Herman Li
Herman Li is one of the greatest shredders of all time. He created "extreme power metal", which is what he calls his music with DragonForce. He is a self taught musician, which makes him even more of a legend. He learned by listening to his favorite music and watching videos. He has also been inspired by video game music. In many songs you will hear "pac-man" sounds.
Herman won the 'Best Shredder' award at the annual Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards 2005. Together with Sam Totman, Herman recently won four categories in Guitar World's Readers Poll 2007 for 'Best New Talent' (winning by 70%), 'Best Metal', 'Best Riff' and 'Best Shredders'. They also won 'Best Guitar Solo' with Through the Fire and Flames in Total Guitar's readers' poll 2007 and numerous polls in other printed and online press around the world.
On stage he is one of the craziest performers in the world. He has two major signature moves: One, playing with his tongue, and two, "guitar lifting wammy bar slam".
Sam Totman
Born in England but moved to New Zealand at an early age, Sam started playing the classical guitar at the age of 9 with formal musical training. A great guitar player with plenty of feelings in both rhythm and leads, complement his remarkable ability in writing extremely catchy songs; a perfect combination! The combination of Sam & Herman, two very different guitar players joining forces in DragonForce, is causing quite a stir in the modern metal scene. Watch out for their hyperactive performances, taking the live stage to another level.
His signature stage moves include "360 degree tornado jump" and "hands free booze drinking"!
ZP Theart
Without being able to say when exactly he started singing "Since I can remember I guess..." this curly haired frontman has been doing styles ranging from Blues, Thrash & Rock to Metal. Take this experience, plus an extremely high vocal range, combine it with an endless amount of energy, and you end up with: ZP Theart, the man upfront centre rocking the masses, flanked by a fierce instrummental attack and backed by a groinchurning rhythm section that is DRAGONFORCE! When there's time to spare, you'll occasionaly catch him messing around on the old 6-string accoustic, but he mostly devotes his time to writing lyrics and melodies. ZP has further built his experience being part of various projects on and off stage, as well as in the studio.
Fred Leclercq
Frédéric Leclercq is best described as the 'multi' man; multi-instrumentalist (guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, vocalist), multi-styles (death metal, heavy metal, speed metal, thrash metal, rock, classical, glam, black metal), multi-languages (speaks French, English, German and some dirty words in almost every language), and of course multi-bands! Currently singer, guitarist and main man in his band Maladaptive, he also plays session for various bands and used to play keyboard then guitar in the French band Heavenly, not to mention his appearances here and there on various records in the music scene.
Now, Fred adds another great band on his list: DragonForce. This talented, passionate young French man has known Herman from the 'force for over 5 years and was asked to help out on bass for their North America and Japan shows.
Fred displayed so much skills and professionalism on the shows in North America and Japan that he was asked to become DragonForce's permanent bassist. Fred accepted without hesitation.
Check out Fred's band Maladaptive.
Vadim Pruzhanov
Born in Ukraine than later moved to London England, Vadim is the 23 years old keyboard wizard of DragonForce.
With an early start on the piano at the young age of 8, Vadim studied at a music school since the beginning. Bored, he quit three years later and carried on as a self-taught player instead. It is at that time Vadim discovered rock music and decided to pursue it as a career. He got a small keyboard (Yamaha PSS-51) and started to create his own music at the age of 12 and carried on since. Apart from playing the keyboard, Vadim is also a capable guitar player who likes to spend time burning some solos on his Ibanez guitar.
Dave Mackintosh
Dave "Compact Dynamo" Mackintosh began playing at the tender age of eight, and discovered twin kick drums by twelve. Since then, he knew his musical direction, "Metal"!
While performing and recording with plenty of unsigned acts throughout the years, he has gained valuable experience not only in his musicianship, but also in showmanship. his thirst for metal has grown ever more extreme. Only now, after two full length albums with black metal outfit Bal-Sagoth, is Dave able to cope with the extreme speed and intensity of DragonForce!
