Rhapsody (band)

Rhapsody is an Italian Epic metal band, formerly known as Thundercross.

Related Topics:
Italian - Epic metal

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In 1997 Rhapsody released their debut album, Legendary Tales. Co-founders Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli created an epic sound with this first album. Although neo-classical metal had existed previously, Rhapsody incorporated classical music, baroque and heavy metal styles in a new sub-genre known as "Hollywood metal". The classical influences include such composers as Vivaldi, Bach and Paganini. The band also shows Power Metal influences and fantasy themes.

Related Topics:
1997 - Legendary Tales - Luca Turilli - Alex Staropoli - Classical music - Baroque - Heavy metal - Genre - Hollywood metal - Vivaldi - Bach - Paganini - Power Metal - Fantasy

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In the years that followed, Turilli and Staropoli, joined by Fabio Lione on vocals, developed this new sound with their albums Symphony of Enchanted Lands (1998), Dawn of Victory (2000), Rain of a Thousand Flames (2001), and Power of the Dragonflame (2002). They wrote pieces such as "Emerald Sword", drawing on Russian folklore and Celtic style elements and creating what was known as the "Emerald Sword Saga".

Related Topics:
Fabio Lione - Vocals - Symphony of Enchanted Lands - 1998 - Dawn of Victory - 2000 - Rain of a Thousand Flames - 2001 - Power of the Dragonflame - 2002 - Russian - Folklore - Celtic - Emerald Sword Saga

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Turilli is the band's lyricist, as well as guitarist. His lyrics often refer to mystical lore from the medieval age and the heroic valor of those times, highlighting in particular the everlasting fight between good and evil. "Evil can be found everywhere," says Turilli. "But it will never win as long as there are enough good people who fight against it."

Related Topics:
Lyricist - Guitarist - Lore - Medieval

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Christopher Lee was involved in their last project, narrating part of the storyline. This album was a follow-up to the Emerald Sword Saga, and was labeled , and was released in 2004.

Related Topics:
Christopher Lee - Narrating - Storyline

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The band produced a new single CD in 2005 labeled The Magic of the Wizard's Dream, featuring new versions of "The Magic of the Wizard's Dream", one of the more popular songs from their album Symphony of Enchanted Lands II - The Dark Secret. The band had Lee sing backup vocals for Lione, because Lee felt that the narrators part of being the Wizard King was a not as good as it could be without him contributing his voice to atleast one song. The song was reworked into four different languages, {{ll|English}}, {{ll|German}}, {{ll|Italian}}, and {{ll|French}} they also included both the original version of the song with a duet, and an orchestral version of the song, both in English. This also produced Rhapsody's third music video. The band also released two new tracks exclusively on this single, "Autumn Twilight" and "Lo Specchio D?Argento". This single was released March 29th.

Related Topics:
The Magic of the Wizard's Dream - Orchestral - Music - Video

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