Customer Reviews

Rain of a Thousand Flames

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

i have been waiting for months for this so called MINI album. i had mixed feelings about it becuase the previous albums were so damn good. i needn't have worried! This may be a mini album, but its content is beyond words. It is bigger than big, it is truly epic. I'm not a particularly emotional person, but midway through the inspirational 'Wizard's Last Rhymes' i actually shed a tear. How do they do it? it's a beautiful marriage of operatic influences, classic orchestral sounds, and brilliantly crafted metal, all combined to make a a trully epic piece of work. As i write this i am thinking maybe i am over stating things a bit - hell no. the fact is, i have enjoyed all kinds of metal and rock for a decade and a half. But this is mesmarising. Damn, damn, damn this is so hot i've burnt my fingers just putting the cd into my machine. From the opening track 'rain of a thousand flames' to the superb full length 'Queen of dark horizons'.From the catchy irish influenced 'magic valley' to the simply too short (10 mins is just not enough) grand finale of the 'Wizards last rhymes', this is what music was invented for. Bring it on, please, we need more Rhapsody. Hale Rhapsody.

I do agree that Rhapsody should hire someone else to do the narration--perhaps someone like Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden or Russell Allen from Symphony X (just listen to Russell's narration at the beginning of "King of Terror" on The Odyssey album).

By the way, Christopher Lee, The Lord of the Ring's Saruman, will be doing narration on the forthcoming mini-album, "The Dark Secret" (May 24th), as well as the full length album due to be released in September, '04.

But come on, no one can claim these guys to be less than adequate musicians and actually back it up with solid info. But I suppose it's all personal opinion . . . so why even argue about it? Basically, if you like this type of music, then you'll enjoy this album--

which by the way, is not intended to be a full length album (so there's no cause for complaint there)!!!

Also, let's please not criticise bands for labels placed on them by other entities, or for that matter, even the labels they give themselves! Just listen to the music as it is, and enjoy the beauty of it. Music is a personal endeavour, so everyone is going to view it in a personal way. Who are we to judge another's view on music, especially when it's the artist's own point of view!?!

Bottom line, if you enjoy Rhapsody's other work, then buy this album. It is full of their usual powerful content, id est, beautiful vocals, tight musicianship, and though at times cheesy, Luca Turilli's on going saga of the struggle between good & evil entities of his fantasy world. The masterpiece on this album is "Queen of the Dark Horizons" (more than 13 minutes). Also to be praised is "The Wizard's Last Rhymes" (more than 10 minutes), full of epic flavor and even a solo from Lotta. "Elnor's Magic Valley" is a brief yet beautiful journey into the sounds of a Medieval village, reminiscent of "Forest of Unicorns" from the band's first album. And it all begins with the high-energy "Rain of A Thousand Flames" to pump you up for the coming onslaught of music.

Here's the quick version of this review. If you liked Rhapsody's past albums you are likely to like "Rain of a Thousand Flames". If you were not a fan of Rhapsody in the past this won't change your mind.

First a quick intro for people who are unaware of what Rhapsody are and what they do. Rhapsody are purveyors of music that the band likes to describes as "Epic Hollywood metal ". In lay man term it means a mixture of power metal and classical music a la Hollywood film score. Imagine power metal meets the Gladiator soundtrack. In this release Rhapsody continue telling the story of a struggle of good versus evil in a medieval and magical times that they have elaborated in their three prior CD's and that will end in the forthcoming full length CD. Its Lord of The Rings type of story meets Heavy Metal.

As I alluded to earlier "Rain of a Thousand Flames" is a 7 song mini album, which clocks in at about 41 minutes. For the first time a Rhapsody album does not start off with an instrumental classical piece. We have to wait till track two for this. Instead Rhapsody start with a bang with the up tempo title track. With the exception of its duration "Rain of a Thousand Flames" is pretty much the quintessential Rhapsody song with its strong lead vocals, a chorus, lots of double bass drums, melodious keyboards and a bit of narration thrown in to advance the story. A very strong song to start of the album.

