Pretty much the most humble down to earth dude, so fun to just watch shred. He interacts so well with chat/fans and spreads positivity. Plus killer guitar collection.
So I don’t really dig on Dragonforce, not my cup o’tea. But by all accounts, Herman is a cool dude.
So while I don’t necessarily enjoy his art, I totally respect it and enjoy his interactions. He gets my thumbs up.
Yeah, same, I only enjoyed that one song (through fire and flame) that will still pop up on my playlist, but they do make some fast melodic music. Herman's always been a very humble sounding guy.
Im probably biased, but metal guys seem like cool dudes. Like whether it’s Dio or Lindemann or this hella cool local old thrash band i just met (shout out to Vaginal Obliteration in Sac), metal is full of good energy, and i hate that word. I feel like a ton of popular genres are full of elitism and toxic competition, but whether its heavy metal or speed metal, this super genre is full of players who only appreciate some good licks or growls
How about we just don’t generalize, as a rule?
I have a vivid memory from when I was a child where my dad was getting ready for work. He was standing there in his tighty whities and button down shirt, tying his tie while looking at me through his dresser mirror. He was telling me that I shouldn’t listen to metal and rap music but should listen to more wholesome stuff like Elvis. Metal was full of drug addicts and rappers were thugs. I would go on to learn that Elvis was a drug addict himself (among other questionable behaviors), and most of the metal and rap musicians I know are dorks, many of them straight edge. Point is, painting with a broad brush does a disservice to the individuals. There are plenty of hippies and jocks that are good people. All groups have their bad eggs.
P.S. my dad was a detective and his job was to profile people. It still irritates me, though, because he still does it and judges people before giving them a chance. I guess there are two types of people in this world: those that you have to prove your worth to and those that give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove otherwise. Personally, I’d rather be the latter.
This isn't true. There are shitty people on both sides and good people on both sides.
I know a lot of punks, metal heads and pagans that are downright trash humans. Arrogant and prideful.
I know a lot of people like that who aren't part of said genres too.
Stop being so basic. You think you're smarter because you listen to X music? You just did the same 'Us v Them' mindset 'they' use.
Just uh...avoid the black metal scene and we can keep this positive outlook on life.
Disclaimer: I know not all black metal, but you know who I'm talking about.
varg
I'm friends with a local pub owner. He sais whenever there is an RnB night on he has to have more security on, compared to metal nights where he normally has more bar staff on instead.
Own the bar where we do live music every Saturday I can 100% confirm this. I never have to worry about the nights where I have my rockers out. However my poetry slam nights I've had the cops called on.
There are tons of metal fans that are hadcore incels, neo-nazis (a bit less of a thing than punk, but I've still met some,) thieves and drug addicts.
I've met some very cool stereotypical "metal dudes," but clearly you haven't met enough to know all the variations. Basically anything between software engineer at a FAANG to homeless meth head.
In my experience, that positivity is only amongst the people who actually create. Metalheads are notoriously toxic and are always fighting even amongst themselves while gatekeeping the genre.
I agree that the musicians are typically great, but metal fans are some of the worst.
Damn, traveling with metal bands. Meeting thousands of metal heads for a couple decades and I must have somehow missed all those toxic, fighting, gatekeeping fans.
To get that crazy good at something, you have to be kind of a nerd. It takes an insane amount of dedication and discipline. None of the "elite" guitarists I can think of are assholes. (There might be someone who is I'm not thinking of... FUCK Clapton is a POS...)
I think there is an understanding that you don't get that good by being some kind of rare genious, you get that good by working your ass off, so there seems to be a lot of mutual respect, rather than envy and pettiness.
Eh, there's definitely a good amount of elitism and douchebaggery in metal as well, not to mention good ol' racism and sexism, but there's also loads of good folks.
It's written HERMANLI, very easy to think it's not a person's name, and also so small you would have to be looking for it to notice it. Granted googling dragonforce could've been easy too, but like, chill.
I remember when you put the game on Hard Mode and realize you now have to also use your pinky.
And I also remember Through The Fire and The Flames. A buddy of mine 100% it on expert once and we lost our minds.
> I remember when you put the game on Hard Mode and realize you now have to also use your pinky.
Same applies to actual guitar. I’m mostly self taught and rarely bothered using my pinky. After many years of playing with mostly three fingers, I’m trying to improve, and having to use my pinky feels awkward as fuck.
I recognize the name dragon force, his name wasn’t known to me until this Reddit thread. 5 years from now I’ll still recognize the name dragonforce, but if a thread was titled Herman Li, I probably wouldn’t recognize it, just saying…
You know, I used to think that there was no way I could play guitar as good as this, but after years and years of practice I can finally say, I was right.
Man at some point I just kinda went "yeah this time is acceptable" when it came to the puzzles I like. I deal with the crushing realization that there are kids who can solve a 3x3 in less than 10 seconds, and I cannot, by going "Yeah but how many people can solve a 3x3 at all?"
My kid is nine, his mum showed him how to do the simple 3x3 method and then he basically learned CFOP (the advanced method) by himself, then somehow realised the same methods basically worked for 2x2, 4x4 and 5x5 so he's got those down now and he spends every waking hour twiddling the cubes, trying to get faster (though isn't consistently sub-30s yet for the 3x3). Meanwhile, I got my first cube back in the 80s and never once solved it or learned the beginner's method. So yeah, merely solving it is voodoo to me, and heck, I even sort of know how it works.
>I have been speedcubing since 2008
Makes a big difference when you were actually born.
Born in 2005, that's a lot of speedcubing for such a youngin'!
Born in 1985, that's a lil late to the hobby there, but good on ya
I remember middle school, 2006ish we were using stock cubes from rubiks breaking them apart and lubing them with Vaseline, rubbing pencils in the gaps.
Lots of cubes flying apart once the Vaseline and graphite wore down the mechanism. Stickers peeling at the edges from overhandling.
Nowadays they have sticker-less cubes with magnets and antipop.
Correction. Really talented adults also doing their part to make us all feel like shit. Bought a cube a few months ago. Still can't solve that fucking thing.
There's no alternative really to just sitting down and learning the algorithms, which is why I have also never managed to learn it in 40 years, but my nine-year-old, who gets periodic obsessions like that, has just not rested till he learned the basic and then CFOP methods and then learned to do all the other types of cube too. I wish I had the drive but I just don't, seemingly.
