Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Trieste / Piazza Verdi / Italy
Concert date: August 13, 2014
Attendance: 1000
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry!)
We’ll slowly have to get used to the fact that summers as we once knew them are gone for good. The weather, most likely thanks to humans’ constant ‘tinkering’ with nature, has gotten more and more schizophrenic in recent years, so before long even snow in August won’t be anything unusual. So on the road to Trieste, where another top-notch and totally free concert experience awaited us (after Alex Carpani and his band with special guest David Jackson, ex-Van Der Graaf Generator), the sharp cold snap and the downpours didn’t surprise us one bit. For a moment it looked like the rain had fallen straight out of some cave troll’s backside.
As expected, the troll himself was nowhere to be seen in his true form at the show by Trieste symphonic power metallers Rhapsody of Fire, and the rain miraculously dried up just as we arrived in the valley. Still, you could probably have found a close relative of an orc or a troll in no time among the crowd that gathered in respectable numbers on a smallish square in the middle of Trieste. A few close relatives of princesses and sorceresses, mostly dressed in black, had turned up too, ready to enjoy the show by Trieste’s dragon slayers. The band returned to their home capital on the sails of their new studio album »Dark Wings of Steel«, released the year before, which marked an important turning point for the Italian power metal veterans.
The core of Rhapsody of Fire is still the two founding members, melancholic keyboard virtuoso Alex Staropoli and charismatic, operatically inclined singer Fabio Lione. Founding guitarist Luca Turilli was successfully replaced on the new album by Roby De Micheli, who is no lesser guitar master than his famous predecessor. He’s into neoclassical guitar too, with a wide range of arpeggios, and he’s proven more than once that his technical range is pretty broad. Turilli, meanwhile, has started his own version of Rhapsody, which remains tangled up with Rhapsody of Fire, however confusing and odd that sounds. The German Holzwarth brothers, bassist Oliver (also a live member of Blind Guardian) and drummer Alex, who has the third-longest tenure in the band, are key pieces of the Rhapsody of Fire Euro-metal puzzle. Their dynamic but mostly galloping rhythm line is crucial for tying together the mighty baroque arrangements, electrified guitar passages and epic melodies.
Trieste’s champions of symphonic Hollywood power metal have been on the scene since the mid-nineties, and they started out as a true one-of-a-kind act until countless second-rate imitators multiplied in their wake. That night they were in excellent live form, and of course it fired them up even more to be playing in front of their hometown crowd and loyal followers who knew every Rhapsody of Fire lyric by heart. Luckily, the band has come to its senses in recent years and no longer drags German keyboardist and producer Miro Rodenberg (ex-Kamelot) onto the stage, dressed up as a neighing wizard gnome from their long-running fantasy saga, to wear the crowd out with long-winded, overwrought recitals in ridiculous English.
Instead, Fabio, Alex, Roby and both Holzwarth brothers opened with the recorded instrumental intro »Vis Divina« and then went all out with »Rising From Tragic Flames«, from the current album »Dark Wings of Steel«, whose title epic they played that night as well. The selection, as expected, leaned mostly on their longtime, best-loved standards from the first four albums, the ones that cemented them as the leading act of the genre. For many Rhapsody of Fire fans, their first three records still count as the best of their career so far. The crowd got noticeably louder when these masters of fusing baroque arrangements with dramatic metal passages tore into the classic »Land of Immortals« from their debut »Legendary Tales« (1997). De Micheli’s guitar acted up on the first two songs (you could barely hear it), which luckily got fixed by the third track, »Land of Immortals«.
Even though Fabio hasn’t been among the youngest singers in European power metal for a long time, he’s still in incredible vocal shape. We were especially blown away when he pulled out his operatic tenor with its exceptional range, something only a technically well-trained singer of his caliber can afford. That’s exactly why it’s so hard to believe that during a short vocal break, when it was the instrumental section’s turn, he wandered off for a ‘smoke break’, which is definitely not the smartest recipe for vocal longevity. Rhapsody of Fire didn’t forget their fourth studio album, »Power Of The Dragonflame« (2002), that night either. It’s a bit less popular among fans than the first three, but »March of the Swordmaster« and especially »Lamento Eroico«, sung in Italian just like on the original, sent the crowd into indescribable delirium and drove the atmosphere toward its climax.
The epic adventure »Unholy Warcry« came with a recorded intro featuring a recitation by legendary English actor Christopher ‘Saruman’ Lee, a huge admirer of Rhapsody of Fire and their work and the oldest metalhead on the planet. After Alex’s drum solo came the mighty epic »Triumph or Agony« from the album of the same name, released in 2006, which was their first studio project under the name Rhapsody of Fire (before that they were just Rhapsody).
De Micheli then showed off his improvisational chops on electric guitar and finally convinced us that in the coming years Turilli will probably be missed more for his songwriting than his guitar skills, because they’ve got an excellent successor who is far from just some soulless technical imitator. The show was slowly nearing its climax, so two »Dawn of Victory« (2001) classics were up next, »Holy Thunderforce« and the title masterpiece. Mr. Lione sang the latter with a fire rarely seen or heard, constantly egging on his Italian countrymen as well as the many concertgoers who’d come from other countries.
After a short break it was time to head back on stage for the first encore, with great renditions of the beloved standards »The Village of Dwarves«, »Knightrider of Doom« and »The Magic of Wizard’s Dream«. They’d once collaborated successfully with Mr. Lee on that last one, too. The crowd of course earned a second encore, which at first, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t bring some longtime classic like »The Last Winged Unicorn« or »Rain Of a Thousand Flames«, but a newer song, »Reign Of Terror« from »The Frozen Tears of Angels« (2010). Still, the longtime Rhapsody of Fire fanatics finally got the big highlight of the night with the closer »Emerald Sword«, the most popular and best-known song by Trieste’s tellers of endless fantasy sagas, which ended the concert in the best possible way.
Rhapsody of Fire squeezed everything they had out of themselves that night and rewarded their loyal crowd with a top-notch show packed with some of the most cherished standards from their colorful career. It also caught the attention of plenty of music fans who only occasionally keep up with what’s new in the camp of Trieste’s symphonic metal standard-bearers. Honestly, you couldn’t have expected anything less than a near-perfect performance from Rhapsody of Fire in the very heart of Trieste. The power metal scene has been in a kind of decline for quite a few years compared to the more extreme forms of metal, which still draw fanatical interest. So it’s worth praising the Slovenian metal fans who showed up, deciding that instead of yet another ‘concert pounding of hammers and anvils in a Scandinavian or North American village forge’ they’d rather catch Rhapsody of Fire. The show offered some unforgettable moments, especially atmosphere-wise, and even many of those who usually laugh at their fantasy lyrics weren’t left cold. Long after the concert ended, you could still hear enthusiastic shouts from some of the locals, led by ‘Fabio presidente’, which means the people have already picked their top candidate for the new president of Italy.
Setlist
1. Vis Divina (recorded intro)
2. Rising From Tragic Flames
3. Land of Immortals
4. The March of the Swordmaster
5. Unholy Warcry
6. Starship Troopers (drum solo)
7. Triumph or Agony
8. Dark Wings of Steel
9. Lamento Eroico
10. Guitar solo
11. Holy Thunderforce
12. Dawn of Victory
—encore I—
13. The Village of Dwarves
14. Knightrider of Doom
15. The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream
—encore II—
16. Reign of Terror
17. Emerald Sword
Photo Gallery
