Video Interview: Despite Pressure, Dragonforce Deliver Beatings, Laughs With ‘Ultra Beatdown’ (pt 1)

Currently, DragonForce are battling to win over Slipknot and Disturbed fans on this year’s Rockstar  Energy Mayhem Festival, but pretty soon the band’s mettle will really be put to the test. On August 26 DragonForce’s fourth album, Ultra Beatdown, will be released and the speed metal race will be on to see if the band members can maintain the breakneck pace of success of Inhuman Rampage and its “Guitar Hero 3″ hit “Through the Fire and the Flames.” So far, the group seem to be on course. The first single on Ultra Beatdown, “Heroes of our Time” is amping up the band’s fans and raising the blood pressure of their detractors and the song’s video — which receives its “Headbangers Ball” debut on Saturday night on MTV2 — has received more accolades than Pamela Anderson’s last boob job (well, maybe that’s stretching things a bit, but it’s pretty rad).

We recently sat singer ZP Theart and bassist Frederic Leclercq in front of the camera and listened to them rattle on about the new album, their worst beatdowns and the differences between Beatdown and Rampage. Click “more” to see part one of three: