Dragonforce’s Cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” is as Bananas As You’d Think

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s non-drama involving allegedly racist and homophobic lyrical content by Demoniac, the late ’90s band that contained three founding members of Dragonforce, the “extreme power metallers” have released an extreme power metal cover of the very un-metal Johnny Cash classic “Ring of Fire.” Shocker of all shockers… it sounds exactly like Dragonforce covering “Ring of Fire!” As someone who’s grown a bit tired of Dragonforce’s shtick over the years, I’m even more tired of hearing “Ring of Fire” at late night dive bars — but in spite of that, or maybe because of it, I actually quite like this cover: it brings fresh life to both Dragonforce and this song.

The track made its premiere on AV Club, for whom guitarist Sam Totman offered the following:

We got tired of hearing bands play covers exactly the same as the original and we always thought Johnny Cash was pretty cool. So we were like, let see what happens if we speed him up to 220BPM and plaster it with shredding guitars and huge soaring vocals and choirs! Basically give him an EXTREME DragonForce overhaul! Some people gonna love it, some might hate it but you definitely never heard Johnny Cash like THIS!!!”

Maximum Overload will be released on August 19th on Metal Blade. You can preorder it here.