The mighty DRAGONFORCE have found themselves a new bassist. Stepping up to fill the slot vacated last year by Adrian Lambert, who left the band to spend more time with his family, is DRAGONFORCE’s current ‘touring bassist’ Frederic Leclercq. Formerly guitarist with French metal outfit, Heavenly, Fred is a longtime friend of DRAGONFORCE guitarist, Herman Li. Whilst out on the road with DRAGONFORCE, the band realised that Fred fitted into the band perfectly and invited him to join on a permanent basis. Fred is a bit of a super-talented ‘multi-man’. As well as being fluent in the English, French and German languages (and swear words in most others!), Fred is actually multi-instrumental (he plays guitar, bass, keyboards and sings) in multiple metal genres (death, speed, thrash, classical, glam, black and just plain metal and rock). Fred’s accession to full-time status adds even more international colour to DRAGONFORCE’s ranks. The London-based outfit can now boast a South African frontman (ZP Theart), guitarists from Hong Kong and New Zealand (Herman Li and Sam Totman, respectively), a Ukrainian keyboardsman (Vadim Pruzhanov) to add to their British drummer (Dave Mackintosh) and now, French bassist. Meanwhile, DRAGONFORCE’s current album, ‘Inhuman Ramage’ is flying out of the shops and their recent UK tour sold-out weeks in advance, culminating in a show at London’s Astoria Theatre. Selling faster than debut Roadrunner albums from the likes of Slipknot and Trivium, shattering Roadrunner Records’ initial sales target for the album after just 21 days and lodging itself firmly in the Top 3 of the Rock Albums chart since it’s release, it’s apparent that this year belongs to DRAGONFORCE. DRAGONFORCE are currently in mainland Europe continuing their current tour. They return to these parts in March, when they’ll play the following shows, across the Irish sea. Expect to see more of DRAGONFORCE in the UK in June. Sat 18th March í¢ä‰åäóì Dublin Ambassador Theatre Sun 19th March í¢ä‰åäóì Belfast Spring & Airbrake