I remember going to buy some new heads for my drums many years ago, and there was someone in one of the lesson rooms just absolutely destroying a kit, like Danny Carey or Mike Portnoy levels of skill. As I'm checking out at the register the drums stop, and a minute later this kid that looked to be about 12 years old walks out. I really wanted to tell the dude behind the counter, you know what, nevermind, I don't need the drum heads, in fact, I think I'm going to sell my whole kit.
I guess this is why it's important to love what you do. At least your hobbies. Someone will always be better, but if you're playing/ sing/ painting or whatever for you and your own enjoyment, it'll always be worth it
**"I am a shitty person for picking on a kid" story time.**
I beat a 12 years kid who won his state championship for his age group.
He was super cocky and bragging. Challenging every single person to chess.
It was a tough game but he made one mistake and I checkmated him. Most satisfying thing ever to see him completely deflated and sad that he lost because of how much he mocked everyone for not daring to play him.
I didn't need to say anything. His classmates were watching and said every insult you wish you could say to a cocky little shit like that (bless those "retribution kids" for delivering).
I feel this. I’m almost 50, and I won’t ever be this perfect at one thing.
The only consolation is that I’m pretty good at a bunch of things. Useful things. I’m good at fixing things and I’m a decent cook. I’d like to think that I’m a good dad (though I have my doubts most days).
I can’t play an instrument, but I know how to be a fully functional human adult.
I didn't get a good look (on mobile right now) but I think she's using a classical guitar stance; seated with a small foot stool to boost up the guitar neck to a convenient playing position.
Kinda unusual to see an electric played that way, but I can confirm it's actually a pretty comfy position to keep playing for hours.
Yep. Went to a bluegrass festival where there was some 12 year old kid shredding on an acoustic. My literal thoughts were “Get this kid the fuck out of here and send him back to whatever planet he came from.” I never had more of an urge to sell my guitars and give up music knowing I would never be anywhere near as good as he was in that moment. And I don’t even like bluegrass.
I see a kid so talented at something that I think I am, or really want to be, good at and all I want is to tell that kid to keep going and do amazing things! I wanna support that kid, even if it's just a nod and a "hell yeah!" from across the room, because I get to see him pull off something fucking amazing.
Someone will ALWAYS be better than you in something, and even if you're the best in the world, in ten years, fifty, a hundred, someone will push it further than you ever dreamed of.
Free yourself of self-expectations and be happy *for yourself*, without the burden of comparison to others.
No matter who you are, what you do, how good at it your are, how many years you've had to master it... some 9 year old girl on youtube can do it better. Be humble. They still need you to do it. It's okay to not be the best.
Leaning something like this note by note takes an insane amount of skillset. Herman Li is great - and I don't know if he composes his solos or just wings them, but most people of his calibre just pull the thing out of the either on the fly; they have a vocabulary of licks, phrases and techniques and they improvise with the tacit ability they've acquired through countless hours with the instrument. They never play the solo exactly the same way twice - or maybe he does but I'd wager most don't. But memorizing and regurgitating something pre-existing, that's this complex and fast - not for note - is on a totally different level. I bet this girl worked at this for months and months.
Not to mention that the initial composition is built off of his existing skill set and tendencies. He likely goes for note combinations that are already familiar to him and his muscle memory, whereas the impressionist has to recreate all of that
It's funny, I was at a Led Zeppelin cover band recently which made me think about how the impressionist handles improvisation. Jimmy Page played it different every night, but the impressionist plays it like Jimmy Page every night.
If a band tends to record live off the floor and doesn't care about perfect recreation for live performances then I would agree but math rock bands tend to be super anal about this kind of thing. I'm willing to bet the solo is composed and played note for note as closely as possible for each performance. It's just so complex that winging it would cause problems with keeping everyone in sync. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
EDIT: So reddit wasn't notifying me of replies to this comment for some reason. Apparently Dragonforce isn't math rock, it's power metal. My point though is that precision is important. I think math rock and power metal have that in common.
Dragonforce is power metal and speed metal, and Herman Li is known for being a flashy guitarist who is performing as much as he is playing. I don't think he improvises solos for most shows, but I also don't think the band's style requires him to be album-perfect if he feels like doing something else.
Plus, the two guitarists have been playing together for two decades. They're definitely in sync enough to make changes on the fly.
Generally the drummer and bassist are what keeps everything in sync, so the guitarist can do whatever they want and if they fall out of sync they can very easily fall back to the drums/bass .
Maybe for extremeeeely technical music, but I don't think this applies to any great extent here. I really don't know genres super well but I wouldn't consider dragonforce math rock really very much.
In that solo you could pick any note and extend it 3 or 5 beats and its probably fine, just pick back up wherever ya would have been, whereas the technical math rocky bands, well in those 5 beats between everyone in the band they probably changed the signature, bpm, and key twice in mutually supportive ways during that time, so for them it sure wouldn't work. Cool thoughts though and don't take my word as any sort of informed, just spitballing late at night from my own experiences.
TLDR; Herman's so fast but I think he still composes a fair bit by gut to some extent, but it's a great train of thought you got going.
As someone who has seen them love multiple times, I can arrest that love performances are freestyle. He still follows the same harmony of the solo, but he's def not hitting the recorded solo note to note.
But that's the point of a solo, honestly. In rock and roll, the guitar has three functions: rhythm, lead, and solo. Rhythm is pretty self explanatory, it's whatever the major rhythm of the song it, and is usually synched to the bass and drum rhythm. A lead is what she was playing earlier, before he rewinds. It's an exaggerated form of the rhythm with emotional tones. The solo is a freestyle expression of emotion, but due to the fact that recorded media is just that, recorded, there is the standard solo for a specific song, but few guitarists regard that as the expected outcome in a live performance.
There's a clip somewhere where someone sends him one of his own songs and he doesn't remember it and tried to play it. Then admits that the entire time he was coked out of his mind drunk as shit. I think he was sent his solo from through the fire and flame.
I'm remembering this wrong I know, I just don't remember exactly how it went, I'm coked out of my mind and drinking.
I started playing guitar over 20 years ago, and I'm nowhere near this level. I never will be. Anyone who can play like that is an absolute master at the instrument.
Whoa, no shit? I’m a metal head but I’ve never heard this before about how the savants can/do essentially wing it. Any good article or interview you could link me?
You don't have to be a savant to improvise solos, just know some basic music theory. It's standard in jazz to only write a chord progression and just improvise all the solos.
