limited deluxe digipak
вещ тащемта-это вам не "семки на привозе лузгать"
в наличии хоры, оркестровки, проговые, неоклассикал, акустик,эпик, фолк элементы, так же скрим и прочие мелкие радости жизни...

Fabio Lione - Vocals (Vision Divine, Labyrinth (Ita), Athena (Ita))
Luca Turilli - Guitars (Luca Turilli's Dreamquest)
Alex Staropoli - Keyboards, Harpsichord, Piano
Patrice Guers - Bass (Inner Visions, Further Dimension, Patrick Rondat)
Alex Holzwarth - Drums, Percussion (Sieges Even, Val'Paraiso, Blind Guardian, Angra, Paradox (Deu), Dol Ammad, Avantasia, Brutal Godz)

Session members:
Dominique Leurquin - Rhythm Guitars (Dream Child, Inner Visions, Luca Turilli's Dreamquest)


This is the third chapter of "The Dark Secret Saga", which began with "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret".

The new name of Rhapsody, taken up on 14th July 2006 because of copyright issues. Do not add former Rhapsody members to the past members box!
зы
чето сегдня у меня утром с интернетом-часа три заливал-наверно это вулкан влияет

Some people complain that it lacks a bombastic production – they’re right in a way, but only because this time the musicians didn’t include a real orchestra (the abovementioned Celesty did that, for example) and had to give their best, counting completely on themselves. Which actually is another plus for me – the orchestrations in the album do NOT dominate over necessary parts, leaving space for Alex and Luca to realize their ideas and for Fabio to sing the best written vocal lines in a long time now;
Others complain about lack of innovation in the sound – they might be right as well, but with the same remark: if you thought the band members will scratch out the unique (for its time) style that forged their name as one of the best formations in the genre (or play thrash, let’s say), well, you simply got both Rhapsody and their concept totally wrong. On the other hand, a close listening of the album proves that even more wrong, for there are several surprising details which weren’t present in the music, but they require more than just two spins of the record:

On a musical level it has beautifully arranged transitions between each track - speaking of diversity, the degree changes in between the trio Reign of Terror - Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio - Raging Starfire always leaves me in awe. Dark Frozen World is the best intro I’ve heard since the majestic Lux Triumphans from Dawn of Victory and I’m kindda surprised that Luca didn’t include it in The Frozen Tears of Angels since his tradition of incorporating intro parts in the last epic song from the grand finale of the album dates to late 90’s; Crystal Moonlight was earlier described as a “progressive composition” – for me it’s a compact song with catchy lines on the chorus, once again building a parallel to Fabio’s works in Vision Divine which just didn’t suit the previous albums in order to be executed back then. Raging Starfire and On The Way To Ainor are crazy KILLER songs in the well-known style of Rhapsody and have straight-for-the-heart choruses; Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio reminds me of the experimental mood of Lo Specchio D'Argento, but it has a vague folk direction in addition to it. The ballad is also something new for Rhapsody’s music – all of their ballads until now followed the “orchestra+piano+flute” formula, while Lost In Cold Dreams is the first strictly guitar-structured one. Another nice surprise is that the key solos of Alex flow free once again along with the longest riffs of Luca and creep their way into the songs, sometimes overtaking almost ½ of their duration. Reign of Terror strikes with aggressive blackish mood reminding of Fabio’s outstanding performance in the classic When Demons Awake, but developed even more with the help of the choir; Labyrinth of Madness is almost a Malmsteen-spirited guitar demonstration made for all fans who missed Luca’s outrageous playing style; Sea of Fate combines two tracks in one - the second interpretation dissolves in a touching ballad with synth-orchestral work and slowed-down tempo which in the end make it sound as a totally different and most beautiful song.

If I have to point out negative sides, they’ll be several – in a way the album lost the “soundtrack” mood that was present on both Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2 and Triumph or Agony which might disappoint some fans, but on the other hand it allowed the band to concentrate its energy right in the eye of the storm of musical madness. They might’ve used clean orchestral passages here and there, though because of the lack of physical ability it’s forgivable. It’s also meaningless to say that I wanted a longer album – that’s natural for every fan waiting for a comeback of his favorite band for years, but Luca stated that right after the tour he’ll get down to finishing the rest of the material, so that’s not so much of a pain since there are 2 or even 3 other albums (first of which quite possible to hit the market in late 2011) planned before the end of The Dark Saga and the return to the Algalord Chronicles. So finally those are not minuses but only eventual aspects which if present would’ve made me lose my mind ubercompletely.

One thing strikes me most pleasantly when I compare it with the previous album – thankfully, the new record lost the Manowar influence which dominated some 80% of the riff basis in Triumph or Agony. I don’t know (yet) what happened between Rhapsody and Magic Circle Music nor I know who screwed who, but one thing is sure – after the entire cacophony, Luca & co release an album that’s entirely clean of all those Manowarish elements as if they were never present in the history of the band, thus making one good well-deserved spit in the face of DeMaio and his label.

So in the end I got an album more solid than the previous two and an abstract reflection of my two champions from Rhapsody’s discography in its core with interesting elements revealing themselves with each next spin – needless to say I’d give it a max/max score and the chance to take the lead in my top power metal albums of 2010. The twisted laws of fate once again open space for confrontation with a future Blind Guardian album in the very same year, but by all means, if the Germans don’t come up with something 666 times better than their A Twist In The Myth, they’ll have to stay way behind their Italian colleagues once again.