Review of the Album "Triumph or Agony" by the Band Rhapsody of Fire

By this album’s title, some fans may think to themselves “what is this album all about?” One thing is for sure: upon hearing this 2006 album by Italian power metal band Rhapsody of Fire, you will notice that the resulting work is definitely a triumph of epic proportions. The album begins with the soft and enchanting song Dar-Kunor. The album is the second chapter of the Dark Secret Saga so in that sense, it will be very hard to interpret the lyrics of some of the songs. The orchestration in my view sounds like a video game released on the Super Nintendo in the 1990’s but for this band, they have really matured as a unit and you are about to see why this is the case.

In the 1990’s another band would build upon these fantasy style lyrics and that other band is Finland’s Ensiferum though they would use folk elements in their music whereas Rhapsody of Fire uses mainly rough and muted guitars combined with some keyboard orchestration and some classical elements. The comparison was brought up to point out that there have been other bands that have used fantasy style lyrics.

The Myth of the Holy Sword is about a warrior that asks the angels for help and guidance because there is a myth that using your sword alone will help you win the battles but might is not always right as the song tries to show but it does this through a fantasy lyrical perspective. The song Son of Pain has some nice piano playing as Fabio Lione impresses us with his softer vocal range.

'Silent Dream" is a song that might as well be about the fact that we ask ourselves what our purpose on this planet is as our soul has this burning desire to figure out its best path. Enlightenment is a state that so many of us seek yet it becomes elusive to most of us. "The Mystic Prophecy of the Demon Knight" is a very long 16+ minute song that begins with some Spanish style acoustic guitar before Fabio’s voice comes in again. There is a part in this song that sounds like a mixture of modern Metallica combined with orchestration. Fabio takes his voice to a new and better level as well as he sounds like he did when he was singing for the band Athena. Overall, Triumph or Agony is the best album for the band formerly known as Rhapsody since early 2000 and their musical influences are a little more varied thus adding to the strength of this album.