in the Epic and best album track Inside The Winter Storm. ZP Theart proves one more time that has the perfect voice for this ultra speed version of Power Metal and even lays some warm and emotional vocal lines in the slow tempo break of A Flame For Freedom.
I used the term “nodal” point for this album because I believe that DRAGONFORCE should try to bring something different in their music because there is the danger of self-repeating. Of course, this is strictly a personal opinion and I bet there are a lot of their fans out there who are frowning on my writings. Nevertheless, if you know DRAGONFORCE you can buy this one with your eyes close and add one more point to my rating.
Heroes Of Our Time