Sam Totman

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Sam Totman

Sam Totman is one of the lead and rhythm guitarists from the power metal band DragonForce. Totman was born in England, but moved to New Zealand at an early age. He began playing classical guitars at the age of nine, receiving formal training for many years. He took part in three bands of very different styles before joining DragonForce.

Totman is the writer of many of the songs from DragonForce and was an active member of Power Quest for some time. He was also in a band called Demoniac which laterally featured his future DragonForce guitar partner Herman Li. During his time with Demoniac, Sam was usually referred to as Heimdall. Demoniac struggled to make any real progress despite releasing three albums and re-locating to London. Due to this, Demoniac split sometime in late 1999, shortly after the album The Fire and the Wind was released.

Totman is also widely known as a frequent drinker, and is typically seen either drunk, or getting drunk (even while playing live). He has received criticism from some fans of DragonForce for his occasionally-erratic performances onstage; such fans argue that drunkenness negatively affects his playing skills. He also is usually the butt of good humoured jokes by the other members of DragonForce during live performances.

Sam is best known for playing Jackson guitars, most notably the RR3 or RR1T. He also plays Ibanez's including his custom made V-Blade VBT700, as well as his Iceman IC400. He is not endorsed by Ibanez or Jackson.

Totman is the primary songwriter of DragonForce, writing both music and lyrics for a majority of their discography.