The Return of Rhapsody

I have a hard time calling them Rhapsody of Fire by the way. It just doesn't roll off the tongue well in my opinion. ANyway having been a long time afficionado of Luca and co I was stoked to hear they finall escaped Joey's clutches and signed with Nuclear Blast for a series of albums the first of which is The Frozen Tears of Angels and what a come back it is. Rhapsody started to be less good on recent albums but this new record captures earlier vibes with both the return of actual speed metal and catchy vocals. In fact this album sounds like it would be the logical successor to Dawn of Victory. It's both pretty aggressive and very melodic and full sounding. Sure they don't have the big budget orchestra anymore but I guess they are getting back to the essence of what made them popular in the first place which can't be a bad thing can it now!

THis album is chock full of great riffs and melodies. Luca and ALex are just great symphonic composers in my book. I am not a massive fan of Fabio's vocals as his pronunciation is not always the best or clearest but his actual voice is very good and in full control although he does like a good warble hehe! Reign of Terror sees the use of screaming vocals to counteract Fabio's wailing and it sounds very aggressive indeed with raging speedy guitars as backing. It seems Alex's keys have mainly taken a back seat this time and Luca is back where he belongs shredding and ripping his sweeps and fast picking at the front of the mix. The sound in general is pretty perfect, even allowing the bass to be heard clearly. The songs are catchy like in On the Way to Ainor which is perhaps the stand out hit of the whole album. Overall it's good to see them back on top of their throne as kings of symphonic power metal. First there's Rhapsody then there's all the imitators!