Review Summary: Rhapsody has officially cut the cheese… into two parts.
After an inconvenient mutual split-up of the Italian power metal entourage for reasons that are too weird to understand the motives properly, regardless of what they’re saying. The Future of Rhapsody of Fire, Patrice Guers, and Luca Turilli where in deep question of their ability of carrying on without each other, especially Luca Turilli who’s the main man behind Rhapsody’s signature sound. Luca described the spilt-up as the formation of two Rhapsody bands that will carry on the traditional Rhapsody sound, as well as the new modern Rhapsody sound. Personally, I still don’t understand this whole ordeal. Mainly because
Ascending to Infinity is considered the 11th Rhapsody album. Luca also has been saying that this solo career version of Rhapsody will carry out the traditional Rhapsody sound, along with musical freedom when writing these new Rhapsody albums. But the most shocking part of it all is that the album isn’t all that different from their old or newer material. The only thing that would be even note worthy of any difference is the middle-eastern/Indian influence within some choir chants. Besides that,
Ascending to Infinity is just another Rhapsody album that really can’t distinguish itself with its own “proper” sound that hasn’t been made before in the original Rhapsody line-ups.
Even if
Ascending to Infinity is considered the 11th Rhapsody album by the other Rhapsody of Fire members, it’s still technically a debut – a debut which would be bashed as a rip off if it didn’t consist of Luca Turilli. Since Luca is in the band, the rules of no harm and no foul play in. In all due respect, the album has a lot of good moments, especially in “Dark Fate of Atlantis”, “Excalibur”, and “Ascending to Infinity” which could be regarded as Rhapsody classics, but there’s a problem. That problem being the entire album is that it’s just another Rhapsody album. Basically, if you’ve heard one Rhapsody album, you’ve heard them all, but that doesn’t mean that they’re bad in any of the sense or even inconsistent. The only thing that’s different about every album in their discography is the excitement factor, and we’ve seen that factor fluctuate in both the highs and lows throughout Rhapsody’s career. This time in
Ascending to Infinity we see that excitement factor in an average setting for Rhapsody with some energetic moments, such as “Dark Fate of Atlantis”. However, this album isn’t exactly innovative - it’s just another Rhapsody album, plain and simple as it is, but it’s still one of the best power metal albums to be released this year.
