It was Thanksgiving last year, and I was telling my dad how awesome Rhapsody of Fire is.

“They play like, songs about dwarves and hobbits. And they’re crazy on the guitar.”

By little brothers looked at each other, and one asked me, “Yeah, but have you heard of Dragonforce?”

I hadn’t, so Daniel lent me a few of their albums.  I can’t say they’ve grown on me as much as Rhapsody, I will say that they’re one of the shreddingest bands I’ve ever heard.

But why’d they name their most recent album Ultra Beatdown? Listen to guitarist Herman Li explain:

“Since the second album, Sonic Firestorm, and the last album, Inhuman Rampage, we always had titles that are supposed to be original and no one used it before. So there isn’t a band, there isn’t a video game, there isn’t a song called Sonic Firestorm or Inhuman Rampage. Same for Ultra Beatdown as far as I know. Yeah? So we’re always trying to find an original title. There’s a reason that everyone hates the title when they first heard it, because they’s not familiar with the combination of those words.

“But it means basically the album is there to kick your ass, ultra kick your ass.”

Check them out, if just for the craft and the pageantry.

Of course, if overwrought European geek metal is too much for you, R. Kelly put out a new video today (but it’s lacking in ridiculous metaphor).