LUCA TURILLI – The Infinite Wonders Of Creation

As any fan of Back To the Future or The Lord of the Rings knows, all good things come in threes. With his latest solo endeavor entitled The Infinite Wonders Of Creation, Luca Turilli brings closure to a trilogy of his own, which started in 1999 with King Of The Nordic Twilight and was followed up by Prophet Of The Last Eclipse. Does this new opus, “A Symphony Dedicated to Mother Nature,” close out Turilli’s vision in fitting fashion?

As most Heavy Metal fans know, Turilli is the lead guitarist and head visionary for “Hollywood Metal” kings Rhapsody, a band that splits Metal fans, some of whom like their bombast to be overblown, and others who can’t stand excess.

For The Infinite Wonders Of Creation, Turilli (who wrote all the songs, arranged the orchestration, played guitars and keyboards, and produced) enlisted a cast made up of people who had performed on his two previous solo outings: Olaf Hayer, vocals; Sascha Paeth, bass; Robert Hunecke-Rizzo, drums; and Bridget Fogle, guest vocalist.

The Infinite Wonders Of Creation consists of 10 tracks, and has a playing time of a little under 50 minutes. This is good, since it means that the songs won’t overstay their welcome. This album is certainly big and epic, but it breaks off the epicness into nice bite-sized chunks that can be easily digested by the listener: a song starts, goes for about five minutes or so, and then ends when it should, leaving everyone satisfied. No windy Christopher Lee dialog passages or endless guitar solos here, which is surprising when you consider that Luca Turilli is behind this.

But make no mistake, The Infinite Wonders Of Creation is still huge: giant choral passages, epic instrumentation, and soaring operatic vocals are all present and accounted for; in the end, Turilli just can’t help himself, but he deserves some credit for turning the bombast meter from 11 down to a more manageable 8, 8 ½ tops.

Most of the tracks on The Infinite Wonders Of Creation would work well playing over the opening or closing credits of a big Hollywood film: album-opener “Secrets Of Forgotten Ages” would be perfect for a Conan The Barbarian movie (if someone would just get off their butt and make a new one), and “Cosmic Revelation” is a great big song that would work in a science-fiction film, even though it’s pretty over-the-top. Benedictine Monk-style chanting livens up the title track, which ends the album… and Stargate fans can rejoice, as Turilli recorded “Pyramids And Stargates” just for you.

Musically, The Infinite Wonders Of Creation is solid and very polished: everyone does a fine job here, and the album is quite melodic and catchy. Turilli shows himself to be a strong keyboard player, and he throws in some good guitar flourishes from time to time. He also deserves a fair amount of credit for wrangling all these various elements into a cohesive whole. This album could have been unbearable in the wrong hands, but Turilli makes it work.

The Infinite Wonders Of Creation closes out Luca Turilli’s trilogy in high style; Mother Nature and fans of “Film Score Metal” will like it.