By Alex and Alex

DragonForce is a British heavy metal band established in London, England. It was formed in 1999 and is particularly known for their long complex guitar solos and fiction-based lyrics. DragonForce have, so far, released six studio albums, one live album and one demo.

Their most famous song was Through the Fire and Flames (2006). The song was a single as well as the opening track from DragonForce's third album, ‘Inhuman Rampage’. The song features rapid guitar solos that have been included in video games such as ‘Guitar Hero’.

The song is considered the most difficult song to appear in the Guitar Hero rhythm game series, first appearing as an unlockable bonus song in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and in the other game version – Guitar Hero: Smash Hits with full band support. This raised a lot of awareness for the band as this video game series had been very successful.

DragonForce’s music video for Through the Fire and Flames features a very dark setting and is a rock-based music clip. In America, the video received over 68 million views but this video is unavailable in the UK. The UK version, on the right, received 4.8 million, having been uploaded after some time after the official song release.

The song rose to #86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #61 on the Canadian Hot 100 in 2008. In March 2015, the song rose to stardom again when a cover version was uploaded to YouTube. It went viral, sending the song to number 13 on the Rock Songs chart. It has sold 1.1 million copies in the United States alone and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Click here for the Music Video for through the fire and flames

Inhuman Rampage is the third album released by DragonForce in 2006. In America, the album reached number 1 in the Billboards Heatseekers chart. Overall, the album reached number 103 in the Billboard 200 Chart.

Us Top Heatseekers

1

US Top Independent Albums

5

US Top Hard Rock Albums

18

UK Albums Chart 70

US Billboard 200 103

This album’s music was more aggressive sound-wise and lyric-wise than the previous two albums. Most songs included unclean vocals and shouting to resemble the style of heavy metal/rock. However, this album turned out to be the most successful as well thanks to the song ‘Through the Fire and Flames’, which became one of the most famous rock songs of all time.

The recording for the album

took place at Thin Ice Studios

in Surrey and at the

LamerLuser Studios in London

over a period of 7 months.

(March to September 2005)

The band’s website is rather impressive. It uses CGIs and lots of different animations which must have cost a lot of money. The website features sections such as ‘Home’, ‘News’, ‘Band’, ‘Releases’, ‘Tour dates’, ‘Media’, ‘Merch’, ‘Press’, ‘Misc’, ‘Contacts’, etc.

The Website also features the upcoming tour dates. You can see that the band, although quite old, still has more than 10 tours planned for the near future. This suggests that the band is doing very well and hence they can afford such an expensive website to maintain their distinguished public profile in the area of Rock.

• The Music Video itself is very similar to the album. The album is called ‘Inhuman Rampage’ and the music video features abnormal dancing moves and shouting, all of which contributed to riots and strikes.

• The website’s layout connotes heavy metal style as the font and the colour represents certain aspects of the album. The songs in the album all use either bright red colour or bright blue colour. The website is therefore made to look similar to the band’s albums to maintain the connotations across all media texts.

• The three are hence similar in order to attract the same audience, such as rock or heavy metal fans. However, ‘Guitar Hero’ video game series’ fans may also be applied to this category as the website states that the song ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ was featured in the game. This type of synergy attracted a wider audience and this made the whole campaign very successful internationally.

• The overall goal, image and message the band is trying to portray is similar to the goal of any other rock band. Rock is a certain style of music that does not appeal to the majority. It is different to most songs and music genres as it does not usually involve a melodic tune or pattern and can be difficult to listen to or understand (lyrics-wise). For example, the goal of Dragonforce’s album was to say an approach to life as a constant fight and struggle for survival. It describes how people are managing to fight through their lives, etc. I believe the campaign was very successful as the band made a lot of money off the album and did gather a very impressive 68 million views on YouTube. Their song remains one of the most successful rock songs ever recorded.

• There are almost no differences among the three media texts. The song is form the album, therefore it cannot be different to the album. However, the music video is based on red hues and colours and therefore goes against the colour of the website and most of other music videos by DragonForce. However, this suggested a change in behavior and attitude as the lyrics of the song were very different to their other songs and were a lot more aggressive and violent. Maybe the red colour was used to connote blood and war.

The Killers are an American rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2001, by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards) and Dave Keuning (guitar, backing vocals). Mark Stoermer (bass, backing vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (drums, percussion).

