Luca Turilli's Rhapsody, Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus

Let's get this out of the way: yes, it's Rhapsody of fire 2.0 and if you were expecting anything else, then you haven't been paying attention. As the brain and soul behind the Italian power band, it was pretty obvious that Turilli will create a more Rhapsody-sounding album than the current Rhapsody did, but while the band played it safe and put out a decent, but not very imaginative and bold album, Turilli went all out and turned "epic" into a religion. And speaking of religion, the album touches major religious/mythical motifs, starting from the Genesis, going through Ancient Greece and old-Testamental Israel and ending with Lord of the rings (yes, it has been officially promoted to religion :P) and if you think the titles and themes are bombastic, wait till you get to the actual music! 

Godsmack, Arenele Romane, 27.06.15

This is going to be a very short diary entry, as it sadly was a very short concert. After having tickets to Godsmack three years ago when they cancelled the show in Romania, this time we were most anxious to see them. But when bad luck strikes in our family, it strikes good. Two bands in, 30 minutes to the band we were waiting for, my husband started feeling horribly sick and we had to go home and wait for another chance to see Godsmack live. But at least we got to see the two opening bands, so it wasn’t a completely missed event.

Guano Apes, Offline

It's been a year since this album was released, but apparently I live under a rock and haven't heard about it until a few weeks ago. So since music has no expiration date and I love this band, there goes the Offline review.

Paradise Lost, The plague within

Paradise Lost's The plague within is a very intriguing record, one of those albums of contrasts you can't really make up your mind about. First of all, it's a very atmospheric album. How you feel about it will be directly influenced by how you feel in general and how you listen to it. Second of all, it's an album of "buts". You know, the kind of music that makes you go "it's x, but it's y, but it's actually z" and then raise your hands in confusion because you realise you just contradicted yourself ten times and still everything you said is absolutely true.  It is definitely an awaited return to the roots and a huge step from Self obsessed, but it's still not quite up there where it should/could be. 

Apocalyptica, Shadowmaker

I took some time off Apocalyptica lately because the few songs I heard from their last albums didn’t make the best impression, but this week I became curious to see what they were up to. So I found out that they now have a permanent lead singer, that they’re still pretty much on the same path they started with Worlds Collide and that their new album makes me a sad camper. Shadowmaker could be easily split into three: Apocalyptica, Nickelback with cellos and Nickelback without cellos, and don’t ask me how you can have an Apocalyptica song without cellos, because I haven’t figured that out yet, it’s like having a Van Canto song with guitars.