I bet that, if they ever chop off Luca Turilli's head, a thick goo filled with inspiration and ideas will come splurting out. Now this may perhaps be a crude way of putting it, but my point is that there seems to be no stopping him from pouring out music.

Perhaps the members of his main band, Rhapsody, were a bit tired after they'd recorded their phenomenal "Symphony of Enchanted Lands". Luca wasn't, at any rate, and quickly sat down to write more music that was remarkably in the same vein. Miro and Sascha Paeth, also involved with Rhapsody, were recruited to do keyboards and bass respectively, later to be joined by drummer Robert Hunecke and vocalist Olaf Hayer.

"King of the Nordic Twilight" - another one of those hardly modest titles - bursts open with a most bombastic, almost operaic, intro. What then follows is a CD filled with tracks that could have come straight off any Rhapsody album. There's folky elements, there's the over-the-top Hollywood film score quality, and there's the vocalist who is perhaps not quite as good as Fabio Lione, but fits the music excellently.

I like this stuff. I like the Russian-sounding middle section of "Black Dragon", those nice folky/synth additions to the sound, and the energy that just radiates from the album.

To accompany the release of "King od the Nordic Twilight", a CD single has been released as well. Entitled "The Ancient Forest of Elves", it contains three tracks: The title track (off the album), "Warrior's Pride" (the Duet version) and the non-album track "Knight of Immortal Fire". Needless to say, fans of this kind of music will need to own that one too.

Click here to check out or buy this CD

RK

Written September 1999

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