Rhapsody - Rain Of A Thousand Flames (2001)

I don't usually bother with EPs. Since I'm an obsessive who likes to listen to every single studio album an artist brings out (assuming I'm bothering with the artist at all), I have to draw the line somewhere, and usually confine EPs to Live and "Best Of" recordings as not really necessary.
"Rain Of A Thousand Flames" was released as a stop-gap in Rhapsody's "Emerald Sword" saga, and is officially an EP, even though it's forty-two minutes, which many eighties albums were shorter than (and I wish many ones today were similar), and, of course, it's Rhapsody, so how could I resist?
In truth, this is not the band's best work but, to paraphrase movie critic Leonard Maltin when referring to a weak Marx Brothers film, any Rhapsody is better than none at all.
There're plenty of dramatic moments there, with the opening title song flying effortlessly, before we get into a variety of choirs and orchestrations and, at times, stronger guitars than usual.  The conclusion, the ten and a half minute "The Wizard's Last Rhymes", is an adaption of Dvorak's magnificent "New World Symphony", and is certainly the highlight here.
However, something that goes against this record is "Tears Of A Dying Angel", mainly because the majority of its six minutes is spoken narration. Such storytelling is fine in small doses, but it just goes on for too long here.
Overall, I can't see myself growing to love this as I do other of Mr Turilli and co's work, but the very style, the very flavour of this kind of music will always win my heart to some degree.

****1/2

EDIT: I don't think I was quite on the ball when listening to this last time. I've just gone through it again, and it is pretty terrific, isn't it?  "Rain Of A Thousand Flames" is outstanding, and the epic "Queen Of The Dark Horizons" is... well, epic! Just wonderful stuff.
Maybe I called "The Wizard's Last Rhymes" the highlight partly because of my bias towards classical adaptions, which always grab my attention, although it's still a great piece.
I maintain that the narration on "Tears Of A Dying Angel" does go on for too long, but the music around it is magnificent and, while I still don't think this record can match Rhapsody's two previous releases, it remains a glittering jewel in power metal.