DragonForce - The Power Within (2012)^{Release ID: 9477}

After 4 years in oblivion, DragonForce have made their comeback with what the band believed was their most diverse album yet! With a promise like that, fans were expecting a continuation of the unexpected progressive power of Ultra Beatdown. Yet for this album, The Power Within, the blazing guitar/keyboard solos, catch choruses, and high vocals that are to be expected are all still around. The band maintain their killer streak with some difference in lyrical variety, among other new things...

While I'll dive into more of the different aspects as the review goes on, one thing I should note is the bass sounding audible enough to have its own solos. It's quite incredible! Though the guitars and keyboards never back down from their soloing parts.

The vocals definitely add a whole new dimension to the band sound, as the opening track "Holding On" introduces their new young lead singer Marc Hudson, replacing their earlier vocalist ZP Theart. You can already hear Marc in the intro with an immense power metal scream that might remind some of Michael Kiske in Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. Then the usual power metal comes on with Hudson's vocals. More of his superb scream-singing occurs in "Fallen World", which was their fastest song at that time (220bpm), reminding me of the Sonic Firestorm bonus track "Cry of the Brave". The slower but still epic "Cry Thunder" is one of my favorite DragonForce songs, and my favorite with their new vocalist Marc Hudson! An amazing song worth playing air-guitar until your fingers break and headbanging until you sprain your neck. Its mid-tempo pace (unlike their usual faster songs) reminds me of Irish folk and especially the Skyrim theme. This would fit well for when Thor has his own army to lead him into war and fight. Seriously, it's that awesome!! You can't miss this! It fits well not just for Skyrim or Final Fantasy but also for any MMORPG that has ever existed. I agree with anyone who says this is nice and beautiful. It's really good for when medieval dragons face off against space aliens. An epic hit that has established DragonForce as perhaps greatest modern power metal band ever. Well done, DF! The incredible bass marks an excellent addition before the soloing in "Give Me the Night", which is another of my favorite songs in this album.

"Wings of Liberty" is the longest song in the album at the formerly typical 7 and a half minutes, while all other songs here are each in an average 5 minutes. To be honest, it actually sounds like a wimpy take on their past material and doesn't have that past glory. It sounds really satisfying though. "Seasons" is a more mid-tempo song that sounds inspired by the radio singles of Gamma Ray and Stratovarius, and also borrows some of that slow tempo from Ultra Beatdown. "Heart of the Storm" focuses much less on the screaming side of the vocals, and more towards the cleanliness and aggression of Marc's vocals, specifically in the verses. This shows that his massive vocal range is closer to Kiske than Theart. That's once again proven in the excellent "Die by the Sword". The usual structure can adapt to the changes in the song length. You can still hear the usual guitar riffing fury without sounding so forced despite the shortening. The final actual song in the standard edition, "Last Man Stands" starts cheesy in the intro, but the rest has uplifting catchiness, though I think it could've been extended to a better 8-minute epic than "Wings of Liberty", if they didn't trim so much of the soloing bridge.

All editions of the album have an acoustic version of "Seasons", which is pretty good but takes away the power metal that has made the original song great. It should've been just a special edition bonus track or at least turned into a different original ballad. Either way, that would've increased my percentage rating for this album from 90% to 95% (100% if they save the extension of length for "Last Man Stands" instead of "Wings of Liberty"). The special edition includes a few bonus tracks, starting with the Japanese edition-exclusive "Power of the Ninja Sword", a powerful song that's another track originally recorded by Theart and one of the guitarist Sam Totman for their earlier side-project Shadow Warriors. There's also a live rehearsal version of "Cry Thunder" that does justice to the original song but is still rather pointless. An alternate version of "Heart of the Storm" includes a different chorus with a slight change in the keyboard soloing bridge while still awesome. "Avant La Tempête" is just a useless acoustic instrumental.

I think the production is another thing that needs slight improvement, despite having clear brilliance. While the instruments can be greatly heard, they could've used some real intensity. The 2018 remastered edition would fix some of those issues. Nonetheless, this incredible comeback shows DragonForce has never ceased to amaze me!

Favorites: "Holding On", "Cry Thunder", "Give Me the Night", "Heart of the Storm", "Die by the Sword", "Power of the Ninja Sword", "Heart of the Storm" (alternative version)