The Power Within

Overview

On 2 February 2012, the band revealed details about their forthcoming album on their Facebook page and later on the official website. They released the album cover, track listing and release date. It was also announced that four different editions of the album would be released: CD, digital download, LP and a limited edition box set, although as of September 2014 the album is unavailable for digital download with no explanation given by any member of the band.

Herman Li stated:

The last two years have been the most fun we ever had making an album. Through writing, jamming and touring together, we have built this incredible energy and it has been fully captured on the new album. This time around we've really brought our metal side to the surface and made some of the best music of our career. From the fastest song we've ever recorded to the slower songs, and some things you would never expect from us, this is by far the most diverse DragonForce album yet." Li added, "This is an exciting new era for DragonForce with Marc joining the band, so we figured this was an ideal time to take full control of our own destiny and establish our own record label for Europe. It's all hands on deck running it, but a great buzz!"

This album also marks a turning point on Dragonforce lyrics, making them less related to fantasy and exploring other subjects.

On 18 February 2012, the track "Fallen World" was streamed free on Metal Hammer's website. The song later became a free downloadable track on 8 March 2012. At 220 beats per minute (bpm), it was the fastest song ever released by DragonForce and it held this title until 18 August 2014, when the band's sixth album Maximum Overload was released with the track "The Game", which is even faster (235 bpm).

On 30 March 2012, the track "Cry Thunder" was streamed free on RCRDLBL's website via SoundCloud by the band's North American label, Roadrunner Records. However, the download function of SoundCloud was disabled.

On 29 March 2012, the music video for "Cry Thunder" was released on DragonForce's YouTube account. On 3 April 2012, a music video for the song was shown on www.noisecreep.com and made available to download via iTunes.

Another music video was released on 14 September 2012 for the song "Seasons". It featured scenes from the album recording, live and backstage performances and behind the scenes footage of the "Cry Thunder" video shoot.

Reception

Upon release, The Power Within has received positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 5 reviews. However, the album sold 5,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at No. 74 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as opposed to their previous album, Ultra Beatdown, which opened at No. 18 with first week sales of 24,000 back in September 2008.

Personnel

Additional musicians