DragonForce guitarist Sam Totman is featured in a new interview with Charged.fm discussing the band's new album, Maximum Overload, and his career choice as a guitar player. An excerpt is available below:

Q: What was an influential show you went to that inspired you to want to be a guitarist in a metal band?

Totman: "Well, I went to see Sepultura on the Arise tour and that was around 1991. That was like the first proper gig I went and saw and I just thought it was so cool. I didn’t even necessarily want to be a guitar player, I just liked playing it. I actually never thought I would end up doing it for a living, it’s actually a bit weird but it’s definitely been really cool. I just wanted to play music for a laugh and the fact that loads of other people seem to like it too is a bonus so it’s really amazing. But yeah that was one of the first gigs I went to where I had an appreciation for bands and playing live."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Dragonforce will release their new album, Maximum Overload, in North America on August 19th via Metal Blade Records. It will be available in CD, digital, and limited edition vinyl formats. The second single from the album, entitled "Defenders" can be heard below:

Produced by Jens Bogren at Fascination Studios in Örebro and Varberg, Sweden, Maximum Overload will be the band's first ever album involving an outside producer, having historically opted to record themselves in association with Karl Groom.

"Working with Jens gave us a different perspective on the songs and a different sound dynamic. We always previously recorded in our own studios but recording in Sweden made us focus and maybe drove us harder, Jens certainly did, he doesn't believe in days off!" said guitar maestro Herman Li.

Maximum Overload features a couple of surprises, notably a guest appearance on some of the songs from Trivium's Matt Heafy. "We've always gotten on really well with the Trivium guys and it was great when Matt had a couple of days to spare and agreed to weigh in on some of the songs!" added bassist Frederic Leclercq.

The album also features an all time first for DragonForce… a cover song! Guitarist Sam Totman explained: "Just before the last Australian tour, our manager suggested it might be interesting to do a cover for the next album, something we've always refused even to consider. Because we had all had a couple beers every band member wrote down three songs each and we compared them all, just for a laugh. I wrote down 'Ring Of Fire' by Johnny Cash, an idea which the rest of the band loved, so we've Dragonforce-ized it"!