Rhapsody of Fire have a new album out, and Bjørn Spotify wanted me to hear one of the tracks. This Italian symphonic metal band has been around since 1993 under various names, including THUNDERCROSS and Rhapsody. Thundercross is a cool name, I wonder if there’s a cyclocross race using that name now. The album art is pretty legit, with some sort of wizard wanderer guy and his magical falcon. I bet he’s the talk of Baldur’s Gate.

Clocking in at 16 minutes and change, this song actually takes longer than I do to make one of these posts. I didn’t remember them having a growly voice guy in the band, but the first movement (hah) features them heavily. It’s a juxtaposition to hear big bombastic symphonic metal with all them growls, but then the chorus is clean vocals so there’s that.

At around the 5 minute mark there’s a bit of a breakdown/transition that sounds like it’d fit really well in Castlevania or a Final Fantasy boss battle, before turning into plinky plunky grandspas guitars. After a mild rest, it changes gears and kicks into a bit of a slower chug.

The second movement (hah) in the track feels much more symphonic, with the clean vocals forward and heavy emphasis syllaBLES in each LINE. Maybe this is after they vanquished the shadows and are trying to figure out what to do. The solo at the 11 minute mark is triumphant and gives off a mild “Wyld Stallyns saved the day” vibe.

And then there’s some additional noodly goodness including a keyboard solo 13 minutes in. More metal bands need keyboardists. The song hits a bombastic crescendo, full of double kicks and the clean vocalist joining forces with growly guy. Or that was the third movement (hah) based on how it was different enough from the second movement (hah).

The song closes with some plinky plunky grandspas guitars, kind of similar to the break between the first & second movements (hah). Gotta give a lot of bless yous to Giacomo, one of the composers/lyricists. This song is a romp.