"Through the Fire and Flames" is the most successful single by the British power metal band DragonForce. The song is the first track from DragonForce's third album, Inhuman Rampage, and features two very rapid guitar solos by Herman Li and Sam Totman.
The song peaked at #86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #61 on the Canadian Hot 100.[1] The song is also used as the unlockable final encore song in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and is one of the most popular songs used by Audiosurf players.
Recording[]
During the recording of the song, guitarist Herman Li snapped one of his guitar strings.[2] Despite this, the band decided to keep this recording and left it on the final album version.[2] The album version was recorded in sections and combined to make the final song.
Music video[]
The track was used in the first music video by DragonForce. For the video, a shortened version of the song was used, lasting only 4 minutes and 59 seconds. The video shows the band playing on a darkened stage.
During the guitar solos, the camera focuses on Herman Li and Sam Totman, with an inset shot of whoever is currently playing. During Herman Li's solos Sam Totman stands around drinking. At the start of the solo a Pac-Man sound played by Herman, after which the whammy bar that was used to make this sound is thrown in the air.
Pictures of all sides of the band members are shown. At the very end, the camera zooms away from the band.
The music video circulated through YouTube and various music video channels, including MTV2, and was shown on monitor screens during the band's performances at Ozzfest 2006.
Compilation appearances[]
The song appears on two compliation albums listed by online music database Allmusic. The short version of the song, misnamed as Through the Fire and the Flames, appears as track 32 on MTV2 Headbanger's Ball: The Revenge, released on 11 April 2006.[3] The full version of the song appears as track 5 on Salvation, Vol. 1, released on 23 October 2007.[4]every band member had to play behind green screens
Video game appearances[]
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock[]
"Through the Fire and Flames" is a playable bonus track in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The song is unlocked and played automatically during the credits after the player finishes the game on any difficulty level, and is the longest song in the game. It has been considered to be the most difficult song in the Guitar Hero series,[5][6] due to complex hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the extremely fast, intricate solos, including one that lasts over two minutes. The song contains the fastest stream of notes in the entire series, with the fastest 32nd notes reaching a speed of 26.67 notes per second. When challenging the song on Expert, the loading screen for the Wii and Playstation 2 versions will display "Good Luck." Completing the song on Expert on the Xbox 360 earns "The Inhuman achievement",[7] a nod to the song's album.
The player must also play samples of keyboard and computerized noises included in the song. In a promotional video for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Herman Li was shown playing the game version of the song at hard difficulty level but completed only 2% of the song before failing.[5]
Following the inclusion of "Through the Fire and Flames" in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, sales of DragonForce CDs increased in one week by 126%.[8] Digital sales of the song, recorded by Nielsen SoundScan, increased from 2,000 per week to 10,000 per week almost immediately after the game's release, and almost reached 40,000 per week by the final week of 2007.[9]
Audiosurf[]
Following the release of the puzzle/rhythm video game Audiosurf on 15 February 2008, "Through the Fire and Flames" became listed as one of the game's most popular songs. Throughout February and March, the song was listed in the top five "Most Played Songs" on the game's official website.[10] At least one review has attributed the popularity of the song in Audiosurf to its appearance in Guitar Hero III.[11]