UMUR Inhuman Rampage is the 3rd full-length studio album by UK/ Multi-national power metal act DragonForce. The album was released in January 2006 by Noise Records. I haven´t listened to the two previous albums by the band so Inhuman Rampage was my introduction to DragonForce. As far as I understand it´s also the album that gave the band their breakthrough. The band members come from all over the world but the base is in UK, London.

The music on the album is Euro power metal played with exceptional virtuosity and speed. Out of the 8 tracks on the album it´s only album closer, the epic power ballad Trail of Broken Hearts, where the pace is lowered. All other tracks on the album are played in a fierce pace. The drums even play what I would characterize as blast beats at times. While the pace in Euro metal metal is usually very high, it´s seldom you´ll hear blast beats. A very nice feature IMO. Everything on this album, from the dual guitar attack to the keyboards to the fast played rythms, are performed to the maximum of the players abilities. The vocals by ZP Theart are probably the least over the top thing on the album, and they are still very well performed. This album is all about speed, speed and more speed. Think the fastest played tracks by artists like Helloween and Sonata Arctica and you´re just about there.

The songs are very melodic with hook laden chorus lines and re-occuring instrumental themes, so in that department Inhuman Rampage isn´t an out of the ordinaly power metal release. And that´s probably a minor weakness on the album. The melodies don´t stand out as being very original and thereby Inhuman Rampage rely much on the virtuosic playing by the members of the band and less on the compositions themselves. This is not always a problem though ( we can´t all invent the wheel) and while the music on the album isn´t exactly original, the incredible playing, the powerful polished production and the solid songwriting, ensure that this is still a very succesful album to my ears. It´s one long funride and even though it has a tendency to become a bit too pompous ( read: cheecy) there´s always a gleam in the eye that ensures that the album is entertaining all the way through. I can´t remember having this much fun with a power metal album in a long time. So if you´re anything like me and mostly enjoy the really fast played tracks on Euro power metal releases I can highly recommend Inhuman Rampage. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is warranted. Just great fun this one.