FROM CHAOS TO ETERNITY

I've always been a sucker for Rhapsody, and its really gratifying to see that, with their last two albums, they've dropped much of what used to make listening to them hard work, and focused their songwriting. Much like in Frozen Tears, From Chaos features mainly short, first-rate power metal songs, with the 'cinematic' elements and meandering compositions of previous albums pretty much absent. Rhapsody were always good at hooks, at least from roughly Dawn of Victory onward, but here the hooks are prominent in every song (at least one or two in every cut, some of them so effective I wonder if the band might not enjoy success writing straight-forward pop music). This album and Frozen Tears are two of the finer power-metal albums I can think of. The final, extended cut, Heroes of the Waterfalls' Kingdom, is an excellent conclusion to the Dark Secret saga (especially when compared with its equivalent on Power of the Dragonflame) and I particularly like the inclusion of a cover of Iron Maiden's Flash of the Blade as a bonus track, the album feels a lot more balanced with it serving as a bookend. Excellent.