SYMPHONY OF ENCHANTED LANDS

The second album from Rhapsody is my favorite from this band. Rhapsody continues the style they started on their debut Legendary Tales. This means bombastic orchestral driven power metal with fantasy/ Fairytale lyrics. I hold Legendary Tales in high regard but Symphony of Enchanted Lands is just a notch better.

Epicus Furor starts the album with a bombastic classical arrangement, it´s very beautiful and when it seques into Emerald Sword it´s so powerful. I´m always blown back in my seat when the doubel bass drums kick in on Emerald Sword. It´s just so great and powerful. The epic and powerful playing continues throughout the album even though it gets a bit too cheesy for me on a song like Wings of Destiny. But on the other hand you´ll have to accept at least a bit of cheese to listen to power metal. I have always listened to this style with an ironic distance. Rhapsody are just so great that I can´t help being faschinated and entranced by them. My favorite tracks besides the aforementioned are Wisdom Of The Kings, Eternal Glory with it´s almost Star Wars like classical intro theme and The Dark Tower Of Abyss which is the most dark and heavy song here.

The musicians playing on Symphony of Enchanted Lands needs to be mentioned as they are all outstanding. Fabio Lione´s vocal delivery is strong and commanding, but he can also sound very emotional ( that´s when it gets a bit too cheesy for me). The two composers Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli are outstanding musicians. First of all for the ability to compose this music but secondly also for being virtosos on their instruments. I especially enjoy Luca Turilli´s signature sweeping on his guitar, really nice stuff. The drums and bass are also very tight. There are also some folky elements like flute and violin in some of the songs.

The production is otherworldly if you ask me. This is the way metal should be produced. Everything is clear in the soundscape and the production is very metallic and cold. Not all the organic sounding vintage keyboards here. Those belong in another genre, not in power metal. I really like the drum sound too, it´s very powerful.

This album is very recommendable if you like power metal. Normal progressive metal heads might not find this to their liking. It´s very much an aquired taste if you like this genre. I think this album is worth 4 big stars.