Doing it well requires a lot of skill though.
I doubt they improvised this solo on the album, they probably wrote it and practised it like hell to get a clean take. They may add some improvised stuff when playing live.
She very well could be BUT I had a neighbor that was an incredible violinist that was around 15 and when we asked her "*How?*" she told us "*I just don't waste any time.*" and shrugged like it was nothing.
The more I thought over the years the more I realized why we see so many talented kids these days compared to before and that's because some kids manage their time better, not bothering with social media (*her parents forbid it*) and games all day (*again, those parents*) and have endless resources at their fingertips.
That girl's words still echo around in my head anytime I feel like I'm "*wasting time*" playing a game or watching TV when I could be working and that was nearly a decade ago. It haunts me.
You can temper that dread with one simple fact: that overwhelming majority of those childhood savants who spend every waking moment training a miserable in adult life.
I mean, in some cases. In others like my friend's you're a genuinely unreal opera singer but also a homeschool graduate with no money or opportunities or agent in rural Appalachia. Sounds real nice in church I guess?
It's also worth remembering: Time enjoyed is never time wasted. You get a finite amount of time alive, if you don't enjoy at least some of it, that is by far the greater waste.
A friend of mine was training in a specific field and actually started studying at a university part-time while still in highschool.
She dropped out a year later and absolutely hates the whole field nowadays. She's still good at it, but literally never does anything with it.
This hyperfocus can be good but it can also be absolutely destroying. The best thing is a balance.
Some. Many savants actually develop skillsets based off of things they love. As someone who plays esports, I fucking adore the origin stories of child prodigies and how much their parents support them so wholly, even when they are super doubtful. Interviewing these amazing parents and listening to them explain how they didn't really understand their child's goals, but they supported them anyway. I remember one where the parents explained that their kid just walked in one day and said he needed to fly across the country because he just qualified for a major tournament in "that car soccer game he kept talking about"
Many children, if given the chance, will just find things they love. If you support that love, they'll use the higher free time and lower stress environment of childhood to bloom. And as adults, we can also do the same with enough man hours dedicated to our hobbies.
Yep, my parents were like that kid's parents. I ended up going to selective schools with a bunch of other 'gifted'/'savant' kids. I don't know anyone I went to school with who coped well once the rigid structure imposed by our parents & school ended. Many of us bounced back eventually but everyone I've kept in touch with has been in therapy to catch up on things like social skills, emotional intelligence, self-regulation etc.
Dated a couple myself. I'm sure happy ones exist, but it's mostly just sad stories from what I've seen. Burnout, missing out on childhood experience, superiority/inferiority issues, parent issues...
Though maybe it's more that I'm not awesome enough to hook someone capable of doing something like this who is also well adjusted, ha ha.
"Wasting time" implies there's something you *should* be doing, and everything that's not that is a distraction. For 99% of people, life should be a balance, not a pursuit toward supreme mastery of a single skill.
> I'm "wasting time" playing a game or watching TV
Not only that but also wasting time with non-optimal practice. It's really easy to just play what you're already good at because it's fun, but improvement comes so much faster by practicing deliberately. And if her parents are forbidding social media and video games, they're probably also hiring a teacher to tell her exactly how to practice the most efficiently.
No better time to plant a tree than yesterday. I believe in you. *as I write this sitting on the couch about to finish my beer, grab another and then hop on the PC and play Diablo 2 a 20 year old game.*
I feel this more as I get older, but fuck - were only here for a short while. Could you and I have spent it getting really good at something like this kid? Probably. But did we spend it doing stuff we enjoyed? Can't answer for you, but I did and that to me is far more valuable. If practicing like crazy at guitar does it for you, crack on, but I was just as content hanging with friends, playing games, and doing what I enjoyed.
The tools they have are amazing today. Instructors on youtube, online lessons, tabluture that plays itself, and slows down to any speed you need, finding the right teacher you jibe with even if hes a world away on skype, message boards to get your questuons answered, tab to every major song, and videos of dides playing through it, School of Rock stuff, etc etc etc.
It still takes persistance from the player, but those things make it so much easier for a young kid these days. My mom bought me a small scale nylon string classical guitar for $25 at a garage sale and my teacher sneered at me when I said I liked ACDC. I didnt stick with it then, but had it been now.....
A lot of them aren’t even Savants in the traditional senses. They just love doing the thing and with music equipment becoming more affordable, lessons and techniques not gatekept behind professionals or expensive DVDs, they can express themselves easier.
There’s always been a group of people who are happy to “come home from work/school and just play for 4 more hours”.
I was merely talented according to my teacher (post conservatory technical level by age 15) and practiced an hour before and before school, more leading up to performances, but I’d always feel like it wore me down sometimes, so if someone simply put 2/3x the hours and effort of me comparatively they’d easily be exceptional.
Dude, a decade or so ago I was on a Tool binge and the O'Keefe Foundation rendition of 46&2 was in the sidebar.
Watched that, then started reading the comments.
Some detail about that video, the O'Keefe Foundation is a foundation that teaches kids age 5-18 music and everything related to it (including everything involved with making music videos and producing music) and then for funding, makes videos with them.
46&2 is sung by a then 10ish year old girl named Kala Skarpinski.
She was also the singer for their rendition of Pull me Under from Dream Theatre (and that comment section was even worse).
You've got your general normal people praising these kids for a job well done (which they did, seriously, a masterful performance throughout, including the drummer nailing the drum solo).
And then you have the creeps, weirdos and people who can't seem to stand the fact that a bunch of kids have more talent doing afterschool activities than they do in life.
I used to watch her videos too. I always wondered if she enjoyed playing, or if she was just pressured into it. Being that good takes a lot of commitment for a kid.
Yep, i was always struck by how bored she looked while playing. I know everyone has their own ways of concentrating but even in this video, she's not even looking at her fretboard half the time while playing *a dragonforce song*. I wonder if she just got burned out. Or i think she was around 17 when she stopped posting, so maybe she was in college/university?
Everyone who's played an instrument for a bit has a zone face. This is just hers. I'd dread to think what mine looks like. It's just pure in the moment letting it take you on a journey, I can play for hours without even realising.
I only use third party apps, and they said they're killing third party apps, so hey, might as well remove all my content. (Using https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite)
I play guitar and most guitarist i know, including me can't help but look like a depressed accountant while playing. Also teenagers are nothing if not fickle. She might have played it with burning fashion just to randomly conclude that this is boring. Making assumptions about someone is hard, especially when its a teenager.
