DragonForce The Power Within 2012

DragonForce is one of that few (power) metal band that talked loud outside our little shell of world. Even my 10 years nephew listen to them, one day I was on a check in desk in the airport of Jakarta and the very ordinary ticketing girl played “Through the Fire and Flames” with her phone. This achievement is in a good sense. In such fortune situation , there were also exist those who constantly opposed their achievement. Most because of their extreme fast song that raise doubt on their technical ability. But by the time tells, they need no such fancy tricks as they are all authentically hand created music. With this I like the band even more as they survive the hardest doubt in the industry and keep metal on.

The Power Within is their next offering for 2012. The issue on this album is, DragonForce parted way with original singer ZP and their replacement is dude Marc Hudson. Hudson’s character is closely match the original one and this let the album experience only slight tuning for old time listener. As usual duo Herman Li Kan Ming and Sam Totman is the one of the feature here.

The first track Holding On is sort of introduction to the new singer. The music from this point is exactly what we know about Dragonforce. Not much surprises. Those who expected a shredding show along a catchy, chessy, crunchy power metal song need not to worry. The two following songs Fallen World and Cry Thunder are easily to spot as their main menu in this album. In fact, Cry Thunder had been release prior and serve as their great mouthwatering track. Surprise, this is a song where they not doing a 300bpm double bass drum, they sounds really nice in Cry Thunder. There is also a live version of Cry Thunder in the vinyl version for comparison. DragonForce understand that some other menu need to be spice in. Wings of Liberty, Last Man Stands and the acoustic version of Season are the bits need to remedy the ear. The bottom track actually calm down most of the atmosphere and telling that all previous metal is enough. The last sort of epilogue done by instrumental track Avant La Tempete. Closing in another DragonForce chapter.

Accompanied keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov and drummer Dave Mackintosh are among the most technical personil within to support the DragonForce madness. Together of course the bassist Frederic Leclercq who sometimes stealth in on his lower frequency. So there we still got the dragon slaying song with Mario Bros licks. Awesome and enjoyful album by DragonForce.

Updated: DragonForce has release a video about "The Making of The Power Within", it is a three episodes Youtube video, you can watch it from Episode One here.

Metal Harem class: ********* 9 stars out of 10

DragonForce - The Power Within 2012
buy it from Amazon HERE

1. "Holding On" 4:56
2. "Fallen World" 4:09
3. "Cry Thunder" 5:17
4. "Give Me the Night" 4:29
5. "Wings of Liberty" 7:22
6. "Seasons" 5:05
7. "Heart of the Storm" 4:44
8. "Die by the Sword" 4:26
9. "Last Man Stands" 5:12
10. "Seasons (Acoustic Version)" 4:26

 Digital and vinyl bonus tracks
1. "Cry Thunder (Live Rehearsal)" 5:13
2. "Heart of the Storm (Alternative Chorus Version)" 4:41
3. "Avant La Tempête (Instrumental)" 2:01

The Power Within Cover ARt and graphic design