The Moshville Times - Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, Temperance & Qantice

Flickr sets: Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody | Temperance | Qantice

[avatar =”Martin” size=”100″ align=”left” /]I think my first encounter with Luca Turilli was back in 1999 when I first heard King of the Nordic Twilight; the standout track from that album for me being “Ancient Forest of Elves”. In the seventeen years following this introduction I’ve unfortunately never caught the band live but this is probably down to the fact that this is their first time playing in Scotland. Indeed this is the first time that any of the bands on tonights bill have played here.

Arriving to the venue early I’m lucky enough to grab an interview with the man himself: Mr Luca Turilli. You can hear the interview here. A lot of more extreme metal bands play Scotland but for some reason not many power metal bands come here very often. I was a bit worried when I got to the venue to see that there wasn’t much of a queue and I had to wonder if power/symphonic metal still had an audience here but thankfully my fears were unfounded and by the time Luca Turilli came on the venue was packed out.

First on the bill tonight is French Power Prog Symphonic Metal 5-piece Qantice. They kick off with “Bygones” and “Epic Fail” from their second, and latest, CD The Phantonauts.

Their music isn’t a million miles away from Luca Turilli’s style so it’s no surprise they win this Glasgow crowd over right from the get go. It’s unusual to see a band with a violinist as a permanent member and I have to say I found my attention drawn to Yosh Otias’s playing quite a bit throughout the set. She’s a very impressive player. In fact all of the band are great musicians.

I enjoyed listening to guitarist Tony Beaufils’s neo-classical style solo’s, Christine Lanusse’s bass playing is superb, Aurélien Joucla thunderous double bass drumming is faultless and singer David Åkesson never hits a bad note. The band interact really well with each other and look like they enjoy what they are playing. “Sadly we have reached the end of the show….thank you so much Scotland. This one is called Giant of Embers”. Unfortunately their set is over just too soon but I hope we will see them again in Scotland in the near future. I’d like to thank guitarist Tony Beaufils for going out of his way to find a setlist for me and being courteous when I accidently mistook him for being Italian…oops.

Setlist:

Bygones + Epic Fail
Hoverland
Pirates
Phantonaut
The Question
Slayers Jig
Giant of Embers

Qantice: official | facebook

I watch a lot of YouTube music videos at home and I stumbled across Temperance a few weeks before the gig. I thinking that these guys are actually really good so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that they were ing Luca Turilli on this tour.

The band open with “Oblivion” from their 2015 album Limitless and practically hit the stage running. One of the first things I noticed was that singer Chiara Tricarico has a very different persona than that in the promo videos I’ve seen.

She looks slightly self conscious and awkward in the promos as if someone is directing her to act in a certain way. When she’s on stage however she’s quite different and exudes confidence, looks very relaxed, more comfortable, and her red hair hardly stops swishing around throughout the gig. Right from the first song she manages to get the crowd to raise their arms in the air and has them shouting along. “Hero” has everyone clapping along and we get to hear another side of Chiara’s voice on this one as she growls lyrics into the microphone. There’s some nice bass playing on this track from Luca Negro, and like Qantice the playing is top notch from everyone.

“Save Me” is probably one of the favourites of this Glasgow crowd; probably it’s the track they are most familiar with if they have been checking the band out on-line. Temperance seem to be all about audience interaction and guitarist Marco Pastorino even leads the crowd in a Freddy Mercury call and response acapella style sing-along before launching into “Mr White” with it’s poppy almost Eurovision’esque chorus.

“We have only one last song for tonight” which is greeted by boos from the appreciative Glaswegians. They finish up with high energy track “Dejavu” and leave the stage to cheers from everyone in here tonight. Great stuff.

Setlist:

Oblivion
Hero
Amber & Fire
Save Me
Mr White
Me, MYself & I
Deja-Vu

Temperance: official | facebook | twitter

The lights dim and the first strains of “Nova Genesis Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis” fill the hall as does applause and cheers from an audience seeing Luca Turilli in Scotland for the first time. A projected beam of light es above our heads lighting up the screen on the back wall displaying various transforming amorphis patterns intercut with pictures of the band . “Knightrider Of Doom” from Rhapsody’s Power of the Dragonflame tears through the speakers. Drummer Alex Landenburg makes the machine gun like double bass drumming look effortless while the rest of the band make use of all the space on this small stage jumping around from one side to the other. The band’s energy is infectious and has quite a few moshing away at the front of the stage, even Moshville Times own Meline is just a blur of swishing hair throughout the gig.

“So hello Scotland…this one is called Land of Immortals” singer Alessandro Conti announces.

Luca Turilli's Rhapsody | © ishootmetal.com — Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody | © ishootmetal.com

He doesn’t talk much but he makes up for it in his vocal ability which sounds incredible tonight, he never hits a bad note. Luca really gives it his all during this one and I worry as he jumps onto the monitor and then stumbles backwards almost losing his balance, these occurences of narrowly avoiding injury seems to become a feature with Luca during the set.

“Aenigma” gives us our first introduction to the two opera backing singers Emilie Ragni, and Riccardo Cecchi for tonight. They really sound incredible and really add an epic feel to the songs they appear on. The band may be called Luca Turilli but all the guys in the band deserve a special mention as they are all incredible musicians. Drummer Alex Landenburg gets his own solo spot, which doesn’t result in everyone heading for the bar as some drum solos do. He utilises the Game of Thrones theme within his drum solo and produces something that not only impresses the drummers in the audience but is also genuinely entertaining to watch. Guitarist Dominique Leurquin manages to smile throughout the set even when roadies need to mop is brow because of the rising temperature in the venue. Bass player Patrice Guers astounds the crowd during his own solo spot where he demonstrates his mastery of two hand tapping and slap bass playing. Mr Turilli of course, despite not feeling great, shows off his unbelievable virtuosity, and spends a large part of the gig, when not running around, with his eyes closed really feeling the music.

It’s difficult to pick highlights from such a flawless set but I if pushed I’d have to say “Il Cigno Nero”. It just sounded incredible live and has some great melodies combined with some great operatic talent.

“Glasgow you want one more? This one is called Emerald Sword”. It’s a great ending to an amazing evening. I hope Luca Turilli enjoyed Scotland as much as we enjoyed having them here. Here’s hoping they return again soon. Awesome night.

Setlist: