Rhapsody Of Fire
Into the Legend
AFM Records
2016
Rhapsody, back in the early days, after a bit of trial got signed and definitely caught the imagination of the power metal fans, achieving tremendous success with their first few releases… since the conclusion of their first “saga” they both did hit the stone-wall of repetition and slight writers block. Bad management decisions (like signing with Manowar’s management) cost the band both precious time and their unity as after sitting out for a while and concluding their contractual obligations the band drifted apart and the ensuing schism – had half of the band staying together assuming the mantle of their current “Of Fire” name, while guitarist Luca Turilli reverted to the band’s original name, but differentiated it with the addition of his name, procuring new and quite good musicians in the way in order to make up the numbers and continuing thus.
“Rhapsody Of Fire” continued signing to another company and keeping true to their epic/lyric sound that got a little darker and less overblown with a new guitarist in stark comparison with the more plethoric and grandiose style of Turilli’s version that goes for really over the top orchestrations and all.
It probably did “both sides” a world of good, to be apart, but like in most “divorces” real world and metaphorical, the magic of the original is hard to copy or even come close to.
“Into the Legend” is the second attempt after the rift and attempts to somewhat embrace the band’s earlier ambitions and style, without going back to the absolute beginning, but rather looking back to their post millennial output and trying to be consistent with that a fact that it largely seems to achieve.
“In Principio” is an intro that is quite Polydouric in style and acts kind of nicely as an overture, while “Distant Sky” is a typical fast paced Rhapsody number, sans the crazy Turilli embellishments that would often try to steal the show from the actual composition itself…
Fabio Lione is still a fine singer and impresses but tends to sound a little “dirtier” than in the past. Obviously, he’s been doing this for a while now, not getting any younger, but he still holds out impressively well... without being too long, the song manages to go through a few phases – with a semi-triumphant and defiant chorus, stealing the show.
“Into the Legend” similarly enough begins with choirs and is fast paced and grandiose, perhaps the one song that could easily look some of the band’s older songs right in the eye… one of the better efforts in the album.
“Winter’s Rain” takes a back seat and gets heavier and into the mid-tempo domain. It sounds majestic enough but doesn’t feel dense enough and it’s near eight minutes, seem to be longer than they actually are...
“A Voice in the Cold Wind” is a mellower tune that tries to resurrect the more medieval/folk styles of some past songs… the orchestration aids sufficiently in that but not the slightly dodgy key/bagpipe like sound, not until it all comes together in certain portions. It’s a song that gets some things right and screws up a few others in a big way.
“Valley of Shadows” again goes for a majestic symphonic style with choirs and orchestrations aplenty over a faster tempo and works quite well, but feels a little over the top.
“Shining Star” is a ballad with choirs, strings etc. that gets progressively louder, but creates a nice contrast and is consistent enough to shine on through the rest of the songs on the album...
“Realms of Light” continues pretty much in the style of “Valley...” but obviously with a different melody, but seems to lose its way with solos that needlessly overstay their welcome splitting the song almost in two…
“Rage of Darkness” is another impressive, fast paced number with Lione really signing out and singing his curls out on this one! Bravo! Impressive…
Last but not least, on the normal edition comes the sixteen plus minute epic “The Kiss of Life”... and like all those epic conclusions, you always run into the very clear danger of creating a bit of a convoluted labyrinthine like “monster” of a composition that is hard to follow or to be repetitive to the point of boredom. Surely enough the first four and a half minutes of this one are spent with ambient pastoral keys and strings, then a choir makes its presence felt and then there’s a mini crescendo that leads into the proper “song” a stringed up and quite angry section heralding it… with Fabio sounding extra “evil” and “furious” but soon easing into more choirs that conclude in a dueting chorus that fades out with orchestral hits. The song almost stops then to enter a sadder second part with some mellow acoustic and Lione softly murmuring before doing another semi-duet verse and fall back to his soliloquy and do the same thing another time, before it’s reprised once more this time by a choir and then keys, then guitar and orchestra. I dunno they must have loved this little theme way too much because it goes on for the better part of seven minutes or so. The conclusion is a beautiful and triumphant chorus with Fabio, choir and orchestra really going for it, before that mid-part theme makes another reappearance and yet another reprisal of it acts as an orchestral outro… really the amount of repetition of a “beautiful” idea/theme here is so staggering that sort of spoils the effort. A far more compact 7 minute attempt would have just been as impressive and not as tiresome…
“Volar Sin Dolor” is a bonus track sung in Italian and it’s soft and sensuous and much better than half of the overblown things on offer, worth getting the special edition for.
