Rhapsody are an Italian power/prog heavy metal band formed
sometime in the nineties and they play a very pompous type of metal with strong
emphasis on symphonic elements coupled with extremely dungeons&dragons oriented
lyricism. Well, that's all that I know about them so if you want some more info
on the guys go check out the All-Music Guide or something.
Hmm... well, to be perfectly honest there's nothing I'd like more than to give
this album a higher rating to satisfy all those rabid Rhapsody fans, but I'm
not sure if I can. For one thing, I'm happy to inform you that there are some
truly stunning parts to this offering... but, on the other hand, almost half
of this album (some 30 or so minutes) is pretty hard to digest. At first it
seems it's business as usual for these pretentious Italian metallers since you're
constantly bombarded with furious double-bass drumming, sweeping bigger-than-life
choruses and flashy neo-classical guitar & keyboard work, but then, most notably
on tracks # 5 and # 10, you realize that they're suddenly losing steam. Sure,
the lyrics are still about some really epic people doing some really epic things
all the way through... and yes, the musicianship never lets you down... but
no matter how impressive their instrumental wankery is, the first of these two
songs is pretty half-baked and almost tuneless and the second, well, it's just
too overblown for its own good. Track # 5, "When Demons Awake", is horrendously
boring clocking well over seven minutes, and while that's seven pretty impressive
minutes as far as sheer complexity of the music goes, it's just not very memorable.
Not to mention the fact that Lione's usually very melodic, multi-layered vocals
are somehow very rough and unpolished, which may prove to be a distracting element
to some, myself included. Rhapsody's love for technical proficiency and showing-off
is ever-present but sometimes it takes them over completely and when that happens
it's not a pretty sight, like on the closing epic "Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness"
(with the possible exception of some really beautiful acoustic parts).
Like I said, some 7 or 8 songs are really wonderful, especially complex but
incredibly infectious songs like "Knightrider Of Doom", "Pride Of The Tyrant",
"The March Of The Swordmaster" and the title track, but can I really forgive
them for dabbling with their instruments so much on that show-offy, almost 20
minutes long mess of "Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness"? No, not really. Also,
even though I like it quite a bit, you should be warned that this album contains
one very pretentious ballad, "Lamento Eroico". Now, while it's not your standard
power ballad since it doesn't have that mandatory climatic guitar solo, it's
insanely overblown opening with a gloomy flute intro and then followed with
some huge wall-of-sound orchestration and self-important operatic wailing (performed
in Italian, of course). Speaking of which, even if I'm not so sure that Fabio
Lione could make a living like a opera singer, he certainly does not suck. By
the way, except for Lione you often get some female operatic wailing so all
of you who can't stand pompousness, STAY AWAY! This stuff is not for everyone
- there's bits and pieces of orchestration everywhere, every song's got some
choir-like effects and there's a ton of keyboards intermixed throughout. Quite
simply, for those who don't know Rhapsody but know a thing or two about Blind
Guardian this sounds like a somewhat lighter but equally bombastic A Night At
The Opera, only without Kursch's throaty vocals. What else can I say? Rhapsody
fans will definitely want to get this but people who like heavier, more straightforward
metal should definitely look elsewhere.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?