Guitar Hero's most difficult song just got a lot more difficult

Trombone Champ
(Image credit: Holy Wow)

If British power metal band DragonForce ends up with an enduring legacy, it'll be for Through the Fire and Flames. Arguably the band's best-known song, it was its appearance on Guitar Hero 3 that cemented its video game fame. Still considered one of the most difficult tracks of the entire series, the ability to flawlessly complete it is regarded as one of the truest marks of Guitar Hero mastery.

Now, however, it's been given a somewhat different sound. Trombone Champ, the indie rhythm game sensation that reared its head last month, allows modders to make their own brass band tracks in addition to its primarily orchestral soundtrack.

With that in mind, Twitter user DerpyChap took it upon themselves to mod Through the Fire and Flames into the game. The result appears near-impossible; the extreme speed of the song's opening section in particular is exceedingly tricky on the inputs of the Guitar Hero controller. Factor in the deliberately finicky analogue controls of Trombone Champ and it's all-but unplayable.

That said, it does get a little easier around the chorus, when DragonForce gives its guitarist a moment to catch a bit of a breath. Somehow, despite its creator's wonky attempts, some of those involved in Trombone Champ's modding communities are managing to rack up impressive scores.

By the end of the song, our unfortunate tromboner is running out of puff, sweat and spit seemingly pouring from their musical efforts. The final bars - most of which are made up with one brass-bendingly long power chord - are so long that the game simply gives up on your behalf, your avatar's lungs drained with the effort of sustaining that mega-note. That might just make this a literally impossible track to perfect, but I'm sure that a few die-hard fans will be rising to the challenge.

Here's why Trombone Champ makes such bad music sound so good.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.