Italian website SpazioRock.it conducted an interview with RHAPSODY OF FIRE guitarist Luca Turilli in Milan. An excerpt follows:

The Frozen Tears Of Angels is really an excellent album. How long have you waited to release it?

"Thank you for the compliment. The album was already finished about a year ago. We entirely wrote it once again because we had so much time left, that is four years, between the old and the new release. We tried to shape some old songs we left behind and some other songs that didn't convince us very much, because they had a sound close to 'Symphony Of Enchanted Lands Part 2' and to 'Triumph Or Agony'. Having the same orchestra playing in the two records, we recorded them in a short time. Practically, we shortly arranged the whole production. However, this time we wanted to present something totally different: that's why we reset everything to zero."

Since you had plenty of time to work on The Frozen Tears Of Angels, you could even have prepared something new for the next album...

"You can bet on it (laughs)! Now that we signed a deal with Nuclear Blast, we are more untroubled. It was a miracle. We could have signed with this label when we were under SPV Records, but then came what it had to come. The good thing of having signed with a label unfocused on the timetable set by the music industry (and that is a nightmare for an artist, I assure you), is that we can plan everything."

Your two solo albums have been put aside for a long time, hoping to be allowed to publish them...

"That's true. Then, time flies and you suddenly want to add or remove something, like it happened in our latest album. It's physiological, don't you think?"

Of course. Speaking about Nuclear Blast: your plans should change even on a live concert level, I assume.

"Absolutely! Now, thanks to Nuclear Blast, we will be constantly on the road, between releasing the record, touring and so on. It's what we should have done for years and somehow we haven't been allowed to. The tour that will support The Frozen Tears Of Angels will be the greatest tour ever done before. We will examine the touring plan with our promoter; we receive thousands of offers, but there are only a few serious ones. They offer us even 1000 €, but with this money we can't even afford to pay our drummer. We will start approximately in September/October and summer festivals in 2011 will be the final part of this long tour. This is the plan, more or less."

To read the rest of the interview, click here.