Right now I'm enjoying The Script's album. Or at least I was until my PC blew up. Probably the most popular new act I've actually liked for ages.
As for the excuses for Dragonforce's live playing, a bad PA wouldn't make the official recordings sound awful since the PA is passive in those cases. I suspect it's more that they either layer it in the studio or simply run a lot of takes together to get it sounding the way they want. Never heard the non-Guitar Hero version or the live version so I can't really say for sure.