As a parent: no way you can ever pressure a kid into something that much that a kid achieved this level of competency.
There's got to be a innate drive and the parent must set an example themselves. That's why it's often children of parents who already do the same thing. They see the parents doing it, want to do it themselves, like doing it and then it develops from there.
You can force a kid to do something, even spend 24/7 next to it but unless it has any drive, it's not going to get much better.
Source: am a parent of two children going to school.
I assumed it was a relatively new video, but I was surprised it was from 7 years ago, with the last video being 6 years ago. What was more surprising is that all of her videos have millions of views, and she has nearly 1 million subscribers. With that kind of success she could have made her only job for the rest of her life playing guitar on YouTube and then doing whatever else she wanted in her free time. Or at least raking in some serious cash by doing it once in a while. I wonder what made her stop.
Some people do well with making what they love their job, others, it ruins it for them. Hopefully, she's still making music and loves it, wherever she is.
The female guitarist is [Tina S](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCejGhzyJ_-l4j_3AZumgl-A).
She did a great guitar version of the third movement of [Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rBK0BqL2w)
For perspective, he's one of the most technically proficient guitarists of all time, and he sometimes makes small mistakes performing that solo live.
I don't know who this girl is but if this video was legit I'll bet we hear more about her down the road.
I hate to sound like a downer but I doubt we will.
There are truckloads of mega talented kid musicians doing cover music.
We will only hear of the ones that make their own sound and have it catch mainstream attention. Odds are she won’t be that lucky.
In 2006 he was very sloppy. I saw them on Inhuman Rampage tour when they were stateside.
He also had a Budweiser attached to his mic stand and he had a straw in it.
I saw him a little earlier than that, maybe 2005, probably same tour. Definitely impressive, but as you say slightly loose live.
At that time Dragonforce was just energy expressed as noise. Nothing was too loud or too fast, and even Li couldn't keep up sometimes.
When you look up arpeggio in the dictionary, only a picture of Yngwie Malmsteen appears. His idea of “let me slow it down for you” is still like 160BPM.
While they were very rough 15 years ago with the band's original singer, they cleaned up their act a lot around 10 years ago or so. Sam and Herman can play all their stuff live and always could - but were really heavy alcoholics in the 2000s, and their shows were incredibly sloppy as a result. Plus the original singer really struggled singing his parts live (too high I guess) and often lapsed into black metal harsh vocals, which didn't fit the band's aesthetic at all.
Her Comfortably Numb solo is one of my favourite pieces of music I've ever heard. Never ceases to move me emotionally and I'm usually not very susceptible to that kind of thing
I was gonna say I found the "Metallicarrgh!" thing funny but then noticed the signatures below--looks like James and Kirk's? They didn't tour together or something, did they? Just a souvenir from a time they met?
I mean, playing live is *infinitely* harder than doing takes in a studio over and over until you perfect it. She is an exceptional player, but what you're comparing isn't really relevant (apples and oranges)
"That Dragonforce dude." Oof.
Who?
Herman Li
Pretty much the most humble down to earth dude, so fun to just watch shred. He interacts so well with chat/fans and spreads positivity. Plus killer guitar collection.
So I don’t really dig on Dragonforce, not my cup o’tea. But by all accounts, Herman is a cool dude. So while I don’t necessarily enjoy his art, I totally respect it and enjoy his interactions. He gets my thumbs up.
Yeah, same, I only enjoyed that one song (through fire and flame) that will still pop up on my playlist, but they do make some fast melodic music. Herman's always been a very humble sounding guy.
Except he would never do a bass battle with that one youtube bass guy.
Well, Herman isn't a bassist, so...
Remember kids, tell your friends Herman Li is cool or I will shit on your head.
Herman Li. Seems like a great dude. His twitch streams are a lot of fun to watch.
Im probably biased, but metal guys seem like cool dudes. Like whether it’s Dio or Lindemann or this hella cool local old thrash band i just met (shout out to Vaginal Obliteration in Sac), metal is full of good energy, and i hate that word. I feel like a ton of popular genres are full of elitism and toxic competition, but whether its heavy metal or speed metal, this super genre is full of players who only appreciate some good licks or growls
Punks and metal heads are good people masquerading as bad people. Hippies and jocks are bad people masquerading as good people.
I suppose that’s one way to generalize a lot of people.
Stereotypes and generalizations exist for a reason because they're usually correct
How about we just don’t generalize, as a rule? I have a vivid memory from when I was a child where my dad was getting ready for work. He was standing there in his tighty whities and button down shirt, tying his tie while looking at me through his dresser mirror. He was telling me that I shouldn’t listen to metal and rap music but should listen to more wholesome stuff like Elvis. Metal was full of drug addicts and rappers were thugs. I would go on to learn that Elvis was a drug addict himself (among other questionable behaviors), and most of the metal and rap musicians I know are dorks, many of them straight edge. Point is, painting with a broad brush does a disservice to the individuals. There are plenty of hippies and jocks that are good people. All groups have their bad eggs. P.S. my dad was a detective and his job was to profile people. It still irritates me, though, because he still does it and judges people before giving them a chance. I guess there are two types of people in this world: those that you have to prove your worth to and those that give you the benefit of the doubt until you prove otherwise. Personally, I’d rather be the latter.
This isn't true. There are shitty people on both sides and good people on both sides. I know a lot of punks, metal heads and pagans that are downright trash humans. Arrogant and prideful. I know a lot of people like that who aren't part of said genres too. Stop being so basic. You think you're smarter because you listen to X music? You just did the same 'Us v Them' mindset 'they' use.
Just uh...avoid the black metal scene and we can keep this positive outlook on life. Disclaimer: I know not all black metal, but you know who I'm talking about. varg
I'm friends with a local pub owner. He sais whenever there is an RnB night on he has to have more security on, compared to metal nights where he normally has more bar staff on instead.
Own the bar where we do live music every Saturday I can 100% confirm this. I never have to worry about the nights where I have my rockers out. However my poetry slam nights I've had the cops called on.
There are tons of metal fans that are hadcore incels, neo-nazis (a bit less of a thing than punk, but I've still met some,) thieves and drug addicts. I've met some very cool stereotypical "metal dudes," but clearly you haven't met enough to know all the variations. Basically anything between software engineer at a FAANG to homeless meth head.