Rhapsody remain “Royalty” when it comes to symphonic metal, but they are losing a battle against their own past… still they remain true to themselves and their fans and that’s commendable.
“Rhapsody Of Fire” continued signing to another company and keeping true to their epic/lyric sound that got a little darker and less overblown with a new guitarist in stark comparison with the more plethoric and grandiose style of Turilli’s version that goes for really over the top orchestrations and all.
It probably did “both sides” a world of good, to be apart, but like in most “divorces” real world and metaphorical, the magic of the original is hard to copy or even come close to.
“Into the Legend” is the second attempt after the rift and attempts to somewhat embrace the band’s earlier ambitions and style, without going back to the absolute beginning, but rather looking back to their post millennial output and trying to be consistent with that a fact that it largely seems to achieve.
“In Principio” is an intro that is quite Polydouric in style and acts kind of nicely as an overture, while “Distant Sky” is a typical fast paced Rhapsody number, sans the crazy Turilli embellishments that would often try to steal the show from the actual composition itself…
Fabio Lione is still a fine singer and impresses but tends to sound a little “dirtier” than in the past. Obviously, he’s been doing this for a while now, not getting any younger, but he still holds out impressively well... without being too long, the song manages to go through a few phases – with a semi-triumphant and defiant chorus, stealing the show.
“Into the Legend” similarly enough begins with choirs and is fast paced and grandiose, perhaps the one song that could easily look some of the band’s older songs right in the eye… one of the better efforts in the album.
“Winter’s Rain” takes a back seat and gets heavier and into the mid-tempo domain. It sounds majestic enough but doesn’t feel dense enough and it’s near eight minutes, seem to be longer than they actually are...
“A Voice in the Cold Wind” is a mellower tune that tries to resurrect the more medieval/folk styles of some past songs… the orchestration aids sufficiently in that but not the slightly dodgy key/bagpipe like sound, not until it all comes together in certain portions. It’s a song that gets some things right and screws up a few others in a big way.
“Valley of Shadows” again goes for a majestic symphonic style with choirs and orchestrations aplenty over a faster tempo and works quite well, but feels a little over the top.
“Shining Star” is a ballad with choirs, strings etc. that gets progressively louder, but creates a nice contrast and is consistent enough to shine on through the rest of the songs on the album...
“Realms of Light” continues pretty much in the style of “Valley...” but obviously with a different melody, but seems to lose its way with solos that needlessly overstay their welcome splitting the song almost in two…
“Rage of Darkness” is another impressive, fast paced number with Lione really signing out and singing his curls out on this one! Bravo! Impressive…
Last but not least, on the normal edition comes the sixteen plus minute epic “The Kiss of Life”... and like all those epic conclusions, you always run into the very clear danger of creating a bit of a convoluted labyrinthine like “monster” of a composition that is hard to follow or to be repetitive to the point of boredom. Surely enough the first four and a half minutes of this one are spent with ambient pastoral keys and strings, then a choir makes its presence felt and then there’s a mini crescendo that leads into the proper “song” a stringed up and quite angry section heralding it… with Fabio sounding extra “evil” and “furious” but soon easing into more choirs that conclude in a dueting chorus that fades out with orchestral hits. The song almost stops then to enter a sadder second part with some mellow acoustic and Lione softly murmuring before doing another semi-duet verse and fall back to his soliloquy and do the same thing another time, before it’s reprised once more this time by a choir and then keys, then guitar and orchestra. I dunno they must have loved this little theme way too much because it goes on for the better part of seven minutes or so. The conclusion is a beautiful and triumphant chorus with Fabio, choir and orchestra really going for it, before that mid-part theme makes another reappearance and yet another reprisal of it acts as an orchestral outro… really the amount of repetition of a “beautiful” idea/theme here is so staggering that sort of spoils the effort. A far more compact 7 minute attempt would have just been as impressive and not as tiresome…
“Volar Sin Dolor” is a bonus track sung in Italian and it’s soft and sensuous and much better than half of the overblown things on offer, worth getting the special edition for.
Rhapsody remain “Royalty” when it comes to symphonic metal, but they are losing a battle against their own past… still they remain true to themselves and their fans and that’s commendable.