Before getting to the bigger business of their next full-length studio album, Glory For Salvation (AFM Records), scheduled for release later this year, Italian quintet Rhapsody of Fire provides a little taster with new eight-track EP, I’ll Be Your Hero (AFM Records).

The only song here to be included from that forthcoming release, the title track is a lively slab of lightweight power metal, heavy on keyboards and guitar solos but embracing a more contemporary European flavour than the medieval and fantasy-driven epics usually associated with the band. This isn’t entirely surprising, of course, as the only original member left in this current incarnation is keyboard player Alex Staropoli, his former bandmates all having moved on after the act was bisected ten years ago.

Elsewhere on the EP is a new interpretation of ‘Where Dragons Fly’ from 1998’s Emerald Sword… sorry, Eemerald Svord single (Limb Music), which despite boasting a powerful production and the serious vocal prowess of frontman Giacomo Voli, just doesn’t live up to the sweeping medieval melancholy of the original. Live versions of ‘Rain of Fury and ‘The Courage to Forgive’ sound incredible and the band finishes by going full Manowar, recording four different versions of ‘The Wind, The Rain And The Moon’ in English, Spanish, Italian and French.

Buy the EP here: https://shop.afm-records.de

7 / 10

GARY ALCOCK