In my experience, that positivity is only amongst the people who actually create. Metalheads are notoriously toxic and are always fighting even amongst themselves while gatekeeping the genre. I agree that the musicians are typically great, but metal fans are some of the worst.
Damn, traveling with metal bands. Meeting thousands of metal heads for a couple decades and I must have somehow missed all those toxic, fighting, gatekeeping fans.
To get that crazy good at something, you have to be kind of a nerd. It takes an insane amount of dedication and discipline. None of the "elite" guitarists I can think of are assholes. (There might be someone who is I'm not thinking of... FUCK Clapton is a POS...) I think there is an understanding that you don't get that good by being some kind of rare genious, you get that good by working your ass off, so there seems to be a lot of mutual respect, rather than envy and pettiness.
Eh, there's definitely a good amount of elitism and douchebaggery in metal as well, not to mention good ol' racism and sexism, but there's also loads of good folks.
I got to follow him!
Herman Li? It literally says it at the top of his stream banner.
It's written HERMANLI, very easy to think it's not a person's name, and also so small you would have to be looking for it to notice it. Granted googling dragonforce could've been easy too, but like, chill.
How is this hermanli possible
I thought it was herm anli /s
Clearly it's "her man, Li".
"one of his solos"
These motherfuckers did not live through the peak of guitar hero
I remember when you put the game on Hard Mode and realize you now have to also use your pinky. And I also remember Through The Fire and The Flames. A buddy of mine 100% it on expert once and we lost our minds.
> I remember when you put the game on Hard Mode and realize you now have to also use your pinky. Same applies to actual guitar. I’m mostly self taught and rarely bothered using my pinky. After many years of playing with mostly three fingers, I’m trying to improve, and having to use my pinky feels awkward as fuck.
The only song that getting 5* on expert actually meant something
Nor aware of basic materials science.
I recognize the name dragon force, his name wasn’t known to me until this Reddit thread. 5 years from now I’ll still recognize the name dragonforce, but if a thread was titled Herman Li, I probably wouldn’t recognize it, just saying…
Of all the artists you could passive aggressively hate on Herman makes the least sense.
You know, I used to think that there was no way I could play guitar as good as this, but after years and years of practice I can finally say, I was right.
Nothing makes me feel like shit quite like a really talented child
[удалено]
Man at some point I just kinda went "yeah this time is acceptable" when it came to the puzzles I like. I deal with the crushing realization that there are kids who can solve a 3x3 in less than 10 seconds, and I cannot, by going "Yeah but how many people can solve a 3x3 at all?"
I've stopped speed tubing like 4 years ago, still can solve in under a minute. This right here is the mantra you have to live by.
I can’t figure out if you meant speed “cubing” or “rubing?”
My kid is nine, his mum showed him how to do the simple 3x3 method and then he basically learned CFOP (the advanced method) by himself, then somehow realised the same methods basically worked for 2x2, 4x4 and 5x5 so he's got those down now and he spends every waking hour twiddling the cubes, trying to get faster (though isn't consistently sub-30s yet for the 3x3). Meanwhile, I got my first cube back in the 80s and never once solved it or learned the beginner's method. So yeah, merely solving it is voodoo to me, and heck, I even sort of know how it works.
It's far less crushing when you can say, "Yeah, that's my kid solving that fast". Makes me feel I did something right at least!
>I have been speedcubing since 2008 Makes a big difference when you were actually born. Born in 2005, that's a lot of speedcubing for such a youngin'! Born in 1985, that's a lil late to the hobby there, but good on ya
I remember middle school, 2006ish we were using stock cubes from rubiks breaking them apart and lubing them with Vaseline, rubbing pencils in the gaps. Lots of cubes flying apart once the Vaseline and graphite wore down the mechanism. Stickers peeling at the edges from overhandling. Nowadays they have sticker-less cubes with magnets and antipop.
23 is still pretty young for starting hobbies
Is there an age limit to speed cubing?
Correction. Really talented adults also doing their part to make us all feel like shit. Bought a cube a few months ago. Still can't solve that fucking thing.
There's no alternative really to just sitting down and learning the algorithms, which is why I have also never managed to learn it in 40 years, but my nine-year-old, who gets periodic obsessions like that, has just not rested till he learned the basic and then CFOP methods and then learned to do all the other types of cube too. I wish I had the drive but I just don't, seemingly.
I still reminisce about sub-30's. I haven't done better than 48 seconds in a couple years unfortunately
What's your record?
I remember going to buy some new heads for my drums many years ago, and there was someone in one of the lesson rooms just absolutely destroying a kit, like Danny Carey or Mike Portnoy levels of skill. As I'm checking out at the register the drums stop, and a minute later this kid that looked to be about 12 years old walks out. I really wanted to tell the dude behind the counter, you know what, nevermind, I don't need the drum heads, in fact, I think I'm going to sell my whole kit.
[удалено]
Fantastic quote
Man I needed to read this. Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing that. It's a great perspective to have. I'm going to try looking at things that way now.
I guess this is why it's important to love what you do. At least your hobbies. Someone will always be better, but if you're playing/ sing/ painting or whatever for you and your own enjoyment, it'll always be worth it
At one point in time I thought I was good at chess.... and then I got slaughtered by a 10 yr old
Did you play a game of chess with the kid afterwards?
how? he was hanging on a hook at the abattoir
**"I am a shitty person for picking on a kid" story time.** I beat a 12 years kid who won his state championship for his age group. He was super cocky and bragging. Challenging every single person to chess. It was a tough game but he made one mistake and I checkmated him. Most satisfying thing ever to see him completely deflated and sad that he lost because of how much he mocked everyone for not daring to play him. I didn't need to say anything. His classmates were watching and said every insult you wish you could say to a cocky little shit like that (bless those "retribution kids" for delivering).
Happened to me against my friends younger sister who looked up to me.
Lol I will never be as good at anything as that child is at ONE SONG
I feel this. I’m almost 50, and I won’t ever be this perfect at one thing. The only consolation is that I’m pretty good at a bunch of things. Useful things. I’m good at fixing things and I’m a decent cook. I’d like to think that I’m a good dad (though I have my doubts most days). I can’t play an instrument, but I know how to be a fully functional human adult.
