Rhapsody Of Fire - The Cold Embrace Of Fear - A Dark Romantic Symphony review
| Band: | Rhapsody Of Fire |
| Album: | The Cold Embrace Of Fear - A Dark Romantic Symphony |
| Style: | Symphonic power metal |
| Release date: | October 15, 2010 |
| A review by: | Baz Anderson |
01. Act I - The Pass Of Nair-Kaan
02. Act II - Dark Mystic Vision
03. Act III - The Ancient Fires Of Har-Kuun
04. Act IV - The Betrayal
05. Act V - Neve Rosso Sangue
06. Act VI - Erian's Lost Secrets
07. Act VII - The Angels' Dark Revelation
Rhapsody must think that everything they touch turns to gold. Only months after the release of their comeback album the band offer this EP, an apparent "dark romantic symphony".
For a release 35 minutes long with seven tracks, perhaps only one is worthy of all the anticipation, if that. Nowadays it seems that narrations and cheesy fantasy film-like dialogues suffice as the majority of tracks on a musical disc. Only three tracks contain music as such, although "The Ancient Fires Of Har-Kuun" is the main one weighing in at an unnecessary 15 minutes. This is the main track of the EP and contains all the usual Rhapsody traditions of orchestrations, keyboards and choirs. It has its moments, the great chorus especially, but does suffer from appearing too drawn out.
"Neve Rosso Sangue" is your usual Italian Rhapsody ballad, leading into "Erian's Lost Secrets" which opens with an extremely Manowar-eque scream. This song also lacks pace, but is at least somewhat of a singalong and shows a glimpse of the bombastic nature of the band we have all come to recognise.
This EP is therefore reserved only for the most fanatical of followers. Not only is half of the disc unnecessary, the music on here is far from the band's best also. You can't begrudge the band's momentum having only just been allowed to release material again, but it would have been nice if the follow-up EP was worth even half of the quality of The Frozen Tears Of Angels. Unfortunately it doesn't come close.
Symphonic Power metal
Nuclear Blast
Italy
Length: 35:44
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 10 |
Comments
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Comments: 48
Visited by: 377 users
| csiga Munin Posts: 189  |
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6660  |
Written by csiga on 28.09.2010 at 13:53 He got it from Nuclear Blast. I know this must seem unusual for you but we're actually a real music magazine that receives promos from labels 
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| Ellrohir Heaven Knight Posts: 8674  |
I find quite strange publishing review more than 2 weeks before release date...
---- My rest seems now calm and deep Finally I got my dead man sleep 
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| csiga Munin Posts: 189 |
Written by jupitreas on 28.09.2010 at 14:01 you mean the 'we're' for ms?
----  i survived the lake bodom!
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6660 |
Written by csiga on 28.09.2010 at 14:10 Well, yes, Barry and I are both staff members.
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| csiga Munin Posts: 189 |
Written by jupitreas on 28.09.2010 at 14:12 yea, i know, but i thought he works for hammer world or something like that, so that is the reaseon why he has it got
---- i survived the lake bodom!
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| Carl Berg Carl Berg Posts: 589  |
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| ImNotMetal Posts: 62  |
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| Ellrohir Heaven Knight Posts: 8674 |
Written by ImNotMetal on 28.09.2010 at 14:26 well it isnt really the best promotion that album can get  (not doubting about the fact that the review is realistic and fair)
---- My rest seems now calm and deep Finally I got my dead man sleep
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| Sati Posts: 8  |
How is that the rating says 6 while the EP recieved 9-7-7-10 for performance and stuff? 
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| Jiri Posts: 710  |
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| Andreas Posts: 334 |
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493  |
Written by Sati on 28.09.2010 at 15:04 Just because they can perform well their drivel doesn't make the drivel good. Although the "7" ratings may be questionable, I can't deny not having used it myself as a reluctant placeholder for "seeming lack of originality". Dunno. I think I'll listen to this solely for laughing at.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| MeTalRea|istiK Posts: 170  |
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| corrupt With a lowercase c Admin Posts: 3716  |
Written by Sati on 28.09.2010 at 15:04 Baz is usually not too hung up on numbers. He will tell you that the invididual scores have to be seen individually and so does the final score. And in general, he will say, you should pay more attention to the words than the numbers. He did that to me quite a number of times 
---- 
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| GT Coffee!! Staff Posts: 5101  |
Written by corrupt on 28.09.2010 at 16:23 And that is absolutely correct. The overall score doesn't necessarily have to be the mean of the others
----  Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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| Xtopher Posts: 60  |
Written by GT on 28.09.2010 at 17:42 or maybe he just needs a calculator
----
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| Andreas Posts: 334 |
Written by corrupt on 28.09.2010 at 16:23 Then why the hell use those numbers?
