It's bombastic, pretentious and loud. Drums at supersonic speed, orchestral elements and a few brief interruptions of more tranquil sounds. Also, add a fantasy story as the theme sung by a real heavy metal voice. It's everything music should contain!
No?
Rhapsody was / is an Italian metal band that was created in 1993. The first time I heard the album, I wanted to call the music metal opera. Then I read on Wikipedia that music should be defined as symphonic power metal. Oh, how wrong I was, but I still think metal opera fits quite well.
The band began as Thundercross, before it got the name Rhapsody. Due to legal reasons, they were forced to change its name in 2006 and thus became Rhapsody of Fire. 2011, the founder of the band, Luca Turilli, left the band and created Luca Turilli's Rhapsody. The farewell and the creation of the new band was apparently done on friendly basis, and both bands continue to coexist.
Rain of a Thousand Flames is the only record I have with the band, this kind of music is not what I usually listen to. But I have read that Rhapsody had a red thread through their albums in form of a fantasy story, The Emerald Sword Saga. Later during the record making the tale continued as The Dark Secret Saga. The struggle between evil and good with demons, monsters and magic. Classic fantasy!
Rain of a Thousand Flames, their fourth album, is considered to be a bridge between the records Dawn of Victory and Power of the Dragonflame, the final chapter of The Emerald Sword Saga. The LP contains a parallel story to the main theme and is apparently not essential to the main story. It's about how the evil Akron destroy city and country with the help of the Emerald sword which he had gotten hold of.
The reason I bought this album? I found it a few years ago in Uppsala, Sweden, where it felt quite out of place in the store which otherwise mostly sold chart-topping music on CD. This alone made me curious. The price was less than 15$ and I was currently in a brief period where I hold an extra interest for picture discs. Last but not least, what pushed me over the edge was the sticker on the cover - Limited edition, 3000 copies worldwide. Obviously you have to have a record like that, it can be worth money some day. In addition, it came with a poster inside the cover.
Although it is not my kind of music, the album is quite enjoyable to listen to. I'm a bit weak for powerful and bombastic elements in music, and here you get a lot of it. If you like metal, perhaps especially metal à la Iron Maiden, spiced with a handful of symphonic elements, it is certainly a good buy. But for my part, I will probably not buy more albums with Rhapsody, or any other band of the genre, it's enough with this one.
Tracklist
Side A
1. Rain of a Thousand Flames 3:43
2. Deadly Omen 1:49
3. Queen Of The Dark Horizons 13:42
Side B
Rhymes Of A Tragic Poem - The Gothic Tale
1. Tears Of A Dying Angel 6:23
2. Elnor's Magic Valley 1:40
3. The Poem's Evil Page 4:04
4. The Wizard's Last Rhymes 10:38
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