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4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent compilation despite obvious restrictions..., April 21, 2004
Let me start by saying I am not really the biggest Rhapsody fan on the face of the earth (I personally favor Luca Turilli's solo work over Rhapsody's), but I've heard about all the band has to offer and I personally only care for a little more than a handful of the band's work. So when I heard the band was releasing a compilation album for the Emerald Sword saga, I was interested because (like any human being) I didn't feel like buying 5 different CDs for the few tracks I like on each release (even though I did buy Power of the Dragonflame, and I still want to purchase Rain of a Thousand Flames.)In reality, you really do get the best of best (for the most part) when it comes to the included tracks, but I'm sure some Rhapsody fans would probably ague with me here, and I'd expect that as there are some really good songs missing, but among these songs are mainly the long epics (like Angels, Gargoyles of Darkness from Power of the Dragonflame, which clocks in at over 19 minutes) and well, I don't really think you'd want to sacrifice 5 to 6 of the shorter songs for one song (no matter how good it is!) This could have been solved by having a double disc, but I really don't think that would be necessary, because most fans are going to have all the bands works anyway and raising the price wouldn't be a good thing either. As for the video clip on the CD, if you have already acquired the video for "Holy Thunderforce" from the limited double-disc edition of Dawn of Victory, it is almost the same on this disc, except for one major difference - it is now in black and white and made to look dated, to increase the medieval feeling the video has. Not really anything too new or great, but a nice touch. I personally would like to have had the "Rain of a Thousand Flames" video instead of the updated "Holy Thunderforce" video, but oh well. As for the box set goodies, mentioned above, include a sticker that has the same artwork as the front of the box set (which I like the sticker, but I hate using cool stickers, because I always lose or quit using what I place them on, grrr!), a "small" poster of the CD case's artwork (which I think was neat putting all six covers of their previous releases together separated by swords in a pie formation), and finally picture cards of each band member and a group shot. The cards are a nice touch, but I feel I can't do much with them, because I want to keep them in a safe place so they stay nice, along with the rest of the box and extras (thus I placed the CD and booklet in a different case.) This is underscored by the fact the CD and booklet come in a cardboard digi-pack instead of a jewel case, but the digi-pack is very, very nicely done though.
So in the end, if you're a big Rhapsody fan, you probably have all the music included here if you have all the Rhapsody CD's, but you'll probably want the extra's this box set offers. On the other hand, if your new to Rhapsody, and is you first purchase of the band's music, this is probably a good place to start as it gives you a little morsel of each of the band's releases (but in that case just settle for the normal edition of this CD without the extras.) All in all, I'm glad I got this release and even paid a little more of the box set. The only thing left to say is "when is the new Rhapsody CD coming out?"
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by Rhapsody 
