Triumph or Agony

If you were among those disappointed by BLIND GUARDIAN's streamlining of their sound this year, your luxury liner has come in. RHAPSODY OF FIRE have, if anything, gone even further off the deep end into operatic, cinematic, utterly bombastic and gaudy symphonic metal. Choirs swell, drums thunder, strings soar, and prophecies are fulfilled, to the sonorous narration of octogenarian actor and unlikely fan Christopher Lee.All of this isn't unusual for the band (forced to add the "of fire" to the...