September 2026 Feature Release - The Guardians Edition
For whatever reason I've had Rhapsody on the brain again this past month, so what better time to go back to their sometimes overlooked debut Legendary Tales for the month of September. Despite being on the extremely cheesy end of high fantasy inspired Power Metal, I always thought their earlier releases had a bit more teeth to them for listeners looking for something besides the grandiose choruses and symphonics.
As always, let us know what you think of it either in a comment below, as a fully fledged review, or any kind of discussion you'd like!
https://metal.academy/releases/5956
Rhapsody (of Fire) is one of the bands that shaped up my earlier taste in symphonic/power metal over a decade ago. Their debut Legendary Tales I once thought was a legendary start to their career. But the question is, can I still handle the cheese when I revisit this offering all these years later? Review from me coming soon...
I've done my review, here's its summary:
1997 was a life-changing year for metal, and one significant part of that year was the debut albums of 3 bands that would popularize symphonic metal; Nightwish, Within Temptation, and of course, Rhapsody of Fire. The lattermost band would combine the genre with power metal and take listeners through different fantasy saga, making a great start to their journey with their debut Legendary Tales. This album and Symphony of Enchanted Lands were my two favorite albums by the band long ago when my earlier taste in symphonic/power metal was at a all-time high. With my cheese enjoyment decreasing a bit nowadays, I give a little more love to the 3 albums after those two, especially Power of the Dragonflame. Still, Legendary Tales displays the incredible talents of guitarist Luca Turilli, keyboardist Alex Starpolli, and the gifted vocalist Fabio Lione. 3 of the tracks are epic anthems that I still enjoy to this day. The other 3 metal tracks I also like for their heaviness and neoclassical melodies. There are also two ballads that OK but a bit cheesy. And the two interludes, well, they're pointless on their own but help get you geared up for two of the aforementioned highlights. Altogether, these 10 tracks make a solid offering that is recognized as a memorable gamechanger in 90s metal....
4/5