Band:
Fabio Lione – vocal
Luca Turilli – guitar
Dominique Leurquin - guitar
Alex Staropoli – keyboards
Patrice Guers – bass
Alex Holzwarth – drums
Discography:
endary Tales (1997)
Symphony of Enchanted Lands (1998)
Dawn of Victory (2000)
Rain of a Thousand Flames (2001)
Power of the Dragonflame (2002)
Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret (2004)
Triumph or Agony (2006)
Guests:
Christopher Lee - Spoken Album Narrator
Info
Produced by Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli
Engineered and edited by Simon Oberender
Additional engineering and editing by Olaf Reitmeier and Sascha Paeth
Recorded at the Gate Studio (Wolfsburg, Germany) between September and October 2009
Mixed by Sascha Paeth, Mastered by Miro
Released 30/4-2010
Reviewed 7/6-2010
Rhapsody has a history of records about dragons and mighty warriors and of course of trolls and such things, and don’t forget about the magic forests that seems to be around there somewhere.
Musically it is the sound of the small rivers mixed up with guitars, keys, vocals and drums and then we add some symphonies and choirs and then we have what is Rhapsody, or Rhapsody of Fire as they are called nowadays.
I really enjoy the old offerings by Rhapsody, more or less up until Power of the Dragonflame. These records were mad and without common sense which made them fun and good as well. Nowadays they are more or less conventional and polished, the madness i gone and also the production of Sascha Paeth is mostly gone which is sad as maybe it is because of that they are more serious or non-mad.
I am not saying that this new offering is bad, because it is not. But I was expecting a bit more really and also I miss the madness in the music, just throw in a little river filled with goslings while a group of lager drinking trolls walk on by and you have made a nice interlude somewhere completely illogical. Now everything feels more logical and more planned which does not fit their music as well as the madness.
And why do they have Christopher Lee as a narrator?
Why?
Christopher Lee is a rubbish speaker and his voice is as fun to listen to as it is to vomit all over your home and then clean it up. I just cannot answer this question as there just isn’t any logical answers. The only logical answer would be that all other men and most females in the world were dead and last time I checked, they weren’t.
Nevertheless, this is a decent record but on my part it only works as a background but I am quite sure that this will fall into good soil with the fans of the band and but for me and probably for most others who are not loyal fans of anything, I am quite sure that this will go in the pile of decent records that might be played in the background at some time or another but not really played.
Rhapsody of Fire does not burn as well and as mad as they should do if they didn’t try so hard.
HHHHHHH
