Turilli/Lione Rhapsody

Turilli/Lione Rhapsody was formed in 2018 in Italy, shortly after the reunion tour that brought the classic Rhapsody line-up back together across 2017 and 2018. Once the commemorative cycle closed, guitarist and composer Luca Turilli and vocalist Fabio Lione decided to continue together in a new project, taking three musicians from that same line-up with them: guitarist Dominique Leurquin, bassist Patrice Guers and drummer Alex Holzwarth. In practice the group gathered almost the whole historic front line of Rhapsody — the exception being keyboardist and co-founder Alex Staropoli, who continued to lead Rhapsody of Fire. The double name was a statement of intent: not a continuation of Rhapsody of Fire nor a reissue of Luca Turilli's Rhapsody, but an explicit partnership between the two authors who had defined the original band's musical and vocal identity. Zero Gravity (Rebirth and Evolution), released in 2019, remains the group's only album to date. It carried forward the "cinematic metal" idea Turilli had been developing, but with a striking thematic turn: instead of the medieval fantasy universe that had been Rhapsody's hallmark for two decades, the record dealt with science, physics, evolution and technology, in a more modern sound, electronic in places and leaning less on Latin choirs and Renaissance orchestration. Reception split between those who welcomed the boldness of the change and those who missed the earlier epic grandiloquence. After the tour that followed, the group settled into an intermittent rhythm, and Turilli and Lione returned to other fronts. Even so, Turilli/Lione Rhapsody stands as the record that Rhapsody's central creative pairing was still producing together more than twenty-five years after they began.