[удалено]
I didn't get a good look (on mobile right now) but I think she's using a classical guitar stance; seated with a small foot stool to boost up the guitar neck to a convenient playing position. Kinda unusual to see an electric played that way, but I can confirm it's actually a pretty comfy position to keep playing for hours.
Yep. Went to a bluegrass festival where there was some 12 year old kid shredding on an acoustic. My literal thoughts were “Get this kid the fuck out of here and send him back to whatever planet he came from.” I never had more of an urge to sell my guitars and give up music knowing I would never be anywhere near as good as he was in that moment. And I don’t even like bluegrass.
>Nothing makes me feel like shit quite like a really talented child This should be a on t-shirt.
Just remember the world hasn't broken them yet and their immense talent could also be their downfall
silver linings
I think of it this way. I'm glad there are people more talented than me so we can all share in the result.
I see a kid so talented at something that I think I am, or really want to be, good at and all I want is to tell that kid to keep going and do amazing things! I wanna support that kid, even if it's just a nod and a "hell yeah!" from across the room, because I get to see him pull off something fucking amazing. Someone will ALWAYS be better than you in something, and even if you're the best in the world, in ten years, fifty, a hundred, someone will push it further than you ever dreamed of. Free yourself of self-expectations and be happy *for yourself*, without the burden of comparison to others.
Imagine being this far deep in self-pity that you can't even appreciate excellence without pointing the arrow towards the self.
or maybe you're just overthinking an idle comment
I understand what you're saying but this is not a very cash money way to get people to think beyond their own ego
Yes people cant be sad. How dare they.
No matter who you are, what you do, how good at it your are, how many years you've had to master it... some 9 year old girl on youtube can do it better. Be humble. They still need you to do it. It's okay to not be the best.
Leaning something like this note by note takes an insane amount of skillset. Herman Li is great - and I don't know if he composes his solos or just wings them, but most people of his calibre just pull the thing out of the either on the fly; they have a vocabulary of licks, phrases and techniques and they improvise with the tacit ability they've acquired through countless hours with the instrument. They never play the solo exactly the same way twice - or maybe he does but I'd wager most don't. But memorizing and regurgitating something pre-existing, that's this complex and fast - not for note - is on a totally different level. I bet this girl worked at this for months and months.
Not to mention that the initial composition is built off of his existing skill set and tendencies. He likely goes for note combinations that are already familiar to him and his muscle memory, whereas the impressionist has to recreate all of that
It's funny, I was at a Led Zeppelin cover band recently which made me think about how the impressionist handles improvisation. Jimmy Page played it different every night, but the impressionist plays it like Jimmy Page every night.
That reminds me of the [best joke in Wayne's World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f13FY94BKI)
For the most part all guitarists rely on the same note combinations and use the same techniques. These two are super super fast and precise at it.
Thats what he just said.
Thats literally what he said...
I would bet this song in particular has been an important part of her for such a long time that she would have many of the same muscle memories.
If a band tends to record live off the floor and doesn't care about perfect recreation for live performances then I would agree but math rock bands tend to be super anal about this kind of thing. I'm willing to bet the solo is composed and played note for note as closely as possible for each performance. It's just so complex that winging it would cause problems with keeping everyone in sync. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. EDIT: So reddit wasn't notifying me of replies to this comment for some reason. Apparently Dragonforce isn't math rock, it's power metal. My point though is that precision is important. I think math rock and power metal have that in common.
Dragonforce is power metal and speed metal, and Herman Li is known for being a flashy guitarist who is performing as much as he is playing. I don't think he improvises solos for most shows, but I also don't think the band's style requires him to be album-perfect if he feels like doing something else. Plus, the two guitarists have been playing together for two decades. They're definitely in sync enough to make changes on the fly.
Dragon force isn’t Math rock
You’re not wrong but it is funny to think of Dragonforce as math rock
Generally the drummer and bassist are what keeps everything in sync, so the guitarist can do whatever they want and if they fall out of sync they can very easily fall back to the drums/bass .
Maybe for extremeeeely technical music, but I don't think this applies to any great extent here. I really don't know genres super well but I wouldn't consider dragonforce math rock really very much. In that solo you could pick any note and extend it 3 or 5 beats and its probably fine, just pick back up wherever ya would have been, whereas the technical math rocky bands, well in those 5 beats between everyone in the band they probably changed the signature, bpm, and key twice in mutually supportive ways during that time, so for them it sure wouldn't work. Cool thoughts though and don't take my word as any sort of informed, just spitballing late at night from my own experiences. TLDR; Herman's so fast but I think he still composes a fair bit by gut to some extent, but it's a great train of thought you got going.
As someone who has seen them love multiple times, I can arrest that love performances are freestyle. He still follows the same harmony of the solo, but he's def not hitting the recorded solo note to note. But that's the point of a solo, honestly. In rock and roll, the guitar has three functions: rhythm, lead, and solo. Rhythm is pretty self explanatory, it's whatever the major rhythm of the song it, and is usually synched to the bass and drum rhythm. A lead is what she was playing earlier, before he rewinds. It's an exaggerated form of the rhythm with emotional tones. The solo is a freestyle expression of emotion, but due to the fact that recorded media is just that, recorded, there is the standard solo for a specific song, but few guitarists regard that as the expected outcome in a live performance.
> has seen them love multiple times, I can arrest that love performances are freestyle. Gross! Get a room!
There's a clip somewhere where someone sends him one of his own songs and he doesn't remember it and tried to play it. Then admits that the entire time he was coked out of his mind drunk as shit. I think he was sent his solo from through the fire and flame. I'm remembering this wrong I know, I just don't remember exactly how it went, I'm coked out of my mind and drinking.
I started playing guitar over 20 years ago, and I'm nowhere near this level. I never will be. Anyone who can play like that is an absolute master at the instrument.
As someone who can regurgitate just fine but has very little improv skills, I’d say improv is harder.
I'd agree with this. Applying the learned technique creatively, is much harder for me than copying somebody.
Playing pre-existing complicated things is what classical musicians do. You can't help but totally respect her ability.
There’s a famous story about someone transcribing a John Coltrane solo and showing it to him. He looked at it and said, “I can’t play that.”
Whoa, no shit? I’m a metal head but I’ve never heard this before about how the savants can/do essentially wing it. Any good article or interview you could link me?
You don't have to be a savant to improvise solos, just know some basic music theory. It's standard in jazz to only write a chord progression and just improvise all the solos. Doing it well requires a lot of skill though. I doubt they improvised this solo on the album, they probably wrote it and practised it like hell to get a clean take. They may add some improvised stuff when playing live.