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| Edmund Fogg Posts: 1752  |
Written by Andreas on 28.09.2010 at 20:32 Because any band with enough money to put on a record will have a great production quality.It doesn't mean the album is any good.(Used production as an example but you get the idea)
---- You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan
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| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774  |
Each reviewer has their own style and standard. As long as you have read enough reviews of different reviewers here, you would understand their bars. As said above, the written words is the crux
---- loves 小巫
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| Elodie Artour Slania Posts: 1175  |
Oh, come on, guys! How come you're judging Baz for giving 9, 7, 7, 10 at the different modules but, on the other hand, deciding on an overall rating of 6.0 whereas I'm pretty sure his review is relevant, absolutely realistic and fair enough, as well?! (Which, speaking of Rhapsody themselves, I'm PRETTY certain about...) That's why it's called an 'overall impression' - it doesn't necessarily have to match with the individual scores. As for reviewing the EP before its actual release, I could only say that: Like it or not, the guy is a Staffer which means he is allowed to review anything at any time, y'know. Besides that, nice job, Barry! I found your work absolutely hilarious in a good way and I'm damn sure I'm gonna check this EP out only in order to get some real laughs.  'Manowar-eque scream' LOL
---- Speak up dear 'cause I cannot hear you...
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| Daggon Underpaid M.D. Posts: 1689  |
As a HUGE Rhapsody fan, I'm afraid that this review will get valid as soon as I get this album in my hands, even if I love too much this band, "The Frozen Tears Of Angels" wasn't what I expected, I hope this won't have the same result on me as TFTOA. Still, I'm quite expectant.
---- "Les vers savent qu'ils n'ont pas d'ailes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se cachent sous terre"
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9723  |
Written by csiga on 28.09.2010 at 14:18 You should probably learn how promo & press stuff works before making assumptions.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941  |
The review seems to confirm that the album will be exactly what I expected. Lots and lots of cheese with very little music. Since SOEL II this band are doing their best to play their instruments as less as possible and fill the albums with as much cheesy garbage as possible. I wonder how someone can take this stuff seriously, apart from Turilli and his legendary epic ego. Like Baz says, they believe everything they touch is pure gold. Looks like this album will even beat "Nightfall In Middle-Earth" for the ratio of filler tracks.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Kratos Posts: 156  |
*Sigh* The narrations in Rhapsody songs rape it for the most part, imo. I'll be staying away from this filler and narration fest.
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| Andreas Posts: 334 |
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15303  |
Written by Andreas on 29.09.2010 at 07:55 just because a band is skilled at their instruments, creates a song with a decent structure and great production does not mean it's actually a GOOD song... the final overall score represents an overall opinion of the album. i realize this is apparently really difficult for a lot of people to process, as this is the 4th or 5th time i've seen it brought up offhand, including this being the second time on this particular discussion. buck up, Baz, i think the biggest reason people are having a hard time digesting your score is because they haven't been able to digest the music yet. my guess is if you gave it a 6, it must be pretty dreadful as you are usually a tad nicer than i.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941 |
Written by Kratos on 29.09.2010 at 04:59 The problem is not so much the narrations in themselves (as cheesy as they are) as the way they use them. They don't blend them into the songs. I mean, if it would be some background 'vocals' just put as a complement to music, it would be much less annoying and they would sound less cheesy. As it is now, they just kill the songs by destroying the pace of the music. Listen to "Unholy Warcry" for example. The music just cuts suddenly, the song stops, and then the talking starts. Also, the talking is way too long at times since SOEL II. Sometimes, it feels more as you're listening to the recording of someone reading a book than to music. They even seem to believe that spoken parts can be an entire song. If I can draw a comparison, I would say I find Bal-Sagoth boring because the narrating voice is used way too much but at least the songs flow, the spoken parts are over the music. In Bal-Sagoth's case, the problem is not the way spoken parts are used but that the ratio between them and real vocals is way too high.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| csiga Munin Posts: 189 |
Written by Doc G. on 29.09.2010 at 03:10 my assumption have nothing to do with the promo and press stuffs, but never mind
---- i survived the lake bodom!
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