Rhapsody

Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2: The Dark Secret

Rhapsody's worst release to date

Review Score:

(4/10)
I know that when I reviewed Power of the Dragonflame that I said that I expected this album to surpass Dragonflame as the best release ever by Rhapsody. Sadly, I was left very disappointed.

First off, after all their previous releases, I am finally tired of how cheesy their vocals and narrations are. Maybe its because their english vocabulary is rather limited, but they need to stop trying to make albums based on original stories, cause they are unalbe to properly present a story without making fools of themselves. Even having Christopher Lee as the narrator doesn't help hide how bad some of this stuff is.

Yes, Rhaposdy has always been known for the cheese. However, they were able to get away with it in previous releases because the music was phenomenal, a fantastic mix of symphonic and metal components. That does not exist here. This is more of a symphony orchestra with Alex Staropoli on keyboards while Luca and Dominique take the back seat. The guitar work is almost always over-powered by these orchestrations that at times are interesting but at many other times just bland. In addition Alex Holzwarth is not even an adequate drummer.

I would probably recommend this album only as an entry level for new fans. Once you get your hands on classics like the first Symphony of Enchanted Lands and The Power of the Dragonflame, this album will quickly become dull and annoying. Or you can just save yourself the trouble and move to the masters of fantasy-metal that are by far more complex musicians and while primarily being based on fantasy concepts, are able to limit the cheese to almost none.

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