The Game

Album: Maximum Overload (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Herman Li recorded the solos of both this song and "City of Gold" on board his pal Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch's yacht. He laid them down as they sailed off the coast of Los Angeles.
  • The song features guest vocals by Matt Heafy of Trivium. He also contributed to "Defenders" and "No More" on Maximum Overload.
  • At 240 beats-per-minute, this is the fastest song ever laid down by DragonForce, a record they had previously broken with "Fallen World."

    The song came together when guitarist Sam Totman went to France to work on songs with DragonForce bass player Fred Leclercq. Totman says they didn't set out to write a super-fast song, but they started listening to albums by Sepultura (Beneath the Remains) and Slayer (Reign in Blood), and realized that some of those songs were very high tempo and still worked. After some experimentation, they figured out that 240 BPM could work - most DragonForce songs are around 200 BPM.
  • The guitars (at least the strings) on this track were very heavy in the literal sense. In our interview with the DragonForce guitarists, Sam Totman said, "It's got heavier-gauge string on the 7-string guitar, so it actually is heavier, technically."

    Herman Li added: "I guess you always talk about fast and heavy, so we can say we're definitely not lying."
  • The Maximum Overload album title and cover artwork were inspired by the constant bombardment of information that people are subjected to during their daily lives. Said guitarist Herman Li: "We were in an airport departure lounge surrounded by TV screens, flight information screens and advertising screens. We then looked around and no one was saying a word, they were all looking at more screens on tablets, laptops and mobile phones. There's no escaping it; it's complete information overload!"

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