Luca Turilli
King Of The Nordic Twilight

Clap! Clap! Clap!... Bravo Luca, or is it Rhapsody??? Well, what's the difference??? Rhapsody is Luca Turilli and no one can dispute that, and it's precisely for this reason that I wonder "but fundamentally why has Turilli come up with yet another solo work identical to those of the parent band???"... the answer is very simple, what??? Are you wondering what it is??? But of course, to make more money, as if he weren't already swimming in it. "King Of The Nordic Twilight" is yet another confirmation of the self-satisfaction that pervades this man's soul, who, besides having composed an album with 3 decent songs out of 8, is fundamentally composed of:

1. a cover with a horrid fantasy flavor (among other things without a shred of originality) and all those classic Rhapsody components that have gifted him fame and money, thus the dark Latin intro, this time titled "To Magic Horizons" (Good Lord, what imagination this guy has), followed by a blazing song "Black Dragon," which, as much as it's heard and reheard, isn't too unpleasant, presenting us with a musical base entirely guitar-based (oh really... and here I was thinking it was based on instruments like, I don’t know... the bass), endless double bass pedals, and a voice (at least this one is beautiful) that's high and clear. The chorus is quite overused but decent, with backing choirs and the talented Olaf (the singer) hitting incredibly difficult notes. We then move on to "Legend Of Steel," which treads the exact same path as the other, adding a harpsichord-like intro followed by all the instruments, the splendid voice of the singer, and the hyper showy choirs. The predictability of this song is truly unique, congratulations Luca!!!! Following that, we find "Lord Of The Winter Snow" (oh really... winter snow... but does it snow in Trieste on August 20??? Let us understand a bit you sly one), which begins with a female operatic-like voice followed by a horrendous musical base that will draw your finger towards the button to skip the song and it will be precisely "the salvation button from the previous atrocity" that will lead you to a couple of somewhat decent songs, I'm talking about "Princess Aurora" and "The Ancient Forest Of Elves"): the first presents itself as a fairly listenable ballad thanks to a graceful female voice, accompanied almost exclusively by a beautiful piano, joined by other instruments in the chorus. "The Ancient Forest Of Elves" (the ancient forest of elves... oh Jesus what kind of crappy title is that??) is the best track on the album, characterized by a strong medieval flavor due to the presence of violins and flutes, which make the song somewhat special. "Throne Of Ice" is an almost decent intermezzo but quite useless to be honest, as it's almost identical to the intro in terms of song type. Following is "Where Heroes Lie," a classic power metal piece that's more of the same. And now here it is... the real treat from Lucone!!! A grueling suite of 11 (I said 11) grueling minutes, which is not only disproportionately long but also dreadful.

In conclusion, this album should be dismissed with a nice "What a Disgrace!!" but I won't because it does have some positive aspects (upon reflection there are only two) which are the voice of the talented Olaf and the highly polished production as per the best Turilli/Rhapsody tradition, for the rest, nothing, absolutely nothing new and moreover, please Luca, from the depths of my heart, next time write lyrics (and even titles if you can... but only if you can, don’t strain too much) that make at least a little sense and if you really want to produce fantasy songs do it with at least a minimum of reasoning. For now, the verdict on the solo career of this likable Italian metalhead is completely INSUFFICIENT.