With "Queen of the Dark Horizon" Rhapsody again has managed to come up with a terrific epic song. The song is very much keyboard driven in that it sets the tone and pace throughout the song. Witness the build up at the start of the song , the quiet little piano interlude near the 7:20 mark and the very 70's proggish feel of the keyboards near the 10:20 mark. The classical instrumentation and the female soprano singer are used very well to create a very grandiose sounding song. "Queen of the Dark Horizon" with its several change of pace and mood is easily the best song on the album. This is a very busy song that does not feel the length it is. In contrast "Elnor's Magic Valley" is a short Irish or Celtic sounding folk song that features a fiddle and a flute. It's a great little interlude and a nice change of pace.

The album's lone misfire is "Tears of a Dying Angel". In my mind it unfortunately encapsulates one of Rhapsody's overall weakness to me, the narrator. As I mentioned in a prior paragraph Rhapsody are telling a story in their CD's. From time to time a narrator is used to further the story along. Lots of "mighty warriors" and "magic swords" and such are used in these little interludes. Usually they are a track onto themselves or are a negligible part of the song but in "Tears of a Dying Angel" the narrator is an integral part of the song. The song starts off very well with its military sounding drums and its very effective use of a chorus but soon enough the narrator comes in and talks throughout the song.

The album however finishes on a high note. "The Wizard's Last Rhymes" is a straight forward, up tempo song a that rely's on it's classical orchestration and its chorus to give it momentum of a freight train. Again the excellent use of the chorus creates a very bombastic atmosphere and makes it one of the better song on the album. Rhapsody starts and finishes the "Rain of a Thousand Flames" CD with a bang.

Overall a solid all around effort form the Kings of "Epic Hollywood metal ". Not as good as "Dawn of Victory" but it will definitely keep the Rhapsody fan happy until their new full lenght release. As to the uninitiated fan its best to either start off with "Dawn of Victory" since it's the stronger album or with the first album of the fantasy epic "Legendary Tales" to follow the story chronologically.

Rain of a Thousand Flames is a "mini-album" released between the Rhapsody's full-length third and fourth albums. It has 42 minutes of new music, including two very epic songs (epic even by Rhapsody's standards). For those who don't already enjoy Rhapsody, you should pass this one by. But for those of us who have a place in our hearts for this band's cheesy-but-exciting brand of symphonic power metal, Rain of a Thousand Flames is a must-have. All in all, it combines some of Dawn of Victory's straightforward metal approach with the more soundtrack-ish symphonic qualities of Symphony of Enchanted Lands. If it hints at what the fourth album will sound like, it should be quite good.

This release's centerpiece is the 20-minute, four-part suite "Rhymes of a Tragic Poem - The Gothic Saga." The first part, "Tears of a Dying Angel," is full of glorified symphonic bombast. Most of the vocal portion is taken up by the band's supremely campy narrator. Unfortunately, there isn't that much singing. The music is pretty intense though, so it's not bad. Part 2, "Elnor's Magic Valley," is a great little Celtic piece with solo violin. The end is best, with the 10-minute "The Wizard's Last Rhymes." Some great, melodic soloing from Turilli and Staropoli; Alessandro Lotta even plays a bass solo; good symphonic interludes.

"Queen of Dark Horizons" is quite possibly the band's best song. Reaching nearly 14 minutes in length, it brings forth everything I like about this band: soaring choruses with choirs, big hooks, heroic melodies, and intense power metal with a polished symphonic backdrop. Near the beginning, a female soprano sings the wordless main melody...very pretty. The chorus is HUGE, fixed to a memorable melody and backed by a tremendous choir.

The title track is average Rhapsody fare, and "Deadly Omen" is a symphonic instrumental with pianos and violins (pretty good, but short).

What more needs to be said?

This Album starts out very atypically from all the other Rhapsody albums. Instead of the normal "Intro track", This CD gets right into the action with "Rain of A Thousand Flames" which has some amazing enery and amazing guitar in it.

