Review by Michael on December 19, 2021.

Rhapsody Of Fire, the Italian veterans of melodic epic power metal are back with their 7th output Glory For Salvation (if you don't count the legendary records they released under the banner of “Rhapsody” and the 2017 album Legendary Years where they re-recorded old tracks). One who knows me, and my musical taste may be astonished because I review Rhapsody Of Fire (the ones who know me a little bit better won't) but I have to say that the Italian guys were and still are one of the symphonic power metal bands I really love.

First of all, there is to state that the line-up has changed once again. This time their drummer Manuel Lotter was replaced by Paolo Marchesich. Quite a surprise because Rhapsody Of Fire had the nice tradition to have my compatriots from Germany as drummers since 2000. But I guess that this is the biggest change in the whole story of Rhapsody Of Fire so far for this release. So let's put the focus on the music. Rhapsody Of Fire continue the Nephilim's Empire Saga they started on the little bit too soft The Eighth Mountain album. Glory For Salvation starts with a very nice track – 'Son Of Vengeance' – that opens with a quite dramatic cinematic keyboard part which could appear in a documentary about some really tragic happenings. Soon it turns into a very catchy and melodic track with a great hook line and a quite rousing chorus. This track is quite trendsetting for the rest of the album. What we can find on this output are typical trademarks that once made Rhapsody so popular. The buzzing guitar riffs (as example in the start of 'The Kingdom Of Ice'), Alex Staropolis' very bombastic keyboard passages which let all this appear quite like a soundtrack for a fantasy movie and Giacomo Volis' very appealing vocals that are sung very emotional and storytelling. We are used to know from the band they have a compositional versatility that they show us for one more time on Glory For Salvation. We can find really heavy tracks like 'Maid Of The Secret Sand' where the focus is put onto the guitar play, we can find a ballad ('Magic Signs') with a nice acoustic guitar part, and we can find the already mentioned bombastic orchestrations like 'Abyss Of Pain II' which is one of best tracks of the album. When I listen to this track, I always have movie scenes in my mind like when Gandalf is struggling with the Balrog in Moria and is falling into the abyss or some other epic battle scenes. I guess this is a very cool track to get into the right mood reading a fantasy book.

Now I started mentioning few of the most outstanding tracks on the album but there are some more to mention. First of all, I really like 'Terial The Hawk' which is introduced by the Celtic-like instrumental 'Eternal Snow' (they use a metal-flute like in Braveheart). The track is predestined to put you into a good mood. The melody is quite cheerful, some kind of easy listening and very catchy and all is kept quite simple without any bombastic arrangements. The band uses a lot of different instruments like uillean pipes, a Celtic harp, low whistles, fiddles, baroque recorders and a violin. I guess this will become a great live track. Another song I really like is the track taken from the EP, 'I'll Be Your Hero'. This is another track that raises memories of old Rhapsody with a fantastic performed vocal line and some great drum pace. The guitar solo in the middle part of the track makes it quite heavy and I would dare to say that the aforementioned pieces are some of the best the band wrote since Symphony Of The Enchanted Land II.

Nevertheless, the best songs can appear pretty shitty if the production is crap. But of course, this is not the case. The production is quite powerful, well-balanced and gives the songs the quality they have deserved. Sometimes the keyboards are a little bit too much in the foreground but all in all every instrument appears clearly and the vocal line is great. After all these years the band is still able to write very rousing and dramatic tracks that reminds me of the first three albums which are (at least in my humble opinion) outstanding reference works when it comes to this kind of music.

Glory For Salvation is a very strong output with no real boring or too average songs on it. I have listened to it many times now and with every listen I still discover new things in the songs and I'am always surprised about this. If you liked the other albums by Rhapsody Of Fire (and even if the last ones were a little bit uninspired for you), Glory For Salvation will not leave you disappointed.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10 Balrogs