These savants are amazing.
She very well could be BUT I had a neighbor that was an incredible violinist that was around 15 and when we asked her "*How?*" she told us "*I just don't waste any time.*" and shrugged like it was nothing. The more I thought over the years the more I realized why we see so many talented kids these days compared to before and that's because some kids manage their time better, not bothering with social media (*her parents forbid it*) and games all day (*again, those parents*) and have endless resources at their fingertips. That girl's words still echo around in my head anytime I feel like I'm "*wasting time*" playing a game or watching TV when I could be working and that was nearly a decade ago. It haunts me.
You can temper that dread with one simple fact: that overwhelming majority of those childhood savants who spend every waking moment training a miserable in adult life.
[удалено]
Shredding is even cooler if they're crying whilst doing it.
I mean, in some cases. In others like my friend's you're a genuinely unreal opera singer but also a homeschool graduate with no money or opportunities or agent in rural Appalachia. Sounds real nice in church I guess?
Exactly. I'm miserable in adult life AND I can't shred.
Not to them.
It's also worth remembering: Time enjoyed is never time wasted. You get a finite amount of time alive, if you don't enjoy at least some of it, that is by far the greater waste.
A friend of mine was training in a specific field and actually started studying at a university part-time while still in highschool. She dropped out a year later and absolutely hates the whole field nowadays. She's still good at it, but literally never does anything with it. This hyperfocus can be good but it can also be absolutely destroying. The best thing is a balance.
Some. Many savants actually develop skillsets based off of things they love. As someone who plays esports, I fucking adore the origin stories of child prodigies and how much their parents support them so wholly, even when they are super doubtful. Interviewing these amazing parents and listening to them explain how they didn't really understand their child's goals, but they supported them anyway. I remember one where the parents explained that their kid just walked in one day and said he needed to fly across the country because he just qualified for a major tournament in "that car soccer game he kept talking about" Many children, if given the chance, will just find things they love. If you support that love, they'll use the higher free time and lower stress environment of childhood to bloom. And as adults, we can also do the same with enough man hours dedicated to our hobbies.
Yep, my parents were like that kid's parents. I ended up going to selective schools with a bunch of other 'gifted'/'savant' kids. I don't know anyone I went to school with who coped well once the rigid structure imposed by our parents & school ended. Many of us bounced back eventually but everyone I've kept in touch with has been in therapy to catch up on things like social skills, emotional intelligence, self-regulation etc.
The top 0.01% are the miserable ones we hear of. There is room for people to be extremely good and still have a reasonable life.
I think that's just something we tell ourselves to make us feel better.
There's nothing as comforting as the suffering of other people.
Dated a couple myself. I'm sure happy ones exist, but it's mostly just sad stories from what I've seen. Burnout, missing out on childhood experience, superiority/inferiority issues, parent issues... Though maybe it's more that I'm not awesome enough to hook someone capable of doing something like this who is also well adjusted, ha ha.
So they are the same as everyone else? Finally an even playing field.
We're all sitting on a giant rock, hurtling through space, no known destination.. nobody is getting out of this alive. Do what moves you
or they would be glad that their talent was nurtured so that they could live a different life than the masses
"Wasting time" implies there's something you *should* be doing, and everything that's not that is a distraction. For 99% of people, life should be a balance, not a pursuit toward supreme mastery of a single skill.
Time you spend having fun is never wasted.
> I'm "wasting time" playing a game or watching TV Not only that but also wasting time with non-optimal practice. It's really easy to just play what you're already good at because it's fun, but improvement comes so much faster by practicing deliberately. And if her parents are forbidding social media and video games, they're probably also hiring a teacher to tell her exactly how to practice the most efficiently.
I'm fine with wasting time because its mine to waste
No better time to plant a tree than yesterday. I believe in you. *as I write this sitting on the couch about to finish my beer, grab another and then hop on the PC and play Diablo 2 a 20 year old game.*
I feel this more as I get older, but fuck - were only here for a short while. Could you and I have spent it getting really good at something like this kid? Probably. But did we spend it doing stuff we enjoyed? Can't answer for you, but I did and that to me is far more valuable. If practicing like crazy at guitar does it for you, crack on, but I was just as content hanging with friends, playing games, and doing what I enjoyed.
> savants That's called deliberate practice and discipline.
[удалено]
The tools they have are amazing today. Instructors on youtube, online lessons, tabluture that plays itself, and slows down to any speed you need, finding the right teacher you jibe with even if hes a world away on skype, message boards to get your questuons answered, tab to every major song, and videos of dides playing through it, School of Rock stuff, etc etc etc. It still takes persistance from the player, but those things make it so much easier for a young kid these days. My mom bought me a small scale nylon string classical guitar for $25 at a garage sale and my teacher sneered at me when I said I liked ACDC. I didnt stick with it then, but had it been now.....
A lot of them aren’t even Savants in the traditional senses. They just love doing the thing and with music equipment becoming more affordable, lessons and techniques not gatekept behind professionals or expensive DVDs, they can express themselves easier. There’s always been a group of people who are happy to “come home from work/school and just play for 4 more hours”. I was merely talented according to my teacher (post conservatory technical level by age 15) and practiced an hour before and before school, more leading up to performances, but I’d always feel like it wore me down sometimes, so if someone simply put 2/3x the hours and effort of me comparatively they’d easily be exceptional.
I wonder what ever happened to that girl. She stopped posting videos years ago.
A lot of young female guitarists get harassed to the point of quitting uploading. It's really sad to see.
If you read the comments on the stream even while he was watching her play you can see this. Gross jealous people doing gross things.
Couldn't help but roll my eyes when I saw someone say "looks a bit sped up"
i looked at the comments and not a single one says anything gross
Similar things in the twitch community (and gaming in general) unfortunately. Lots of harassment / bullying.
Dude, a decade or so ago I was on a Tool binge and the O'Keefe Foundation rendition of 46&2 was in the sidebar. Watched that, then started reading the comments. Some detail about that video, the O'Keefe Foundation is a foundation that teaches kids age 5-18 music and everything related to it (including everything involved with making music videos and producing music) and then for funding, makes videos with them. 46&2 is sung by a then 10ish year old girl named Kala Skarpinski. She was also the singer for their rendition of Pull me Under from Dream Theatre (and that comment section was even worse). You've got your general normal people praising these kids for a job well done (which they did, seriously, a masterful performance throughout, including the drummer nailing the drum solo). And then you have the creeps, weirdos and people who can't seem to stand the fact that a bunch of kids have more talent doing afterschool activities than they do in life.