Then there is a rather fitting transition into Queen of The Dark Horizons, Rhapsody's second best song in my opinion.

Then Tears of a Dying Angel is a very atmospheric song, which has quite a bit of Narroration, and a great energetic tune. I actually think the voice acting is great in this song- don't listen to those other reviewers- It's very entertaining. Don't be dissin' Sir Jay Lanslord.

Elnor's Magic Valley is rather pointless in the scheme of things, and just seems like a filler to put this over 41 minutes.

The Poem's evil page returns to the energy of previous songs, with a memorable guitar solo about a minute in.

The Wizard's Last Rhymes is an amazing song, but 2 to 3 minutes of it is taken DIRECTLY from New World Symphony by Dvorak. On the other hand, without this song, I would not have discovered the Symphony, which is a GREAT symphony. (The main melody if Queen of the Dark Horizons is also taken from something, although I don't think there is anything taken DIRECTLY from it.)

The CD goes out as atypically as it came in- I'll let you find out for yourself. :-)

Overall it is a great buy, and ALWAYS fun to listen to. It is second only to Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2.

I've always loved marriages between Heavy Metal power and Classical music creativity. I started out many years ago listening to early Yngwie Malmsteen. Eventually I got into Manowar, Dream Theater, Savatage, Stratovarius and others. I recently found out about Rhapsody when I heard "Power of the Dragonflame", and they simply blew me away. I immediately spent hundreds of dollars on CDNow/Amazon buying their CDs because I could tell they had incredible talent, not just in playing, but more importantly in song writing. And although Rain of a Thousand Flames is a bit short, it is now my favorite Rhapsody CD, and Rhapsody is one of my favorite bands. I've been collecting metal CDs for many years (I'm 42), and I'm usually disappointed in CDs that reviewers say are good, but turn out to be monotonous. In short, I'm very picky about my music. Take my word for it: Rhapsody is metal of unparalleled quality.

I would recommend this CD to anyone who likes Symphony X, Ayreon, Stratovarius (especially) due to the utter glory of their skill and creativity and their ability to play with power and passion.

The best song is The Wizard's Last Rhymes. It was totally based on Dvorak's New World symphony. If my memory serves me, they are using movement 3 or 4 almost note-by-note, but adding that power that only Rhapsody can.

Everything on here is so good! My second favorite is Queen of The Dark Horizons. Good, good stuff there. Buy this album! You will not be disapointed.

If this means anything, these guys are inspired by movie scores. Think John Williams meets fantasy metal. You would have a good understanding of what's going on.

WOW. That is all I can really say about this album. I've heard all of Rhapsody's and Luca Turilli's music, and have loved it all, but to put it simply, this album really tops it off. It's just impossible to describe! The way Rhapsody has done the delicate mixture of symphonic metal so perfectly is just amazing! My absolute favorite is The Wizard's Last Rhymes, it just ends it off so perfectly. Rain of a Thousand Flames, Queen of the Dark Horizons and The Poem's Evil Page are awesome too! But......just get this cd. You'll love it, trust me!

I would have given it 3.5/5 if I could.

This seems to be the weakest album entry Rhapsody has had since Legendary Tales. While it does have some incredible songs on it ("Queen Of The Dark Horizons," comes to mind), it also has more than the usual number of tracks which feature "the narrator" prominantly. For those unfamiliar with Rhapsody, the narrator is a voice over of astoundingly-bad quality. I don't often use the phrase "cheesy" to describe things, but the narrator is extremely cheesy, enough to make you embarassed to listen to it. I've actually gotten into the habit of ripping the CD to wav format, editing out those parts, and reburning the CD. The lyrics may be cheesy too, but they seem to work better when sung than when read.

The previous reviewers cover everything I can think of about the CD. Queen of the Dark Horizons was my favorite. I didn't care for the naration in Tears of a Dying Angel. It was a bit over dramatic. The Wizard's Last Rhymes sounded famuliar. I think it is taken from a piece of classical music, but I don't recall the name. Over all it was a job well done.