Rhapsody Of Fire - Triumph Or Agony Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 11.09.2006
The band that created a musical genre unto itself...
Rhapsody Of Fire Triumph Or Agony
2006
Magic Circle Music
9.0
And that genre's name was "film score metal". Thanks to a bunch of assholes at a music subscription service, the name that the band had used for the past 9 years and last 6 albums had to be forcibly changed. Clever that they are, the band tacked "Of Fire" to the end of the name in question and went on to produce another masterpiece of an album.
To understand what "film score music" and the band are all about, take any of the Lord Of The Rings movies. You could set them to heavy metal, which is more or less what Blind Guardian did (and does) or you could take the orchestration and storyline, keep them intact and then add in metal and operatic vocals. In that case, you would then have Rhapsody Of Fire. While the huge orchestral pieces and narration dominate much of this album, it is the vocals of Fabio Lione that take center stage. While the rest of his bandmates are certainly no slouches themselves, Lione just takes command of this album and never lets go. His vocals are the album's highlights from start to finish. On the last album, much of his vocals were the best part, but on this disc, it is much more of a complete effort from him and the spotlight is his every time his vocals parts show up. Lione not only outdoes himself, he rather dramatically outdoes everyone else also.
The storyline, written by guitarist Luca Turilli and one which I can't be bothered to follow, is entrenched in the themes of the fantastical, so magic books, prophecies, demons, elves, wizards, human warriors and dragons all make various appearances. The band very smartly enlisted Jeff Easley to do the artwork, which is nothing short of stellar. The booklet itself is majestic, featuring forests and snow-capped peaks for the lyrics, which appear even when Lione drops into Italian, and the narration, which is also fully reprinted. Credits are here and come in movie credit form, which is a nice attention to detail. There are the usual band shots as well as a list of thank-yous. If you buy the Limited Edition of this release, it also comes with an embossed case and a couple of extra bonus songs, all of which are well worth the extra money.
To be sure, musically, there is a lot of orchestration as well as spoken-word narration. Luca Turilli is doing his level best to tell the damn story, but as this is film score metal, don't think this is one long classical piece with several someones reading a book over the top. There are plenty of hot licks and riffs galore, all placed with precision speed and controlled abandon, if you can wrap your mind around that idea. Lione just lets go and roars when it's his turn on the mic and those moments, even when in a language beyond my current comprehension, are among the most enjoyable.
The 411: Don't let the storyline, now run across a few releases, hold you back from enjoyment here. It is not necessary to know the full back story to enjoy the album. This is some of the most carefully and meticulously sculpted music, metal or otherwise, out there and it's nothing short of incredible to hear. This takes guts and musicianship and symphonies and harpsichords and how many bands can you think of that are daring enough to try it, let alone skilled enough to pull it off? Highly recommended.
