It's funny the way things turn out sometimes. I received a press release a few weeks ago on a band named Luca Turilli's Rhapsody. I've really been digging the metal coming out of Europe and I liked the vibe I was getting from the name, so I went to look at LTR's videos via Nuclear Blast Records. I was not expecting to get all of my senses awakened when listening to this band who hails from Trieste, Italy, but that is exactly what happened. Once I listened to the epic metal coming from this band, I immediately wanted to cover their live show.
As it turned out, one of Rock At Night's European correspondents had recently told our Editor how good Primal Fear was. So now all of us had the May 20th concert in Orlando on our radar that included both powerhouse bands in Luca Turilli´s Rhapsody and Primal Fear .
Luca Turilli's Rhapsody's website states that they are "the creators of cinematic metal." That may be the case; for once the music starts to play you get a John Williams or Danny Elfman kind of feeling [listening to one of their blockbuster movie scores] and then you wonder how Luca Turilli's Rhapsody was able to insert touches of classical music into the mix.
Couple the brilliant composing of Luca Turilli with the cinematic and operatic vocals of Alessandro Conti and you have Turilli's latest album entitled Prometheus – Symphonia Ignis Divinus. The band is on tour in support of their latest studio effort and the Prometheus Cinematic Tour 2016 is being co-headlined with metal heavyweights Primal Fear.
Could Luca Turilli's Rhapsody perform their cinematic setlist that you'd expect to be reserved for big auditoriums in a small venue? The answer is a resounding yes and as they connected with the fans during the entire concert they were able to deliver a solid catalogue of tracks to even include drum and guitar solos. Bravo.
I hadn't seen Primal Fear before, but May 20th changed all that and I have to say that the German heavy metal group exceeded my expectations. They also have their own new studio album out entitled Rulebreaker that was released in January of this year through Frontiers Records.
Frontman Ralf Scheepers was damn impressive behind the mic while his band mates were just outstanding. The band was always interacting with the fans and some were head banging for Primal's entire setlist. The standing room crowd was packed so tight that you couldn't move.
The Luca Turilli´s Rhapsody and Primal Fear live show marked a successful European music invasion May 20th that won't soon be forgotten.
U.S. metal ambassadors Withering Earth and Armor of God were good support choices for the tour and as luck would have it, the May 20th show was a bit of a homecoming for both bands as they hail from Melbourne and Orlando respectively and both bands share a strong fan base.
You can see Rock At Night's podcast interview with Withering Earth here!