Album Review - Luca Turilli - Prophet of the last eclipse

The first thing that struck me when I put this eagerly awaited CD in my player was "Hhmmm, this sounds like Ayreon or Star One" Then the choir kicks in and all similarities with Ayreon and Star One are shattered. Luca Turilli is back with his second solo album!

I'd been looking forward to this one for a long time and my expectations were running high after hearing Prince of the last starlight from the official website. I'm a huge Rhapsody fans and loved the first Turilli album. With that in mind I was somewhat disappointed the first few times I listened to this one, but around the 8'th listen the album finally began to show it's true strength. This is another cool addition to the Luca Turilli world of music and an essential purchase for any fans of Rhapsody or the first Turilli album.

This album has not met my skyhigh expectations but that is mostly due to Luca Turilli's choice of experimenting with a space/futuristic theme. On this album you will find some very futuristic keyboard sounds and to me they just don't feel right being mixed in with this extremely epic music. I feel it takes something away from the overall atmosphere instead of enhancing it. Not all songs are dragged down by this, but there are a couple of places where the keyboard really annoys me. I'll bring those forward as I take you through this new Turilli universe of music.

After the obligatory intro the album starts out full force with War of the universe. The song is typical Turilli with a cool bombastic chorus and an overall great drive.

Rider of the astral fire has an extremely cool and powerful intro of before a spacey keyboard interplay starts irritating me. Still, this a great song, but that keyboard just keeps annoying me.

The absolutely brilliant tracks of the album are The age of mystic ice which has that epic, catchy, sing-a-long, melodic, out of this world chorus that is Luca's speciality, The prince of Starlight with a very bombastic chorus and brilliant multilayered keyboard melodies and Demonheart with its fantastic drive and immense power.

Timeless oceans is an ok ballad with beautiful singing by Olaf Hayer, but it still needs something special to reach the heights of the magnificent Warriors prayer or Princess Aurora from King of the nordic twilight.

The thing that really kills me is the track called New century's tarantella. Why Luca... WHY? It starts out with a simple happy sounding pan flute keyboard melody that makes the hair on the back of neck rise up in alarm. No, this can't be right? This just doesn't fit with the rest of the album. After putting me through three rounds of mercilessly cheesy pan pipe moods the song goes into a very "Lord of the winter snow"-like verse. There is an almost polka-like feel and tempo to parts of this song and I just can't take it serious. This one makes me scramble for the next-song button.

Prophet of the last eclipse finishes the album in the best way possible. A brilliant epic track. It has some excellent powerful passages and on this track the outlandish keyboard actually compliments the song nicely. My one minor complaint with this song are the scratch sounds starting to make their appearance at the 3:20 mark. Please stop doing this!

I won't go too much into the concept of the album as the promo I got didn't contain the lyrics, but it's obvious that Luca Turilli wanted to play with a space/futuristic theme. I, for one, feel that this kind of music truly belongs in a fantasy setting which fits the atmosphere of the music so much better. I have nothing against the use of electronic sounds and samples when they are used in the right way to enhance the atmosphere, but here I feel they take something away from my enjoyment of the album.

A highpoint of the album are the vocals of Olaf Hayer. This guy brings alot to the songs through his voice. He has a lot of power and feeling. Brilliant work. Overall I would also have liked to hear some more of the excellent guitar work instead of the always present keyboards.

There are several versions of this album available. I'm looking forward to getting the special edition with two bonus tracks and a track by track commentary by the master himself. I want to hear what made him include New century's tarantella and what its purpose is...

I've had a hard time rating this album. It has grown to be really really good, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of Luca's other work. An album with many brilliant songs, some ok songs and one that goes completely of the scale of bad experiments. The ok songs and the overall theme drag the album down a grade or two for me. Still an essential purchase for any Rhapsody or Turilli fan. If you're looking to discover the music af Luca Turilli I'd recommend you start with another of his works.

Killer tracks: Demonheart, The prince of Starlight, The age of mystic ice, Prophet of the last eclipse, War of the universe

Written by Steen
Saturday, November 9, 2002
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Ratings

Steen: 7/10

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