The international Power Metal institution DRAGONFORCE presents us its third album which again features an explosive mixture of hyper-speed sounds. Compared to its predecessors Valley Of The Damned and Sonic Firestorm, not much has changed. The guitar dream team Herman Li and Sam Totman still deliver hot solo duels whose speed probably makes even Prog idols like Steve Vai or John Petrucci envious. I don't exaggerate when I say that Herman Li currently is the fastest guitar player in the whole scene. Looking back at the early days of the band, one notices that his colleague Sam improved a lot, too, and probably plays much better than about all the other Power Metal guitarists (Shit happens, Tolkki!). It must be kind of motivating to play together with a musician like Herman Li. The whole line-up of the band, including Vadim on keyboards, ZP Theart on vocals and Dave on drums, surely kicks butt on Inhuman Rampage, providing a somewhat stressful, yet incredibly positive and fresh overall picture of today’s Power Metal, so that people will listen to the disc repeatedly not only to be astonished by its musical pride but also to sing along and have a good time. The lyrics and the vocal melodies are, to be honest, not very creative, and fans of bands like Dream Theater will most probably consider them to be a little cheap and artless, but DRAGONFORCE never wanted to do anything else than writing catchy songs and performing them with sparkling virtuosity. The voice of vocalist ZP might be a problem for some listeners as he sings at a very high pitch and sounds a little rough every now and then, but he acquits himself very well and one can easily get used to his singing as it fits the provocative style of the music perfectly. Those of you who are into “Happy Metal” and feel the urge to listen to the top acts of your favorite genre only should avoid all those mediocre Scandinavian, German or American past-time heroes who already had their best days (Yes, I'm talking about bands like Stratovarius, Helloween, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth and the likes, whose recent albums sound anemic and burnt-out – this is, however, not true for Edguy and Sonata Arctica) and get the full load of DRAGONFORCE power right away. You will not be disappointed. By the way, the band is also an insider tip for friends of classical video game music from the Commodore 64 and Super Nintendo days, as Herman's and Sam's guitar solos often contain some snippets taken from old games, adding a fresh breeze to the music. Inhuman Rampage sounds much more progressive than its predecessors as the band uses strange keyboard samples and vocal effects more frequently now. All in all, they seem to approach the Asian market much stronger than before, as especially the instrumental parts of songs like Operation Ground & Pound sound a bit like they were taken from an Anime soundtrack. Of course, DRAGONFORCE is definitely not the kind of music one would listen to every day, but that's not due to lack of quality – it is rather because it is very hard to keep up with the incredible speed so that one has to take a rest after listening to it for too long.