Song of the Week (Dragonforce - Through the Fire and Flames)

OK...I know most of you don't like metal. And that's totally fine...this week's post is not primarily about metal. Well, a portion of it is...oh man...

So, there we were in our ocean blue Toyota Camry cruising by Kreayshon through the Golden Gate Bridge in sunny Northern California to commence the road trip that would define a generat...errr...a week in our lives. We had caught the proverbial tiger by the tail and we were on our way...down the coast, through the mountains, through the forest. Oh what's that PT...you get extremely car sick?! Just one of a few bumps in the road to a higher purpose.

While on the road, we blew through hours of music. I created 4 Road Trip Mix Tapes:
1) Road Trip Chill
2) Road Trip Electro
3) Road Trip Nu School
4) Road Trip Old School

I tried to tailor it to my audience as much as possible. There was air guitar, there was air drums, there was singing out of tune (all from PT), and various iterations of head bobbing. On the coast, it was pretty laid back (M83 / Cass McCombs). In the Redwoods, upbeat and nostalgic (Soundgarden / TV on the Radio). For the mountains, we went a little harder...

If you know me and you know PT, you know we are in the minority (Chris and Wong, you guys are in here too) who care for the metal genre. So, on the way to Mendocino, PT asked me if I had ever listened to Dragonforce. I hadn't. It was as if I slapped his mother. He spent the next 20 minutes talking this band up to me. About how much they destroy. About how over-the-top awesome they are, etc., but he didn't play them yet. It wasn't the right time.

A day later, on a climb through some mountains, the time had come. PT put on "Through the Fire and the Flames"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s

I gotta say. It rocked. Hard.

The whole time I listened to it, I was thinking of that scene at the end of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey where Bill and Ted go back in time to learn how to rock. I think Dragonforce came from the future and traveled to the past (aka present day) a la Marty McFly in the Johnny B. Good scene.

This band has it all: fast guitars, double-bass drum mania, power stances that rival crabcore and a power vocalist that doesn't scream (more like Maiden...less like pain to my ears) and of course, mythical imagery (a must for any legit metal band).

So why now? The road trip was completed months ago. Well, much like Dragonforce (in the metal world), PT has achieved greatness through a different road trip (in the Philosophy world). That's right folks, through the fire and the flames, PT has become a doctor. He sits atop the mountain of intelligentsia with the likes of Messrs: Aristotle, Locke, Dre, Octagon and Pepper.

Shout out to Patrick Todd for this awesome achievement. As for Mt. Shasta/related misadventures...my bad, sun.

Hope you Dig,
JZ