Product Description

Sensational sales figures, almost a cult status amongst their fans all over the world, sold-out shows, high chart positions and thrilling performances at almost every important European metal Festival: The Italian formation Rhapsody, with their three previously released albums, Legendary Tales (1997), Symphony Of Enchanted Lands (1998) and Dawn Of Victory (2000) as well as the speciallly priced Album, Rain Of A Thousand Flames released last Autumn, has been able to create a totally new and unique style called 'Hollywood Metal' and to fascinate fans all over the world with it.

Power Of The Dragonflame, their fourth full length album is another episode of the exciting Emerald Sword saga and one which brings the saga to an end. Power Of The Dragonflame took form in familiar surroundings, namely in the Wolfsburg 'Gate Studios` with Sascha Paeth and Miro, themselves experienced musicians (Heavens Gate, Virgo etc) and who have been closely tied to the success of the Italian band since the beginning of Rhapsody's career. Similar to their previous releases, the musicians Luca Turilli (guitar), Alessandro Staropoli (keyboards), Fabio Lione (vocals) and Alex Holzwarth (drums) let off a spectacular firework display of ideas, showing themselves not only as heavy, fast and aggressive, but also epic and orchestral. After the sensitive intro, 'In Tenebris' and exciting tracks such as 'Knightrider Of Doom`, 'The March Of The Swordmaster' and 'Steelgods Of The Last Apocalypse' the album culminates in the closing, over 19 minute long 'Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness', which begins with a calm acoustic guitar prologue, accelerates in typical Rhapsody fashion and which includes the expressive, unusually theatrical voice of singer Fabio Lione. 'Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness' combines all of the band's strengths: their rhythmic finesse, their epic basic structures and the hymn-like vocals.

From the Artist

As previously mentioned, Power Of The Dragonflame ends the Emerald Sword saga. "As far as the style goes, it's like drawing a section through all our previous releases, right from our 1997 debut," Luca Turilli characterizes the new opus. "We were able to use ideas from a huge amount of inspiration, that's why it's turned out so long, being over 60 minutes." On a special note, Rhapsody also present a classical choir, a classic ensemble with violins, flutes etc. as well as a song sung entirely in Italian. "The song, "Lamento Eroico" is a very poetic piece with words that we can only express in our native language." Turilli described this, one of the highlights of the album. The brilliance of the album is again underlined by cover artwork by Marc Klinnert, who was also responsible for the artwork on the two previous albums.

About the Artist

Since 1997 and the opening sounds of their debut album, Rhapsody have been a unique phenomena of the current metal scene and one for which there has never been a comparison. Metal fans from all over the world have an incredible reception to Rhapsody's album, Legendary Tales, with which the band, together with Hammerfall, became leading representatives of a new generation of forward-looking metal bands almost over night. Just two years after Legendary Tales, the follow-up album, Symphony Of Enchanted Lands was released and promptly climbed to 54th in the German album charts, 41st in Finland and as high as 22nd in Italy and Holland. The international press were again thrilled with the band's release. The southern German metal magazine, "Heavy oder was!?", the Dutch "Aardschok" and the Belgian mag, "Mindview" all voted Symphony Of Enchanted Lands Album of the Month. In numerous other magazines in France, Norway, Greece, Rumania and Italy Rhapsody was featured on the cover. Between early April and the end of May 2000 Rhapsody joined Stratovarius on a successful European tour before releasing their third long player, Dawn Of Victory later in the year. The album did even better than the huge success of its predecessors and was placed high in the charts of many countries. Besides reaching 32nd in Germany, Dawn Of Victory attained similarly high positions in Italy, France, Sweden and Finland, in Japan it entered the charts at 24th, whilst in the Dutch Indie-Charts it went as high as 4th. Early summer 2001 saw the band travelling to South America for the first time where they left a fabulous impression behind them, before returning to Europe to headline at several European open air festivals.

To the joy of their fans, Rhapsody will be beginning their first own headliner tour from April1st 2002. The band, which will include new bass player Patrice Guers and guitarist Dominique Leurquin, will not only be playing in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, but will also be travelling to Japan for the first time, where their fans can hardly wait to see them at the four shows planned for Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo (2 shows). Angel Dust and At Vance will be supporting Rhapsody in Europe, whilst in Japan the name of the "Special Guest" is still being kept a secret. The dragon flame along with all of Rhapsody's energy will therefore burn brightly from the beginning of April 2002 until mid-May and then again in Summer when the band will be performing at a few selected Festivals. Turilli can already promise one thing: "Our fan won't get to see just another metal show, but something very special - something you can only get from Rhapsody."