Band:	Rhapsody
Album:	Legendary Tales
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	October 1997

01. Ira Tenax
02. Warrior Of Ice
03. Rage Of The Winter
04. Forest Of Unicorns
05. Flames Of Revenge
06. Virgin Skies
07. Land Of Immortals
08. Echoes Of Tragedy
09. Lord Of The Thunder
10. Legendary Tales

So here the legend begins, with this first album signed on one of the most prestigious label (Limb at that time), the now well-known Italian band stroke the minds. We could argue on what is this music, is it power metal, symphonic, epic, or even Hollywood metal, what remains the same is that this album is great. I have to let you know before you read more of this review, that I consider this album the best release of the band, while many fans consider it's their weakest album. Let me explain why in details.

This is the first chapter of the Emerald Sword Saga (four chapters, four albums and a half), which can be considered as a general presentation. I'm too lazy too tell you about the whole thing and anyway it's well written on the official website, and very complete. And you don't want me to tell you how it ends especially if you have not heard the album yet!

The album begins with a symphonic intro, Ira Tenax, powerful with some great choirs, it shows the talent of those two composers, Luca Turilli (guitars) and Alex Staropoli (keyboards). Then one of my favourite Rhapsody track ever, Warrior Of Ice: excellent instrumental / symphonic / metal parts, great riffs, perfect vocals for the song - which doesn't get boring, with some various parts, some fast, some slow, some soft, some loud. Excellent.
Third track Rage Of The Winter, more clearly power metal, which shows some similarities with the fifth track, Flames Of Revenge. Between those two songs is Forest Of Unicorns, a sort of folk ballad, with some flute for example. Fabio sings in a sad way at the beginning but on the chorus, he sings really high, it's quite funny the first time. A really good song.
A small and relaxing instrumental (1:20), Virgin Skies, comes before Land Of Immortal, a speedy song that I like very much, mainly because of good and catchy riffs and chorus. Then another soft song, with mainly keys and piano, vocals on verses and choirs on chorus. And then again a quite speedy one, Lord Of Thunder, again with some great riffs and some great orchestration passages, etc.
Finally the title track of the album, Legendary Tales, alterning some soft instrumental melodies and vocals, with some electric chorus that keep the melodic line.

This album really shows how good can be metal mixed with some classical, symphonic, and "bard" elements, and it set the standard for the other chapter of the saga. It's very technical, all the musicians are great, even if, at this time, there was no real bass player (producer Sasha Paeth), and that drummer Daniel Carbonnera had some hard time learning the songs. I highly recommend it to all of you who haven't heard Rhapsody before. Even if the 2nd chapter, Symphony Of Enchanted Lands is one of the best album in terms of recording, this first album doesn't suffer from serious sound problem, I think it's really good because it places the emphasis on the compositions more than on the guitars.