Rhapsody Of Fire - Triumph Or Agony |
Published Nov. 24 2006
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Dar-Kunor |
| Genre | Symphonic Epic Metal |
Fabio Lione
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 11 |
Luca Turilli
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 62 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Magic Circle Music |
Patrice Guers
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Bass
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| Release | 26 Sept. 2006 |
Alex Holzwarth
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Drums
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| Country | Italy |
Alex Staropoli
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Keyboard
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| Similar artists | Domine, Kaledon, Thy Majestie, Fairyland | ||
Let's face it. 2006 has certainly not been Luca Turillis' most succesful year so far. His third solo album, The Infinite Wonders of Creation, and his newer project Dreamquest, have both failed to impress, even though the latter had a couple of joyful moments. So time for revenge with The Dark Secret Saga part II? Triumph or Agony? Of course we all expect an eleven course riot of power and force, symphonically and folk musically spiced to water your eyes, speed up your heart rhythm and make your brain do cartwheels in your cranium. Granted, there's a strong sense of familiarity as we once again get together with old friends in familiar territory and there's no mistaking the usual high quality Rhapsody sound landscape. Regarding the tempo however the gearshift has only been eased into first, and only on very few occasions shifts into higher ones.
Dar-Kunor is maybe not the best intro from the Italians so far but it feels very epic and should work very well in a live environment. Good choirs and great orchstration dominate the first half before the guitar and the rest of the band besides Fabio mark their presence. The following title track then speeds up the pace to something between up- and mid-tempo and overall reminds a whole lot about Emerald Sword but with more orchestration and choirs.
Heart of the Darklands continue the show and introduces the Rhapsody folk music traditional moments in a little faster pace than the opener. This one is a double bass drum fuelled composition with a great guitar intro this album could have seen a whole lot more of. Just as the title track the chorus is a very good one and so far the album is not disappointing at all. More of the folk music is then the main concept of Old Age of Wonders, a flute oriented, elfish dance style track where Fabio has a very nice duet with a female vocalist. A great song that also should be very fitting for a fantasy movie theme, taken straight from any bard's reportoir during Medieval times.
The rest of the material of this album though plunges you a little far too deep into slower, more mid tempo, semi ballad and ballad-esque tracks. The Myth of the Holy Sword is a mid paced number that despite its storytelling movie score qualities not quite has the heavy backbone it should have needed to really lift off. A more average song from the Italians that is kind of significant for the entire rest of this release. Not enough power and force to place it among the better Rhapsody efforts.
Il Canto Del Vento is delivered in the beautiful Italian language but this full blooded ballad never engages fully and really gives me lots of ammunition to further point that very few metal bands can deliver a good and memorable song of this kind. Silent Dream (some leftover from Turilli's Dreamquest project?) continues the feeling that the band is only going for something like 50% of their capacity even though some initial potential exists for some brief and far too quickly dying moments. Bloody Red Dungeons has a title that invokes a feeling of a fiercer and more aggressive approach but unfortunately proves to be yet another mid paced number that's lacking the heavy and fast spark to become a full Rhapsody quality track.
Son of Pain represents the cheesy ballad club and is doubtlessly among the worst songs the Italians ever recorded. Enough said about that one. The five-parted mega opus Mystic Prophecy of the Demon Knight is a 16-minute adventure that could have been a whole lot better if the cards have been played more right because it's a good hand to gamble with. It's starting out very well in an epic mid paced fashion and show that the Rhapsody of old is still alive and kicking. The chorus is perhaps a bit too much a spitting image of previous material but it still works and the more aggressive vocals of Fabio and the more energized pace around the 10-minute mark is also a very good instalment, however a bit too short. But then far too many ballad style parts and more narrative crap make this song hell of a lot worse than it had to be before the chorus return towards the end.
Christopher Lee's great and majestic voice helps but the other narrative parts on this song are far too many and it get very hard to avoid pushing the fast forward button during these passages. The narration continues to play a large role in the otherwise instrumental closing Dark Reign of Fire, that puts this for me very disappointing Rhapsody album an end.
So nah, this is certainly not among Rhapsody's best work, despite the good start of the album. Too much mid pace/ballad-esque average material collide with the more fantasy power metal up tempo engaging music Rhapsody usually delivers. Triumph or Agony might still be the most beautiful and solemn Rhapsody outing so far and those of you into that kind of music have a nice ride to buckle up for.
The harschness of reality for us others is that Of Fire added to the band name doesn't at all do that word justice and this album won't keep us breathless and on the edge of our seats as the past glory did. Maybe and hopefully the cold the dragon seems to have caught, preventing the fire and flame to roar, is curable in time for next release. Rhapsody surely can do helluva lot better!
See
also review of: The
Frozen Tears Of Angels , Power
Of The Dragonflame , Rain
Of A Thousand Flames , Symphony
Of Enchanted Lands Part II
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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8 |
8,5 |
4,5 |
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Summary
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5 chalices of 10 - Mat |
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