DragonForce - The Power Within

DragonForce are back with their fifth full-length album The Power Within, which is the follow up to 2008’s Ultra Beatdown. The Power Within features Marc Hudson on vocals, who replaces vocalist ZP Theart. This album is different from previous DragonForce albums for two reasons one being the new addition of Marc Hudson who is a much more capable vocalist than his predecessor and the other being a change in the DragonForce writing formula. The Power Within contains some of the shortest songs they have ever done and the songs are not all in the super-fast tempo that is expected from DragonForce.

DragonForce are viewed by many detractors as the ACDC of power metal, in that “all their songs sound the same” and The Power Within completely demolishes that statement, which is always made about them. The album does features songs that sound like DragonForce of old such as  Die By The Sword and Fallen World, but the album also features songs that completely unexpected when listening to a DragonForce album, such as Cry Thunder and both Seasons. There is also an acoustic version of Seasons along, which is amazing and is a first for DragonForce. 

The Power Within is a great album that is packed full of amazing songs. I can only hope that DragonForce continues with the direction they went for The Power Within on their next album because it is the best DragonForce album yet and is sure to only establish them as one of the best power metal bands today. Go and get this album, you won’t be disappointed. 

South Park - Butters Stotch "The Inner Child"

This blog post is different than the others have been so far because I wanted to write about a TV character who we could all relate to and here he is, hope you enjoy it. “Butters” Stotch is one of the most relatable characters in South Park and he represents a never-ending innocence, unlike every other character in the show. Butters is a typical happy-go-lucky child and that’s relatable because we were all once like that and in some ways Butters also represents our inner child. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaT1_-VtkaQ

Butters is the typical good natured, cheerful, optimistic child. Butters never swears he uses other phrases such as “oh hamburgers” because he is always anxious that he will get in trouble if he does anything that he sees as even remotely wrong. We can relate to this because when we were younger we would never swear out of fear that we would get in trouble. Butters is always cheerful and a happy child who just loves life and enjoys every minute of it, which we all were. Butters is extremely optimistic, the littlest things in life excite him such as going to eat at a restaurant. All kids get really excited and optimistic from the simple things, which is why it is so easy to relate Butters.

Butters has a huge imagination and all of his playtime activities consist of characters he has created for himself or putting himself into unique places where he can have fun. Butters creates characters for himself such as Inspector Butters, Big Rig Butters, Professor Chaos and many other characters. Butters also likes to sing and make up songs when he is having fun or doing anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tll8k9QHnX4

This is relatable to us because we have all come up with our own characters when we were having our playtime and put ourselves in unique situations. Even as we get older we often use our imagination to see ourselves in situations we are not normally in. We can all relate to Butters because no matter what age we are, we always using our imaginations in unique ways.

Butters is relatable to us because when we see him using his imagination or see how optimistic he is, it reminds of when we were younger and also Butters represents our inner child who is innocent and good natured, which is why he is such a great character.

WWE Wrestlemania 28 - Once in a Lifetime

Wrestlemania 28 has come and gone, it was being called the biggest Wrestlemania ever, but is this true? I can tell you that that’s not entirely true, but it could have been much better than it was. So here we go, sit back and let’s see what went right and wrong with Wrestlemania 28.

The show opened with The World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan taking on Sheamus. These two superstars were scheduled to face each other last year but the match never made the show and this year, what happened was only slightly better than that. This match was a total of 18 seconds and Sheamus is the new World Heavyweight Champion. This match could have been great but for some reason it was only 18 seconds and not a good way to start the show.

Randy Orton vs. Kane was up next and surprisingly this match was actually pretty good. The match started out slow but eventually picked up the pace and Kane won with a Chokeslam off of the second rope, which was pretty cool. The Big Show then defeated Cody Rhoades to become the new Intercontinental Champion in a pretty short match that was nothing special. Up next was the washroom break known as the Divas tag-team match Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos defeated Beth Phoenix and Eve Torres.  

Up next was the Hell in a Cell with Triple H taking on The Undertaker with a new hair due with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. This match started off as a great brawl between the two veterans but once Triple started beating The Undertaker with the steel chair it pretty much went downhill from there. Like past Wrestlemania matches featuring The Undertaker, they tried to add too drama to this match and it just kept going and going and the match felt like it was an hour long. Triple H and The Undertaker had a better match last year and this one almost bored me to tears like a crying Shawn Michaels.  Undertaker wins 20-0, like expected let’s hope these two don’t wrestle each other anymore.

Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy was up next for control over both Raw and Smackdown. Team Johnny consisted of David Otunga, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry and Drew McIntyre with Vickie Guerrero and Brie Bella. Team Teddy consisted of Santino Marella, R-Truth, Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston, Booker T and The Great Khali with Hornswoggle, Aksana, Eve and Nikki Bella. This match was crowded with a few cool moments in it such as the Monkey Flip to Dolph Ziggler and the triple dive over the top rope which was cool. Eve distracted Ryder and The Miz won the match for Team Johnny who now controls Raw and Smackdown. After the match Eve kicked Zack in the balls.

The Best in the World CM Punk vs. The Best in the World at everything he does Chris Jericho. As expected from these two superstars who are fighting over Best in the World supremacy and the WWE Championship, this match was awesome and the match of the night. Lots of cool moments like the Suplex to the outside of the ring, the mid-air Codebreaker and the end of the match where each superstar kept reversing each other’s submission moves. CM Punk won the match when Chris Jericho couldn’t escape from the Anaconda Vice, to retain the WWE Championship.

Once in a lifetime John Cena vs. The Rock was the main event of Wrestlemania 28. I had low expectations for the match itself and I was surprised how good this match really was. John Cena made The Rock look great in this match. I noticed the crowd seemed to only chant towards Cena rather than the hometown Rock, which was a bit odd. John Cena got cocky towards the end of the match and went to hit The Rock with the Peoples Elbow and The Rock hit him with a Rock Bottom and won the match. I don’t think I have ever been mad based on the result of a wrestling match but this really annoyed me. John Cena should have won this match and when The Rock won I smelt what The Rock was cooking and it smelt like horseshit.