Rhapsody
Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II - The Dark Secret

THE REVIEW

Yet another CD for the very Italian (even in pronunciation) Rhapsody of Fabio Lione.
An album that is definitely listenable, with many tracks of undeniable quality, but which doesn’t differ much (read: not at all) from the already known and rehashed power-epic metal clichés.

After the first track, with the introduction by the actor of Saruman (the name escapes me) for whom Fabio and company have a kind of obsession, the album opens with Unholy Warcry, one of the most valid songs on the CD, with excellent choirs and music, but unfortunately the song is nothing new and thus must be listed among "the beautiful epic songs", whereas, in my opinion, it could have been something more... Another note of demerit is the English pronunciation by good old Fabio, which, if it were slightly better, would make everything more digestible, but, alas, this is a flaw that Rhapsody carries throughout the album. Next is "Never Forgotten Heroes," my favorite, with a touch of more originality, a bit more epic and powerful than the previous one. Follow the two melodic "Elgard's Green Valleys" and "The Magic Of The Wizard's Dream", beautiful although here the same goes as with "Unholy". Passing through "Erian's Mhystical Rhymes" and "The Last Angel's Call" (the same old clichés), we arrive at the other melodic "Dragonland's Rivers", remarkable but somehow I always feel like I'm listening to Blind Guardian...
After yet another ultra-epic song to the extreme ("Sacred Power Of Raging Winds"), we come to what should be the jewel of the album, namely "Guardiani Del Destino". It is immediately noticeable that Fabio is decidedly more comfortable singing in Italian, he maneuvers very well among the words of the song and together with the Rhapsodian choirs makes this track a small masterpiece among songs that are beautiful, but really not very original.
Same story as the first tracks for the two songs that close the album, "Shadows Of Death" and "Nightfall On The Grey Mountains".

A CD to own, but not a masterpiece. I understand that in this genre it is not easy to be original, I recognize that the songs are truly beautiful, and technically the only flaw is the pronunciation, but really, in the long run, one gets a little tired of the usual Blindguardian pieces, that after you have heard "Nightfall In Middle Earth" the other bands are all the same... Let's grant Rhapsody to be a really good band with great potential, and hope that one day they will stand out from the ten thousand epic bands all alike (from which they emerge only for technical skill) when finally we will no longer have to say: "they are the Italian Blind Guardian" but "they have influenced the genre LIKE the Blind Guardian".