LEGENDARY TALES

"Legendary Tales" is the debut full-length studio album by Italian power metal act Rhapsody (later Rhapsody of Fire as they had to change their name due to copyright issues). The album was released through Limb Music in October 1997. The band formed in 1993 under the Thundercross monicker but changed their name to Rhapsody in 1995. They released the "Eternal Glory" demo in 1995, which led to their label deal with Limb Music. "Warrior Of Ice" and "Land Of Immortals" are featured on both "Eternal Glory (1995)" and on "Legendary Tales". The two demo tracks "Invernal Fury" and "Alive and Proud" were also re-recorded and included on "Legendary Tales", but was given new titles ("Rage of the Winter" and "Lord of the Thunder", respectively). Other than those re-recordings from the demo "Legendary Tales" only features freshly written original material.

Stylistically Rhapsody play a symphonic European power metal style, which at its core is greatly influenced by the 1980s German power metal scene (and late 80s Helloween in particular), but expands on that sound with omnipresent symphonic and neo-classical influenced keyboards and choirs. It can get quite epic at times, but also very pompous and more than a little cheesy. "Legendary Tales" is the first album in a long line of releases from Rhapsody featuring the concept fantasy saga of the Emerald Sword. I won´t go into details about the lyrical concept, but just tell you that you get exactly what you expect from such a story (heroes, magic, and all...).

The sound production is handled by the legendary producer team of Sascha Paeth and Miro (Avantasia, Angra, Gamma Ray, Heavens Gate...etc.) and not surprisingly "Legendary Tales" is a very well produced release. Paeth also plays session bass on the album. The musicianship is generally strong and keyboard player Alex Staropoli and guitarist Luca Turilli compete for the listener´s attention throughout the album. One jaw-dropping guitar solo, intricate heavy/power metal riff follows the one before, and the keyboard playing follows suit. The drumming by Daniele Carbonera is varied and powerful, and lead vocalist Fabio Lione has a strong voice and a passionate delivery (it´s a little like listening to a power metal version of Dream Theater´s James LaBrie) and his Italian accent is tolerable (some may even find it charming).

"Legendary Tales" opens with the short classical intro piece "Ira Tenax", which builds tension and an epic atmosphere before giving way to the powerful bombast of "Warrior Of Ice", which is a song where Rhapsody show all their talents for composing and playing powerful symphonic power metal. It´s a varied and relatively complex track, while still being catchy, melodic, and well structured. The album continues with "Rage Of The Winter", which is arguably another highlight of the album, featuring an almost progressive leaning middle section which some very impressive guitar work. "Forest Of Unicorns" takes the listener on an epic acoustic folk fantasy journey, and while it certainly borders cheesy territory, it´s quite the beautiful and well composed track.

After that the album continues like this and shifts between energetic Euro power metal, symphonic parts, and folk sections, closing with the epic mid-paced and heavy title track (other highlights include "Flames Of Revenge", "Land Of Immortals", and "Lord Of The Thunder"). The quiet folky parts aren´t dominating the album and that´s a good choice, because while they work fine as variation, they are the least interesting part of the album. Rhapsody are strongest when they play their fastests and most heavy parts (and dip their toes in progressive songwriting), and least interesting when they take the tempo down and play more mellow parts.

"Legendary Tales" is an exceptional debut album by Rhapsody, featuring an incredibly well sounding production job, which is detailed, powerful, and not too polished (which happens too often in this genre), high level musicianship on all posts, and very intriguing and varied songwriting. In other words a high quality release on all parameters. If you can´t stomach bombast and epic symphonic power metal songwriting and concepts, this may not be your poison, but to those who can, this is a highly recommendable release and a 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)