Rhapsody

Power of the Dragonflame (Limb)
by Scott Hefflon

The album’s called Power of the Dragonflame and there are song titles like “Knightrider of Doom” and “The March of the Swordmaster,” so it’s epic LOTR-style metal, filled with warbling vox, harmonies stacked to the heavens, keyboards’n’guitars flashily battling it out like expert swordsmen, and tempos good to strut your heavy metal ass to as well as leap and skip around like a fairy to. Bells on your boots are optional, but ya might as well; my neighbor’s cat has a cute lil’ bell too, and I’ll bet you’re just as much of a pussy.

Snide commentary aside (yeah, gotta flex and hold my balls while listening to this, lest I get caught up in the soaring guitarwork and start playing air guitar on my thigh, leaping on the bed like I’m 14), Rhapsody is, of course, top-notch. The musicianship is stellar, the vocals – all 20,000 layers – draw you in, tough or faggy, and you can’t avoid bouncing your head and wishing you could hit the high notes so you could sing along. Produced sparkling and clear, and as mind-bogglingly dense as Blind Guardian, Rhapsody are one of the post-Helloween bands that can drop your jaw, reminding you just how flabbergasting some guitarists are, especially in an age (at least in America) where nü metal is called metal, and these fretboard gymnastics and soaring metal vocals are the near-exclusive providence of European metal, which is where it’s at for any metalhead with an IQ in the triple digits.
(www.limb-music.de)