When I say Dragonforce, I'd venture to guess you'd immediately think of the track "Through The Fire And The Flames." It's the band's big breakthrough song, and a pretty solid summation of Dragonforce's sound – rapid fire power metal with assorted Nintendo sounds and operatic vocals.
In an interview with Nocture Magazine (translated by Blabbermouth), Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li is asked if bands nowadays need a gimmick to stand out. Li cites bands like Ghost, Slipknot, and Disturbed for having their identifiable traits, and how that imagery and "gimmick" needs to come together. I'd argue that there's a distinct line between a gimmick and an identity, but Li seems to have combined them in his interview.
Then Li touches on modern metalcore bands, and says that these bands basically don't have an identity and they're "not doing their own style, they keep doing a style that everyone else is doing."
"To be honest, I think that it's great that some bands set themselves apart because I'm sick of all these bands trying to sound the same. [Imitates growling] I mean I thought metalcore was going to die years ago. It's 2017 and people are still coming out playing the same thing. Fuck. I can understand that it's cool. It's kind of a scene, and you go out and have a good time. But, musically, they are not challenging themselves because maybe they haven't grown into it yet. Some bands like Bring Me The Horizon, I never liked their music, but I can see they are challenging themselves and grown to another level. But some bands just keep doing the same thing. They're not doing their own style, they keep doing a style that everyone else is doing. That's fair, it takes the time to grow but it has to be organic, so I'm contradicting myself. [Laughs] How can people grow if it's not organic, that's what they want to play and that's how it is? So don't listen to me."
I get what he's saying, I agree that there are plenty of bands that are essentially without identity in a sea of soundalikes, though across tons of genres from black metal to the retro-modern metal revival, and of course metalcore. Though sometimes aping the popular sound is only a start for bands, and they'll eventually evolve into their own sound, which Li also recognizes.
So take it from Herman Li – find your own sound through imitating others initially, and don't just keep repeating yourself. Sound advice!
