When a band hires the great British horror icon
Christopher Lee to provide spoken narration on some of its albums, you know that the band takes its fantasy seriously.
Lee made a guest appearance on
Rhapsody of Fire's 2009 recording
The Frozen Tears of Angels, and he reunites with
Luca Turilli and friends on their equally epic follow-up album,
The Cold Embrace of Fear. Lead singer
Fabio Lione is the main vocalist, but
Lee appears for some guest narration, and his presence adds a strong fantasy element to what was already a very fantasy-driven band to begin with. This epic concept album is about several warriors who invade a castle named Har-Kuun in search of an ancient holy book; those guarding the castle include, among others, a dragon. The lyrics are as overblown and over the top as
Rhapsody of Fire's power metal and progressive metal melodies, and true to form,
Luca Turilli and his friends aren't even remotely ironic about it.
The Cold Embrace of Fear doesn't shy away from the bloated excesses of epic power metal and epic progressive metal; instead, it celebrates those excesses without apology.
Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody) continue to be ultra-campy and proud of it. And like other albums in the Italian metalheads' catalog,
The Cold Embrace of Fear is bound to inspire adoration from some listeners and disdain from others. But if one accepts
The Cold Embrace of Fear for what it is -- total fantasy and total escapism -- and doesn't look for lyrics that he/she can actually relate to on some level, it is easy to enjoy
Turilli's goofy imagination. And while
The Frozen Tears of Angels is a slightly stronger album,
The Cold Embrace of Fear is certainly an entertaining follow-up. ~ Alex Henderson