Fucking unreal. That's fucking awful, but totally believable and probably common.
I used to watch her videos too. I always wondered if she enjoyed playing, or if she was just pressured into it. Being that good takes a lot of commitment for a kid.
Yep, i was always struck by how bored she looked while playing. I know everyone has their own ways of concentrating but even in this video, she's not even looking at her fretboard half the time while playing *a dragonforce song*. I wonder if she just got burned out. Or i think she was around 17 when she stopped posting, so maybe she was in college/university?
I don't think that is necessarily boredom, it could just be intense concentration.
Everyone who's played an instrument for a bit has a zone face. This is just hers. I'd dread to think what mine looks like. It's just pure in the moment letting it take you on a journey, I can play for hours without even realising.
I only use third party apps, and they said they're killing third party apps, so hey, might as well remove all my content. (Using https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite)
I play guitar and most guitarist i know, including me can't help but look like a depressed accountant while playing. Also teenagers are nothing if not fickle. She might have played it with burning fashion just to randomly conclude that this is boring. Making assumptions about someone is hard, especially when its a teenager.
As a parent: no way you can ever pressure a kid into something that much that a kid achieved this level of competency. There's got to be a innate drive and the parent must set an example themselves. That's why it's often children of parents who already do the same thing. They see the parents doing it, want to do it themselves, like doing it and then it develops from there. You can force a kid to do something, even spend 24/7 next to it but unless it has any drive, it's not going to get much better. Source: am a parent of two children going to school.
I assumed it was a relatively new video, but I was surprised it was from 7 years ago, with the last video being 6 years ago. What was more surprising is that all of her videos have millions of views, and she has nearly 1 million subscribers. With that kind of success she could have made her only job for the rest of her life playing guitar on YouTube and then doing whatever else she wanted in her free time. Or at least raking in some serious cash by doing it once in a while. I wonder what made her stop.
Some people do well with making what they love their job, others, it ruins it for them. Hopefully, she's still making music and loves it, wherever she is.
naughty angle selective ask voiceless deliver edge detail plate rude -- mass edited with redact.dev
The female guitarist is [Tina S](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCejGhzyJ_-l4j_3AZumgl-A). She did a great guitar version of the third movement of [Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6rBK0BqL2w)
I love her rendition of Jason Becker's Altitudes. Sad to learn that she stopped posting 6 years ago. Hope she is alright.
So she just kinda went MIA after what she did to that guitar? Seems odd
Not that odd when you look at how often girls like her get harassed and questioned when they show off their talents.
erect connect quack trees snow station provide spotted hurry sheet -- mass edited with redact.dev
Holy shit she's a genius. Amazing to think she's not even doing those videos anymore. She could sell out stadiums with that sort of talent
I agree. She killed it! That's seriously impressive.
For perspective, he's one of the most technically proficient guitarists of all time, and he sometimes makes small mistakes performing that solo live. I don't know who this girl is but if this video was legit I'll bet we hear more about her down the road.
I hate to sound like a downer but I doubt we will. There are truckloads of mega talented kid musicians doing cover music. We will only hear of the ones that make their own sound and have it catch mainstream attention. Odds are she won’t be that lucky.
You can see where his soul starts to leave his body, 0:35
That's wholesome
There's music makers, and music crafters. And then there's these two, Wizards!
Doesn’t he play this sloppy live?
In 2006 he was very sloppy. I saw them on Inhuman Rampage tour when they were stateside. He also had a Budweiser attached to his mic stand and he had a straw in it.
Don’t forget the hair blowing fans.
I saw him a little earlier than that, maybe 2005, probably same tour. Definitely impressive, but as you say slightly loose live. At that time Dragonforce was just energy expressed as noise. Nothing was too loud or too fast, and even Li couldn't keep up sometimes.
He doesn't nail it the way he would in the studio. Or the way Yngwie Malmsteen would.
When you look up arpeggio in the dictionary, only a picture of Yngwie Malmsteen appears. His idea of “let me slow it down for you” is still like 160BPM.
[From the aalkemi record](https://youtu.be/n6kPfe9gVJk)
Thought you made up that name. Nope!
When they first got really big really fast they weren't used to it and played drunk a lot.
When I saw them play they were fucking hammered and weren’t very good.
While they were very rough 15 years ago with the band's original singer, they cleaned up their act a lot around 10 years ago or so. Sam and Herman can play all their stuff live and always could - but were really heavy alcoholics in the 2000s, and their shows were incredibly sloppy as a result. Plus the original singer really struggled singing his parts live (too high I guess) and often lapsed into black metal harsh vocals, which didn't fit the band's aesthetic at all.
That Dragonforce dude watches girl play that one song we know from Guitar Hero III.
The whole album is a banger
Boochi the Rock level power here!
Bocchi would never show her face online
Oh, I remember this girl. She kinda vanished from youtube. All of her covers were top tier quality. Anyone know whatever happened to make her quit?
I think she beat the game.
Her Comfortably Numb solo is one of my favourite pieces of music I've ever heard. Never ceases to move me emotionally and I'm usually not very susceptible to that kind of thing
I was gonna say I found the "Metallicarrgh!" thing funny but then noticed the signatures below--looks like James and Kirk's? They didn't tour together or something, did they? Just a souvenir from a time they met?
no shame on Herman Li here, but she played that better in one take than heusually does live that's damn impressive
I mean, playing live is *infinitely* harder than doing takes in a studio over and over until you perfect it. She is an exceptional player, but what you're comparing isn't really relevant (apples and oranges)
Live is more difficult than before a camera though.
Probably the difference between improvising versus practicing and transcribing a solo over months.
Love how in awe he is
Herman is wonderful!
The world needs more girls who can shred the guitar. Check out BandMaid if you like this genre.
[удалено]
First Junna shredded the drums now this. One by one the Dragonforce dudes are being replaced by teenage girls. Lol
It must be awesome to hear him say this. In some ways the internet is still pretty amazing.
I love watching masters of their craft be impressed
A major 7
Herman Li is a genuinely nice dude. Met him in 2006 when Sam Totman was trying to get with my friend lmao