TALES FROM THE EMERALD SWORD SAGA

Rhapsody (of Fire)

Progressive Metal

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andrea
PROG REVIEWER

Tales From the Emerald Sword Saga: the story of Rhapsody so far. This is a good compilation that summarize the career of the band from "Legendary Tales" (1997) to "Power Of The Dragonflame" (2002). 16 tracks , "the most unusual and the favourites". A good booklet with the lyrics, full of pictures and information about the band. A bonus new edited MPEG video clip of "Holy Thunderforce". If you are not familiar with this band this could be a good starting point to explore Rhapsody's "Symphonic Epic Hollywood Metal" style where legendary tales are conceived as metaphors of reality and where the music tries to mix up the energy of power metal with classical influences.

Report this review (#71709)
Posted Sunday, March 12, 2006 | Review Permalink

Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator

For Rhapsody, I actually do not recommend you to buy a "The Best of" album because most of their songs are epic in nature or at least the are broken down into songs but the collection of songs and its predetermined sequence serve like a sequel. But, knowing that Rhapsody has released many albums, it's worth having a compilation that gives you a taste about the music. Well, there is another value of having this boxed set as there are tracks with different versions compared to studio release. Two remix tracks "Land of Immortals" and "Holy Thunderforce" plus "Rage of The Winter" in symphonic version.

Most of the songs are excellent ones with my favorite tracks "Emerald Sword" which has great guitar solo and tight orchestration, "Dawn of Victory" with its great power and energy, "Wisdom of The Kings" which has catchy melody, and "Holy Thunderforce". I think, the strong points of Rhapsody are: great melody, powerful and tight composition using orchestra to enrich the textures of the music. All songs are arranged neatly and there seem to be a big chance for you to be able to enjoy it. The major influences this band have adopted are classical music, especially Alex Staropoli (keyboards) and also the guitar player Luca Turili. The music is more like a power metal as pioneered by Germany's Helloween. The orchestration that makes the music of Rhapsody sounds differently than the rest of their power metal colleagues.

Report this review (#156897)
Posted Friday, December 28, 2007 | Review Permalink

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