Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Opera or classical music, like many other musical art forms, can be a divisive topic of discussion in the musical alleyways, you either love it or loathe it; you either see it for what it is or what you imagine it to be. However when the subtleties and booming experiences of the thought of higher end of musical experiences is met head on like a Minotaur gate-crashing a build your own maze party and one carrying the appeal of the rhapsody, then perceptions, like ideals, need to be challenged and fought against.
Perhaps only from the home of such musical divulgences can someone step forth and do for power symphonic metal what composer Jim Steinman did for Rock back in 1977 as he and Meat loaf unleashed Bat Out of Hell on to an unsuspecting nation of fans. For Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, the combination of musical genius and insight is not just overflowing, it positively radiates and throws elemental sources at it that makes the small hairs on the back of the neck stand up and urge rebellion and never more so than in the stunning album Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinis.
The urge to grasp the unattainable, the will to deliver what is known only to the Gods, has shaped humanity, arguably defined it to the point where existence in the modern world is overwhelmed by the constant state of rapid change, the feeling that every new discovery, a group of people get left behind and fall into a well of obscurity and shadow. Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinis may seem distant, may have the foreboding of the unnatural surrounding it, however it offers a guiding light that many would benefit from hearing.
With a list of musicians that aid in that that initial crawling sensation on the nape and under the skin of the neck, including Patrice Guers on bass, Dominique Leurquin on guitar, Alex Landenburg on drums and the haunting tones of Alessandro Conti on lead vocals, songs such as Nova Genesis (Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis, Rosenkreuz (The Rose and The Crown), the sublime One Ring To Rule Them All, King Solomon And The 72 Names of God and the final killer blow of exquisite beauty in Of Michael The Archangel and Lucifer’s Fall Part II, what transpires is not just an album but a sense of power, of the majesty that comes across in the use of the imagination and how it is decoded, absorbed into a raging beast.
Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinis may allude to the search for meaning to life but what it also brings to the listener is acceptance in another art form that may have been missing from their lives. Naturally outstanding and the feeling of craving for more fills the mind unlike almost anything else released so far this year.
Ian D. Hall