The fact that the lead singer bears an unfortunate resemblance to "Weird Al" Yankovic actually doesn't help me

After playing -- well, attempting to play -- DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames" on Guitar Hero III, I started to wonder how legitimate the band was. Was this a band making music that was actually supposed to be serious? Or were they a satirical effort, a sort of speed metal Spinal Tap? I downloaded the song and listened to it many times, and came no closer to understanding. What am I to make of lyrics like:

Now here we stand with their blood on our hands
We've fought so hard, now can we understand?
I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can
For freedom of every man!

So far away, we wait for the day
For the light source so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames we carry on!

Are they for real? Were they actually trying to capture the emotion of some sort of epic battle? Or are they making fun of all the other bands who write songs just like this? Surely, the redundancy of saying that they'll carry on through the fire and through the flames is a gag, right? What about the cartoonishly flashy guitar work -- that kind of fingertip gymnastics couldn't possibly be taken seriously. Could it?

I found the video on YouTube, and I'm now less sure.



The close-ups of the fingers for the solos? Close-ups that appear to have been sped up? This can't be serious. Can it?

You tell me.

[The lyric I quoted isn't in that video, of course -- that version of the song is half as long as the better (?) full version, featured in the game. Which you can see here:



Yeah, I still have no idea.]

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Now playing: Chrono Trigger - Tyrano Lair
via FoxyTunes