Olaf Hayer

Olaf Hayer — German vocalist — is known above all as the voice of Luca Turilli, the solo project of the Rhapsody of Fire guitarist. With Rhapsody, Turilli had built a format of his own — symphonic metal with orchestra, choir and a fantasy narrative spread across several records — sung by Fabio Lione. In setting up his parallel project in the late 1990s, he needed a voice that could carry the same kind of material without sounding like a repeat, and Hayer stepped into that role. His voice is low in timbre by power metal standards and projects well in the middle register, which gives Turilli's records a character different from Rhapsody's — less high, more dramatic in the theatrical sense. Hayer has also worked in other projects of the European melodic metal circuit, common practice among singers of the genre in Germany and Italy, where bands and projects share musicians frequently. He is the kind of singer whose career is built through appearances in other composers' work rather than by leading a band of his own.