Rhapsody comes back with a new release that has really nothing new to offer. I can't say that the album is not good. However it's so similar to their previous CDs that it makes me wonder about the reason it was released...
Power of the Dragonflame is typical Rhapsody power metal music. Fast songs with drums that run over 180bpm, heavy riffs with melodic solos and leads and bombastic orchestras, choruses and synth lines. Very few songs try to differ and be exceptions to that rule.
The CD opens with two very fast songs, Knightrider of Doom and Power of the Dragonflame that will satisfy the die-hard fans of Rhapsody, even though they reminded me every other song the band has written in the past. The third song though is indeed very very good. The March of the Swordmaster is a mid tempo song with a very nice medieval feeling which proves that Staropoli and Turilli can actually compose something different than the usual typical tunes. The monotony of ultra fast songs with choirs and synths breaks again in the 7th track, Lamento Eroico, a slow acoustic song with italian lyrics. The cd ends with an epic 20 minute song (actually a trilogy) called Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness. It manages to go above the usual rhapsody style, by creating a very tight trilogy with many interesting parts that don't sound at all independent but part of the same song. However the opera and spanish music influences were too obvious.
In overall, it's clear that the band has very good ideas but they cannot present them very well. They tend to overload even more their music with as many different synth parts and choirs as possible. At least if the drum parts were a bit more varied and not always at the same rhythm, it would be more interesting and not that tiring.
Only for the die hard fans of Rhapsody (who are going to love the album and probably hate me). The rest try something else.