Rhapsody Of Fire – Return Of The Dragons
The band that was known as Rhapsody is back. The Symphonic Power Metal leaders, who later made their own genre called "Epic Metal", had quite a few hardships in recent years, mainly on the legal side – be it the name of the band, that was forced to change to Rhapsody Of Fire, or the conflict with their previous record company (owned by Manowar leader) that actually caused their disappearance. Until recently, we hardly knew what was going on with the Italian band, but then suddenly came the official announcement – a new album, a new and respected label, and more important, a renewed spirit to a band that created some of the strongest Power Metal albums of the late 90's.
With all the new things, what's left fixed, were the brains behind the band – guitarist Luca Turilli and keyboardist Alex Staropoli continue to produce albums as if they were movie soundtracks, with lot of epic music and lyrics that deal with Dragons, Wizards and other Abominations. Some might say it's outdated, or childish, but for all those who still got a youthful spirit in their dark hearts, it's time to return to the imaginary world of Rhapsody Of Fire, and talk with the keyboardist – who might not spill the juicy details about the case with the Kings of Metal (we tried), but was happy to elaborate on the creation of the band's seventh album, The Frozen Tears Of Angels, among some other subjects.
So, Rhapsody Of Fire is back! It seems so weird that up until few months ago no one knew what was going on with you guys, and then suddenly, Boom! New album, Boom! Nuclear Blast, Boom! Everything… How's the feeling in your camp regarding this comeback and new album?
It's a great experience to deliver the new album, and of course, we're very excited about signing with Nuclear Blast and working with them. We're releasing a new album that we're very proud of, we waited a long time for this, and now we're finally back.
Your new album sounds very promising, how long have you guys worked on it and what made you keep going without knowing when the legal problems would end?
It took us one year to compose the new album, more or less. During the unknown time, we had to use our passion and all our heart to focus on the composing – just sitting in front of the piano, or in front of the computer, or Luca with his guitars, putting all these ideas together, and just thinking about the music. We are musicians, it's what we love to do, even if it means just composing music and thinking that one day the music will be delivered to our fans – this was the main energy that kept us working.
Have you used some previous ideas you had, when composing the new album? Have they changed during this time?
This is a good question. Like I said, it took us a year to compose, but what's important is that we didn't compose songs we already had, we really started from zero – this album is brand new, and it sounds more modern. For us it was important to start something from scratch, something new, and just deliver songs that are very direct, very heavy, and orchestral but still songs we'll have fun to play on stage, and go crazy with. The good thing is, that everyone in the band has different favorite songs, for example, I like "The Frozen Tears Of Angels", the drummer loves "Raging Starfire", and Luca likes another one, so everyone loves to play something different. This is a good sign, and I'm sure the fans will really appreciate it.
The album brings the 3rd chapter of "The Dark Secret Saga", can you give us a short recap of what happened so far in the story, and what the new album is all about?
[Laughs]… This is quite difficult for me, Luca is the mastermind behind the lyrics, so for me it's always a tragedy to try to talk about it. What was very important for me as musician, in the album, since the very beginning, was also the atmosphere, that you can imagine its very icy cold. From the very beginning Luca wanted to express the atmosphere and the mood of the lyrics with the music, so our main goal was to compose, arrange and mix the music in the way that the listener can really feel the ambient of the Saga – really feel it, not just with melodies, but using some special effects and some other instruments, which makes the music totally connected with the lyrics. Then you have the graphical aspect, the cover artwork, and there's something about these 3 elements, put together, that express 100% what this Saga is about – The feeling of coldness is inspired in all these songs.
Rhapsody Of Fire is known for its big and epic musical feel, while in the past you already used big orchestras and famous people such as Christopher Lee, what can we expect to find on the new album?
To follow on the previous question, the music is very important to understand the story. We could have taken a big orchestra, but we didn't want to do it again, we wanted to have some special instruments, but at the end we wanted to have a more modern sound. I started for example to use some keyboard sounds I didn't choose in the past. We're still into the classical way of composing, but for this album, we wanted to have some modern touch. Of course we have our trademark Symphonic Metal, we still play and arrange the pieces like a soundtrack, but it was also very important to have very loud guitars, and Luca did an amazing job with this – the guitars are much louder than before. Personally, I'm a keyboard player, I like orchestras and arrangements, and I like soundtracks, but for me, to have very loud guitars in front of your face, was very important as well. This whole mix with some new keyboard sounds and everything, gives the songs much more impact.
Has your time alongside Manowar changed the way you work or look at your music, when it comes to the heavy productions or direction?
