Luca Turilli - Prophet Of The Last Eclipse

*=Staff's pick	Aenigma War of the Universe* Rider of the Astral Fire* Zaephyr Skies' Theme The Age of Mystic Ice Prince of the Starlight* Timeless Oceans Demonheart* New Century's Tarantella* Prophet of the Last Eclipse*

Genre	Epic Power Metal	Olaf Hayer	Vocals
Tracks	12	Luca Turilli	Guitar
Runningtime	54 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	InsideOut Music	Sasha Paeth	Bass
Release	23 Nov. 2002	Robert Hunecke-Rizzo	Drums
Country	Italy	Miro	Keyboards
Similar artists	Rhapsody, Thy Majestie

The Italian mastermind Luca Turilli is finally releasing the highly anticipated part 2 of his epic trilogy of travels in space and time spiced with some elves, kings, swords and various trolls and goblins. He said before this project began that the concept would deal with different parts of time and space, and after the first part that dealt with a fantsyworld somewhere in the northern regions a long time ago, the time has now come to follow his journey and transcend into an other astral dimension of apocalyptic....(puuhhh - that is almost a new songtitle for Lost Horizon....).....well - into a more futuristic dimension, basically.

This man is a genius, and the melodies and harmonies doesn't seem to reach an end for a long time to come. Many are of the opinion that Lucas compositions since a long time ago all are born, bred and forged in the same style and tone, and I can't possibly deny the fact that he has a certain method of building/composing songs, but the melodies, arrangements and harmonies are so impeccable that it has to be considered true art what the man is doing. I mean, as long as almost each and every song is an orgy in killermelodies and riffs, what is there to complain about?

Nothing is really new or groundbreaking on this album either, but if something is to be said about how it sounds this time, it's perhaps that it's a tiny bit darker and more aggressive this time (but don't expect any thrash or deathmetal tunes). Overall the music is the same symphonic and flamboyant epic metalsongs with touhes of classical scales and harmonies.

I can without hesitation say that the song Rider Of The Astral Fire has not only one of the, but THE most brilliant versemelody I have ever heard, and on top of it all the refrain is not far from the best I have ever heard either. The rest of the album contains more or less what we are used to hear from a new Luca-release - there are the uptempo, killerrefrain songs and the midtempo, femalesung moody tunes. On this album he makes use of a certain amount of futuristic and spacy tunes, that feels like a fresh breeze in his music and fits the concept very well, and makes it feel like a necessary step in a slightly other direction than his previous release and helps keeping up the interest.

Songs to mention more than others are War Of The Universe, Rider Of The Astral Fire and Prince Of The Starlight which are fast driven tunes with great melodies and refrains, and there are also the midtempo, medieval tune New Century's Tarantella. After a considerable amount of albums released by this man and his partners in melodymaking, it still seems like we can count on many, many more delightful tunes to come. It still feels fresh and - most important of all - good enough.

If you are a fan of Luca since long - buy unheard. If you are not a fan already - once again: give the man a chance. There are a lot to be gained by that in form of lovely metalmusic spiced with strong elements of baroque-esque harmonies.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	8,5	8,5

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy