It’s funny what I will sometimes subject myself to when it comes to seeing a band that I am a fan of. Take for instance Britain’s Dragonforce. I’ve been attempting to catch them live since last year’s Ozzfest but have managed to miss every performance they played in my covering territories until recently, when I caught up with them on the No Fear Music Tour. Tour roster:  Killswitch Engage in the headlining spot and Dragonforce, Chimaira and He Is Legend as support. As it happened, the only band I was really interested in was Dragonforce. That’s not to say that the other bands weren’t fantastic in their performances, they’re just not particularly appealing to my tastes.

Unfortunately, I missed the opening act, He Is Legend, but was informed by a number of audience members that they put on a pretty decent show. I actually arrived just in time for Cleveland Ohio Metal moguls Chimaira, who did a splendid job at delivering their gospel of brutally honest aggression to those in attendance. Playing a few selections from their latest studio offering as well as old-school fan favorites they proved that they still have the guts you’d expect from a band of their caliber. Before I go any further, I must that the lighting show for all of the bands minus Killswitch was extremely piss poor, with only back-lighting and side-lighting and nothing on their faces. As a photographer, this presents one of the biggest challenges we face when trying to capture the bands. I don’t know if I’m wrong in my thinking but I thought the bands and venues wanted good publicity? If I had my way I would have taken the lighting guy (or whoever’s bright idea it was) out back and beat him severely for being such an artsy-fartsy moron. People pay damn good money to see these bands and it would be nice to actually fucking see them.

Moving on…. Dragonforce were every bit as talented as I’d expected them to be, although they were a little sloppy at times and vocalist ZP Theart needs to invest in some in ear monitors so that he can hear himself and stay on key. Now when it comes to their on-stage shenanigans, I have to admit that I wasn’t very impressed as they seemed to be making somewhat of a mockery out of the style of Metal that they play. In addition, what’s up with the “I love Men” sticker attached to the bottom of Sam Totman’s guitar? As their set progressed though, the songs seemed to become more focused and I really began to enjoy the experience. Herman Li is an absolute monster of shredding - and it’s rare to find someone who can tear it up the way he does. While the guys weren’t the evening’s headliner but played direct support, still they delivered a fairly lengthy set. After their show I headed back stage to personally voice my appreciation and was rudely blown off by their singer who I stood next to for at least 20min., and not once did he acknowledge my presence. My buddy who attended offered to by Sam a drink and the fucker actually told him he didn’t want to talk to him because he wasn’t a chick. Funny, cause I totally had him pegged as being gay from the sticker on his guitar. So in the end, it can truly be said, Dragonforce are really rock stars… attitude and all. I suppose the world still needs them, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t.

Killswitch Engage were ferocious during their set and the crowd definitely made it known why they were the headliners. Front man Howard Jones was his usual smiling self and worked the crowd like a pro. His alternating clean and dirty vocal fits well with this band and they kept things fresh. Their sound was tight and they gave an enormously commanding performance. On board for this round was former Damageplan vocalist Patrick Lachman who was filling in for injured guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz. Needless to say everything came off without a hitch and they brought a close to….well, a rather interesting evening.~

~Priest