“If Turilli was the flighty artist constantly on the move, Staropoli was the guy who’s kept writing choruses which were an innovation in 1997. Combining these two artistic visions created something special. But the split left Rhapsody of Fire with three problems. First, Staropoli needed to become a better composer; second, he had to replace his band; and lastly, he needed to forge a path forward.” How many of these things does Glory for Salvation accomplish?
On the road to finishing my dissertation, there will be many bumps. Today’s bump? I’m writing the Record(s) o’ the Month for July which robs me of time for completing my real goal. My real goal right now is to pump out 2,500 words a day of lifeless academic text that will suck the joy out of a fascinating topic for readers so that the ancient Blood God Academius, whose grotesque form lives solely upon the sacrificed blood, sweat, tears and writers guilt innocent and naïve graduate students, can be sated.
“Luca Turilli—the primary composer and guitar hero of various versions of [Luca Turilli’s] Rhapsody [of Fire]—represents one of two types of successful musicians, for me. I suspect that if one groups successful artists by attitude toward music, you’ll find two attitudes that can be grouped as either high or low openness to experience.” Guess who’s back to wax poetic about the new Turilli/Lione Rhapsody record? This motherfucking guy!
“Considering the prevalence of nostalgia culture in social media, I’m surprised that Richard Donner’s 1985 cult classic The Goonies hasn’t seen a significant surge in popularity. Seeing it today reminds me that the film was a perfect recreation of my wildest childhood fantasies of close-lurking adventure. Yes, there is a pirate ship loaded with treasure hiding underneath your hometown. Yes, you have to go down an extremely fun and extremely dangerous waterslide to get to it. Yes, you can steal a kiss from your older brother’s hot girlfriend, even if your older brother is an even hotter Josh Brolin. If there’s any musical genre in existence that’s all about crafting a similar sense of childlike wonder, it’s power metal; so, as lame as it is, a power metal concept album about The Goonies makes some sense.” Goo-nie-capped.
“Rhapsody’s history has all the operatic drama required of its Italian heritage. Rhapsody, one of the ‘90s and early-aughts’ finest power metal bands, rose to prominence on the back of outstanding material before suffering a string of setbacks in the mid-2000s. After some legal drama and a triumphant return with two brilliant albums in two years, the band’s primary composers—Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli—split the world in two.” Now Rhapsody of Fire is back with its third post-split album and first with a band new vocalist. What could go wrong?
“I can’t believe it’s already been a year since Serious Black’s fantastic debut As Daylight Breaks. An album that proved dream teams can exist and can work. Not only that, but this supergroup achieved it via a style that rarely receives RotY nods from yours truly. Urban Breed, et al. even had El Cuervo singing along to tunes like “High and Low” and “Sealing My Fate” whilst leaving the AMG restrooms in terrible condition for the n00bs to clean up. And now, a year and change later, Serious Black is back with Mirrorworld.” Clean up in Aisle Trve!
“Tolkien metal is actually a thing. For those that haven’t come across it prior to now, it’s a subgenre of black metal that’s supposedly more atmospheric and ambient with lyrics entirely based around Tolkien’s works. Summoning are the forerunners of the genre, but it looks like they have a little competition in the shape of Serbian band Númenor.” Nerds. Be. Raging (and LARPING).
“Here’s a fun fact for you stat geeks: the average score gaily awarded to full Rhapsody releases by the resident Turilli fangirl (our great leader himself) is 4.83/5.0. Check ’em here. Clearly a much more objective party needed to intervene to prevent further such madness, offering a view impervious to Turilli’s rugged Italian charms.” Stop the madness. Lightning bolt!
“Concepts are tough nuts to crack, you’ve got to get your story across in roughly 7-10 tracks and at the same time the songs themselves need to stand alone and impress. Venereal Dawn is the latest addition to the now seven-deep discography for German black metallers Dark Fortress and it was three years in the making.” Does Dark Fortress crack said nut? Find out by clicking this handy, dandy link below…
When I was an Angry Metal Lad I discovered what was then the burgeoning europower scene in the late 90s early aughts. Deeply influenced by the likes of Rage, Helloween, and Stratovarius I began to be taken in by any band that had a lot of double bass, virtuoso keyboard and guitar solos and a dude who sang moderately operatically but wasn’t too annoying. This held me over for a long time, discovering bands that still stick with me to today as some of my favorites including [Luca Turilli’s] Rhapsody [of Fire], Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica and myriads of others (as well as their aforementioned influences). But like any scene, this one had its boundaries and excesses and after a while I started to get bored. In that process, I missed Vision Divine – an Italian power metal band that includes Rhapsody’s vocalist Fabio Lione who released their first record in 1999.