By June 2005, the Killers had made a huge impact in music worldwide. The band was recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as the "best-selling new rock band of the past year". Lead singer Brandon Flowers also became known for his flamboyant fashion style and had caused controversy due to some outspoken views on other bands. Jay-Z described the Killers' sound in 2005, saying that "They take what's old and make it sound new again."

The group has released four chart topping studio albums: Hot Fuss (2004), Sam's Town (2006), Day & Age (2008) and Battle Born (2012). They have sold an estimated 22 million albums worldwide. Mr Brightside was their first debut single released on September 29, 2003 and 2004 (reissue)

The Killers music video for Mr Brightside has a very unique and creative. The music video racked up over 110,000 million views on YouTube.

"Mr. Brightside" is actually the first song the band ever wrote. The song is inspired by a real-life girlfriend of Brandon Flowers' who cheated on him. In an interview with Q Magazine in 2009, Brandon Flowers elaborated that he caught his girlfriend cheating in the Crown & Anchor Pub in Las Vegas.

Click here for the Music Video for Mr Brightside

Hot Fuss is the debut studio album by American rock band The Killers, released on June 7, 2004 in the United Kingdom and on June 15, 2004 in the United States. The album and its first three singles went on to garner five Grammy Award nominations.

Hot Fuss was released on 7 June 2004 in the United Kingdom and on 15 June 2004 in the United States. In 2005, it was reissued as a box of eleven 7" vinyl discs, with an album track on each A-side and non-album tracks on the B-sides. Rolling Stone ranked Hot Fuss the 43rd of its "100 Best Albums of the Decade", and it is one of the five most recent recordings listed among the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Gigwise readers voted it the No. 1 "Best Debut Album of All Time" in 2013. Rolling Stone ranked Hot Fuss the 33rd of its list of "The 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time".

Hot Fuss was The Killers' first No. 1 album in the UK. It was the 26th best-selling album of the decade in the United Kingdom. It is among the top 25 longest charting albums in the history of the UK Albums Chart, with 247 weeks, more than 4 and a half years.

The album reached No. 7 on the US Billboard 200 chart. It is estimated to have sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, including more than 3 million in the United States and more than 2 million in the UK, where it has been certified seven-times platinum. It has also been certified platinum or multi-platinum in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. Hot Fuss produced several commercially and critically successful singles, including "Mr. Brightside".

UK Album Chart 12 (2005)

US Billboard 200 7 (weekend)

Worldwide 28 (2005)

The website is very simple and easy to use as the target audience for the band may be slightly older. Therefore making it easier for the audience to use the website to buy tickets

They also have a chat forum on their website to allowing all their fans to interact with each other. There is also a easy and accessible store allowing fans to buy shirts, albums, posters and more…

The killers carry out a typical boy band carrying out similar styles towards Green day, Linkin park, Franz Ferdinand, Keizer chief and King of leon. Typical rock bands have the lead singer standing in the middle in front of the band as it seen to be them in the middle of the stage when they perform.

The music video of both Green day and The Killers have similar mise-en-scene such as having similar costume i.e. both have weird suits. While another convention for rock is wearing dark costumes signifying Rock music

The Killers use a similar colour scheme towards green days album. This is now seen be slightly cheesy however in 2004 this was seen to be very simple and straight towards the point compared to albums nowadays i.e. Imagine dragons uses very complicated and is very different compared towards the killers album. As modern day rock bands try to have a deeper meaning towards their album while the killers and green day album illustrates that all they want to is rock

The killers now is a rock band that produces still produces music with their latest made in 2012 called battle born. The album reached the top 10 in twenty countries and sold approximately 1 million copies worldwide in 2012

The album debuted at number 3 in the US on the Billboard 200, selling over 113,000 copies in its opening week and maintaining a top 10 position in the second week

Modern day rock band have now used more dynamic album covers and use of dark colours as it signifies rock music in comparison towards their previous albums. The killers battle born has now illustrated their personalised genre being heartland rock (for their new album Battle Born) while hot fuzz was Alternative Rock/Post punk revival. Due towards their rise in popularity they are allowed to vary between more specialised genres that suit the band more

The Killers are now just enjoying performing their old song i.e Mr Brightside. This is the message they sent towards their fans “Keep your chins up children. The chariots are charging. And in the church of the cherubim and the chatty, the chants that chime are kept in a case“. Their overall message has been the same since the start which is to play their music towards all their fans while the band is enjoying themselves.

The End