VISIONS FROM THE ENCHANTED LANDS

I knew Rhapsody for the first time when my colleague metal head introduced me the band through "Dawn of Victory" album which blew me away at first spin especially on the solid composition of the music. Not really that actually, I also loved the grandiose orchestration throughout the album. It sounded pretentious actually, but I could not say other things than I love the band. The other characteristics of the music is really the energy and melody. I could say that they deliver power metal as their basic ingredients and put great melody line in almost every single song they have written. On team composition, I like the fact that they are very strong from the perspective of the musicians, i.e. the solid collaboration of Alex Staropoli and Luca Turili. It sounds clear to me the Alex is great in arranging the orchestration and string section while Luca is great in songwriting including writing the basic melody of the music. On the other perspective, I also like the collaboration between Myro and Sascha Paeth as brilliant producers for their music. The result is great music with great composition.

As far as the video, I like it because I love the band and I am ready to accept whatever they put in the video. I actually do not like a concert dvd that contains many stages from around places in different time. But .. this is Rhapsody, my friend .I am ready to digest whatever material the band poured into the CD as long as I can see them "live". So far, I have always imagined how the band sounds like on stage. And, through this DVD I can see how my favorite tracks like "The Wisdom of The Kings", "The Village of Dwarves", "Dawn of Victory" and many more being performed live. But when it comes to selecting the best from this live performance, I probably choose those performed as Czech Republic is the one. I especially love the performance of "The Village of Dwarves" where Manuel Staropoli plays flute. This is really a great performance! But I also love the performance of "Erian's Mystical Rhymes" where Patrice Guers performs great bass guitar solo followed by keyboard solo by Alex Staropoli and guitar by Luca Turili. The performance of this song is followed by attractive drum solo.

If you love power metal, I believe you will enjoy this DVD in its entirety. I also like parts where the fans of the band were being interviewed. For die hard fans of the band, DVD2 describes all documentaries about the band. Sound and picture quality of the DVD is great.

Overall, this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)