The first album of a group now inevitable: Rhapsody. The style is already recognizable, it is pure symphonic speed juice and pretty good for a first game. Like many, I was initially attracted by the cover before buying the album, normal, I had just discovered Manowar at the time: ouaaah, symphonic metal and chivalrous! Yet in 1997, the style was not the success it is experiencing, and the only ones who dared to mix classical and metal was Angra, Symphony X and Rage then tumbled Rhapsody, an Italian group led by Luca Turilli (guitar) and Alex Staropoli (keyboards), high classical musicians before turning to the metal. Unlike previous groups, Rhapsody is not content to explore the music of the Renaissance, he mingles with his melodic speed-metal a big part of medieval music, but also of Baroque music. This explains the presence of more keyboards, a whole set of strings and flutes, acoustic guitars, mandolins and bagpipes to give an appearance more "authentic" symphonic passages. The often very fast rhythmic knows sometimes give way to classical instruments, allowing to rest between two solos terribly "malmsteeniens" of Turilli, and appreciate the many facets of singing Fabio Lione. Even if production is not as powerful as on the album, although the sequences may lack cohesion, and even though the best is yet to come, "Legendary tales" does nonetheless a superb prelude to the saga the emerald sword, great magical-medieval fresco that stretches over the first five albums.
