Luca Turilli

Luca Turilli is an Italian guitarist and composer, born in Trieste, best known for co-founding Rhapsody in 1993 alongside keyboardist Alex Staropoli — a band that would become a worldwide reference point for symphonic power metal. Alongside that main activity, Turilli maintained a solo career in which he could push the most cinematic, narrative side of his writing to its limit, free of the constraints of a band format. His first solo album, King of the Nordic Twilight, appeared in 1999: a concept work set in a Nordic fantasy universe, with Olaf Hayer on vocals and a heavy presence of choirs and orchestration. It was warmly received by Rhapsody fans, who recognised the same melodic signature in a freer context. Prophet of the Last Eclipse (2002) shifted the setting to epic-toned science fiction, with more modern production and more aggressive arrangements, keeping Hayer at the microphone. The Infinite Wonders of Creation, released in 2006, closed the solo trilogy with a notable turn: less guitar weight, more prominence for female voices and orchestral textures, in a record many describe as the most contemplative and least "metal" of his output — a plunge into cosmology, spirituality and wonder at the universe, themes that have always run through his writing. Turilli also ran the side project Luca Turilli's Dreamquest, electronic and gothic in aesthetic, before concentrating his efforts on the branch of Rhapsody that would carry his name from 2011 onward. His solo career remains a portrait of the composer in pure form: symphonic-scale orchestration, cosmic subject matter, and a conception of metal as the soundtrack to a film that was never shot.