Today I am reviewing the symphonic metal greats Rhapsody of Fire and their awesome album Symphony Enchanted Lands II-The Dark Secret. This album features some amazing symphonic sounds and it is a fantastic listen. The guitar is fantastic with plenty of killer riffs, the bass is pretty good and the drums are amazingly powerful and original. In addition the keyboards can only be described as epic, there is also a very impressive fiddle which adds a great folk feel to the music. The vocals are beautiful and have a very mythical quality about them and sound impressive, the lyrics are deep and tell a grand and beautiful story. This album combines a lot of great elements and makes them symphonic to create some spectacular heavy metal.
The guitar work is extremely melodic the solos remind me very much of Hammerfall. There are some killer riffs too on this album, they help to drive the music along on certain bits. However the music is much more symphony oriented than guitar oriented. The bass is solid however it could certainly use more fills. However, this bassist does an amazing job on bass and makes the bass work melodic when it has to be and hard and thrashy at other times. The drums are amazingly eclectic and cover so many genres so well all with an incredibly unique flair. The keyboards have an amazing feel, they are incredibly symphonic and add a great feel to the music. The fiddle only comes in occasionally but when it does it truly adds a folk feel to the music. Truly the music on this album is extremely varied.
The vocals on this album are also extremely varied. Typically there are strong and epic vocals coming from the amazing vocal cords of Fabio Lione. He sings with such an amazing passion it brings me to the point of emotion. Its amazing to listen to the love he has for his music, a love that all of the band members must have. Fabio Lione has an amazingly gifted voice. Then there are the spoken bits done by our friend Christopher Lee. These bits have a really impressive aura of power about them. They are extremely enjoyable. Finally there are a lot of weird vocal effects that are done just for single bits of songs and they typically come out as pretty nice. The lyrics are epic and tell the epic tale of the Seven Books and the crazy evil demon king Nekron.
Overall this is a really nice album with an interesting symphonic metal sound. There are some awesome sounds here with some killer replay value. The guitar work is varied and powerful, the bass is solid when it gets a chance to shine, the drums are incredibly varied and beautifully well done, the keyboards are nothing short of mind blowing, and last of the instruments the fiddle is extremely folksy. The vocals are excellent and have so much passion behind them it makes me want to cry. Finally the lyrics are epic and deep and tell an incredible story. All in all this is a great album which you should totally listen too.
OVERALL 9.5/10
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