Oh, not at all… The way we compose now, is the same way that we use in '95… We love movies and stories – Luca comes up with song titles and starting from there, we envision the songs in our minds and then we start composing. This is the process that we used since the very beginning, from our demos, and it's the same process we use now. But I have to say that from our live experience, we better understand that you also need to create some songs that will be more fun to play on stage… Sometimes we compose songs that are very complex, and its possible to play them on stage, but in the end, when you compose a song like "Emerald Sword", which is a simple song, this simplicity is what the people really love to hear when you play live. This live experience in general, always helped us to understand how to compose. So of course, tapping with heavy guitars and big riffs like on the new album, will be a fantastic injection of energy!
The band has a more or less constant lineup for some years now. Have the other members contributed in one way or another to the song writing process or is it just you and Luca?
Luca and I are always writing the music, we are the producers, we arrange the music, we do almost everything together, but this time we also worked with Fabio [vocals]. We did some songs together with him, and this was a great experience. Usually, we always want to do everything by ourselves, but Fabio had some very good ideas, and we decided to do it together with him. It also improved our relationship a lot, because when the singer is happy, the whole band is happy [Laughs]… Also, when we start composing, even if we program the songs, the drums, and everything on the computer, when we're in the studio, and, for example, Alex is playing the drums for real, he adds something of himself. In the end, even if it wasn't part of the composition, everyone in the band brings their own talent… and on stage, it's even more apparent.
When you talk about a Rhapsody Of Fire album, there's always a music piece or a story that laired in previous releases. Will you ever consider doing a one album-concept or even an album with just epic songs about all sorts of subjects?
Yes, we thought about it, but in the end, Luca is the writer, so it's more up to him what he wants to do with the lyrics. I'm responsible for the musical side, because I'm not able to write great lyrics [Laughs]… But yes, we think that maybe in the future we could release an album, for example, that has its own story. This is only the beginning for us with Nuclear Blast, so we are open for ideas. Now we're just about to release a new album, but maybe in the future there would be more directions with this new exciting combination of forces between Rhapsody Of Fire and Nuclear Blast.
The metal scene has changed a lot in the last few years, and it seems your type of Symphonic Metal has become very rare. How will you suggest newer crowds to approach your albums?
As I said before, we wanted to have an album that sounds more modern, but still feels like Rhapsody Of Fire, and I think that in the future this will be even stronger. When you have a band like Rhapsody Of Fire, on every album there's so many different kind of songs, from ballads, to Italian songs, or songs like "Reign Of Terror" which are very aggressive, so I don't think we need to know what the fashion is at the time. We don't force anyone to buy the albums, we'll release the music that we like to compose, and that's the most important thing.
While the band was on hold during this time, how have you kept yourself busy? Did you have time to listen to some current metal?
Personally I didn't really listen to any Heavy Metal music, I wanted to clean my mind completely and just relax, but I also composed some songs together with my brother, for a new band. We had some songs written with my brother, but then I started with the new Rhapsody Of Fire album. In general, we just lived our lives in a normal way.
A few years ago you have been working on a solo album, are you still on it?
This is what I was talking about, I won't call it my solo album, because I worked on it with my brother, and I was also working with the singer of Midnight [ex-Crimson Glory], but unfortunately he just passed away last year. There are lots of good songs I wrote for Midnight, so now we have to see what to do with them. Everything happened so fast since we signed with Nuclear Blast, we have been working on the Rhapsody Of Fire album, so now the doors are open and there's many possibilities to create more music – maybe even making a solo project.
How do you see yourself going on and creating music in the next few years with Nuclear Blast in comparison to previous years?
I don't want to make comparison, we learned from every experience, but it's clear to everyone that Nuclear Blast is big label and you can see the kind of bands they have and the kind of success their bands have. It's a fantastic situation to work with Nuclear Blast, we're looking forward to release the new album, and to go tour, and then we'll see what the next step is.
Speaking of tours, do you have any plans for this year?
Right now we're a little bit late because of the whole situation, but for sure we want to tour this year. We don't know yet, we want to organize a tour, but the most important thing right now is to release the new album, and the next step is to play on stage and go everywhere in the world. This is the biggest thing we want to do right now, as you can imagine after so many years.
You spoke about your earlier days, and I'm not sure if you mentioned this before but, when you had to change your name from Rhapsody to Rhapsody Of Fire, why didn't you want to go back to your first name, Thundercross?
It was a name from the beginning of our career, and we wanted to maintain "Rhapsody" inside the band name. Fortunately it was possible, there was a big risk to even use this name, but since we could, we just kept it. This was very important for us, because we're used to this band name, and if you change the band name totally, it could be a real chaos for the fans.
Do you prefer to compose metal and music over a known classical piece, or create something brand new?
At this time, I'd say creating something new. This is something we did in the past, it was very cool and very exciting because you have a piece which is already composed, and you have to try to change it, or improve it for the metal audience. It was always fun for me, always very exciting to do, but it's something we did so many times in the past, that this time we felt we don't need to do it again.
Finally, do you have some last words for your loyal Israeli fans?
The most important thing is that the new album will come out, and I hope it will be appreciated. The next thing of course, would be to come and play in front of you, it would be fantastic!
