During a recent interview with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai, Rhapsody guitarist/mastermind Luca Turilli discussed guitarist Dominque Leurquin's potentially career-ending injury in 2012. He seriously injured his left hand with a circular saw, almost losing it, a month before the band was due to hit the road in support of their Ascending To Infinity album.

"The doctor told him there was a risk that he might not play guitar anymore, but I couldn't imagine Dominique without a guitar in his hands," says Turilli. "He's much more of a guitar player than I am. I didn't want to go on tour with another guitar player, so we sampled Dominique's parts like we do with the orchestra stuff. The fans were very supportive and appreciative of that, they loved the shows, and when we got back we received the great news that he was slowly getting better and that it looked like he would be able to play guitar again. That was six months after his injury. He came back and played his first show with us two years later at a festival in the Czech Republic, and by that point his hand was up to 90%. And he still played better than me (laughs). The thing is, Rhapsody's rhythm guitar parts aren't very difficult because we're not a guitar-oriented band, and I think that helped Dominique when he was healing."

Check out the new BraveWords feature story on Luca Turilli's Rhapsody here.

Luca Turilli's Rhapsody are back with their new album, Prometheus - Symphonia Ignis Divinus, released worldwide at the end of June via Nuclear Blast. The band has checked in with the following update:

"Thank you Italy! Despite the lack of vinyls on the day of the release (they’ll all be out on July 10th) and the lack of digital downloads in the very first days on iTunes and Amazon, we are proud to announce that our new album, Prometheus - Symphonia Ignis Divinus, entered the Italian charts at #43. Amazing and unexpected result. Thanks for your unique support. We love you all!"

Audio snippets from the album can be heard now. Find two clips below:

Part 1:

Part 2:

“The love for the cinema and the movie soundtracks is something clear and evident in each song of the album. The epic, cinematic impact of the music is something flowing in my blood and carved in my genetics”, commented Luca Turilli.

The album was composed and produced once again by Luca Turilli, responsible as always of all the orchestral and choral arrangements. It was recorded and mixed at the Backyard Studios of Sebastian Roeder (Bonfire a.o.) and mastered by Christoph Stickel (Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock) at MSM studios.

Seven months of composition, three months of production, over 50 days of mix, two choirs, several special guests, including Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Dan Lucas (Karo) and David Readman (Pink Cream 69). Including 70 minutes of epic music, sounding cinematic, bombastic and dramatic as never before, the new Rhapsody masterwork will lead the listener to an emotional and memorable journey between quantum gates, parallel dimensions, myths and legends hiding cosmic truths, ancestral secrets and spiritual revelations.

And this time it was not enough for the band to simply sound cinematic. It came the time for Rhapsody to finally “look” cinematic too. Therefore, the new cover artwork and the album booklet, introducing the new cinematic graphic style of the band, were realized by the well-known amazing artist named Stefan “Heile” Heilemann (Epica, Lindemann).

Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus tracklisting:

“Nova Genesis (Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis)”
“Il Cigno Nero”
“Rosenkreuz (The Rose And The Cross)”
“Anahata”
“Il Tempo Degli Dei”
“One Ring To Rule Them All”
“Notturno”
“Prometheus”
“King Solomon And The 72 Names Of God”
“Yggdrasil”
“Of Michael The Archangel And Lucifer’s Fall Part II: Codex Nemesis”
I.  “Codex Nemesis Alpha Omega”
II.  “Symphonia Ignis Divinus (The Quantum Gate Revealed)”
III.  “The Astral Convergence”  
IV.  “The Divine Fire Of The Archangel”
V.  “Of Psyche And Archetypes (System Overloaded)”

Digipak Bonus:
“Thundersteel” (cinematic Version)

The digipak version of the album will include the cinematic version of “Thundersteel”, the famous song from Riot, performed by the Rhapsody singer Alessandro Conti in duet with Ralf Scheepers.

“Rosenkreuz (The Rose And The Cross)” lyric video:

Album trailer:

Studio trailers:

“Prometheus” lyric video: