DragonForce San Diego fans get first crack at the band’s biggest North American run in more than two decades. The Inhuman Rampage 20th Anniversary Tour opens Friday, Nov. 13, at The Observatory North Park with Ensiferum and Rhapsody of Fire, per the band’s tour announcement. If you’ve been sitting on tickets, stop. The band posted on X Friday that San Diego and Montreal are down to low tickets, “with more incoming.”
It’s night one of 22 cities. The tour hits House of Blues Anaheim on Saturday, Nov. 14, and wraps at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on Dec. 13.
DragonForce San Diego show details
- Date: Friday, Nov. 13, 2026
- Venue: The Observatory North Park, 2891 University Ave., San Diego
- Lineup: DragonForce, Ensiferum, Rhapsody of Fire
- Times: Doors 6:30 p.m., show 7:30 p.m., per the Live Nation listing, which notes all times and supporting acts are subject to change
- Ages: All ages welcome, per the listing
- Tickets: On sale now through Live Nation/Ticketmaster. Prices weren’t shown on the official listing we checked
First time at the room? Our Observatory North Park venue spotlight has the lay of the land.
Who’s fronting DragonForce now
This is a new-look DragonForce. In May the band announced Alissa White-Gluz as its new vocalist and first frontwoman. She’s known for her work with The Agonist, Kamelot, Arch Enemy and her own Blue Medusa. In the tour announcement she said she’s seen DragonForce in concert “multiple times over the last 20 years” as a fan. Her first shows with the band were Welcome To Rockville on May 9 and Sonic Temple on May 17.
Then came a second change. On Sept. 19 the band said Marc Hudson is stepping back for now from the new album and the 2026/2027 touring plans because of an ongoing issue with tinnitus. He’ll stay involved behind the scenes. Alessio Garavello, a longtime friend of the band, Hudson’s former vocal coach and the onetime Power Quest singer, takes the male vocals alongside White-Gluz. The band page also lists Herman Li and Sam Totman on guitars, Gee Anzalone on drums, Alicia Vigil on bass and Billy Wilkins on live backing vocals and guitar.
Protecting his hearing isn’t something we’d ever ask him to compromise on. We’d much rather have him healthy and with us for the long haul than push through now and risk that.
Herman Li, via dragonforce.com
New songs in the set
The tour announcement promises hits from Inhuman Rampage and “an early taste” of the next record. That record is now official. DragonForce’s tenth studio album, the self-titled “DragonForce,” is out March 19, 2027, on Napalm Records. Jens Bogren produced it, and “Hunger of the Beast” is the first single, written for White-Gluz and Garavello’s two-voice attack. No setlist has been posted, so don’t bet the parking money on which new songs make it.
Inhuman Rampage at 20
Inhuman Rampage is the album that gave the world “Through the Fire and Flames,” the notoriously unbeatable final boss of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as the band’s own bio puts it. Per the band, the album went Gold, the song went Platinum, and the record spent 23 weeks on the Billboard 200.
The exact birthday depends on who you ask. The band’s discography page gives a release date of Dec. 28, 2005, which was the Japanese release. Its bio and tour press call it a 2006 album, and Wikipedia dates the Roadrunner release outside Japan to Jan. 9, 2006. Either way, the anniversary math works for a fall 2026 tour. Li’s pitch for it: the band will “honor what made Inhuman Rampage matter, while showing people exactly where we’re going next.”
The 2005 lineup was ZP Theart, Li, Totman, Vadim Pruzhanov and Dave Mackintosh. Li and Totman, who founded the band in London in 1999, are the two still in it, so two of the guys who built that record will be playing it on University Avenue.
Ensiferum and Rhapsody of Fire
Two big names open, and they aren’t filler. Finland’s Ensiferum bring the folk metal battle hymns. Metal Blade had them headlining North America with Firewind in September, and they were last on our radar when they brought Folkfest of the North to San Diego with Korpiklaani. Italy’s Rhapsody of Fire are symphonic power metal lifers, which makes this a three-band power metal bill you rarely get in a room this size.
Can’t make the DragonForce San Diego date?
Anaheim is the next night, and The Wiltern closes the run on Dec. 13. If you just need some volume before then, Nekrogoblikon headline House of Blues on Tuesday, and Demon Hunter play House of Blues on Thursday.
Raymond Melendez
