Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Rage
Label: Nuclear Blast
Released: 2013
Running time: 65:42
Rating: 4/5
Even though this album came out two years ago, its review perhaps lands at just the right time. Call it a kind of apocryphon. At the start of this February, news hit like a bolt from the blue: Peter »Peavy« Wagner, the ultimate leader of the long-lived German heavy metallers Rage, and the exceptional Belarusian composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and musical visionary Victor Smolski are no longer working together. That also meant the end of the collaboration with drummer André Hilgers. The whole thing had smelled fishy ever since Peavy, last year, revived his partnership with two former Rage compadres, Manni Schmidt and Christos Efthimiadis, who played a special concert under the name Tres Hombres and drew huge applause from the German crowd. So Peavy decided to keep going in that direction and soon afterwards renamed the trio Refuge, a band that has already confirmed a few slots at this year’s European festivals. Rage are clinically dead, or let’s say paralyzed, even though Wagner hasn’t officially hinted that the band is no more. The split of the Wagner, Smolski and Hilgers trio doesn’t de facto mean the end of the band, since Wagner can call up whoever he wants at any moment, so the most fitting move would be for Refuge to turn back into Rage. Let’s give it time. But one thing is undeniable: the style Peavy developed together with Smolski will be hard to top artistically ever again. The brilliant legacy this pairing left behind, covering seven released albums from »Welcome to the Other Side« (2001) (to be more precise, starting from the album »Ghosts«, 1999, even eight) all the way to the album »21« (2012), will forever hold a special place in the band’s entire body of work and will most likely go down as its artistic zenith. I’d say the finest creative period of the whole career.
Rage are known to have first worked with a symphony orchestra back in 1996, recording the live album »Lingua Morti«s with it. Rage kept up these collaborations throughout their career, later recording a whole album, »XIII« (1998), with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, then the album »Ghosts« (1999), and part of the album »Speak of the Dead« (2006) too. Whenever Rage worked with an orchestra, the combination of orchestra and Rage was covered by a shared project name, like Lingua Mortis Orchestra. Soon after the release of the album »21«, Smolski dove headfirst into the arrangements and music for an album on which Rage joined forces with a Spanish and a Belarusian symphony orchestra. The album counts as part of the Rage discography, even though it’s also the debut of the project The Lingua Mortis Orchestra, abbreviated »LMO«. More than 100 people were involved in the project in total, and the trio also invited two additional vocalists onto the album, singers Jeannette Marchewka and Dana Harnge, while Henning Basse of the band Metallium also contributes vocals on two tracks.
If Smolski contributed the music and arrangements, Peavy is behind the concept the album »LMO« is built on. The story takes us to the year 1599 and the German town of Gelnhausen, to the days of the Inquisition and witches burned at the stake, and Peavy’s concept is based on real events. In the era of Rage’s collaborations with orchestras, the album »LMO« brings the best balance ever achieved between metal elements and classical music. Peavy’s sinisterly piercing vocal is at times relieved by the sopranos and mezzo-sopranos of both singers, and one of the biggest charms in this album’s play of vocal contrasts is the ballad Lament. Rage must have been holding this idea up their sleeve for a long time for this concept album, otherwise they wouldn’t have pulled it together so fast. Pulled it together to the point where we can call it an exceptionally high-quality piece of work. It offers a first-rate mix of everything. There are moments where a sinister guitar riff comes to the fore, fanned by the rolling thunder of double bass drum pedals, and Peavy’s vocal that hasn’t lost any of its venom, all of it cleverly balanced with washes of symphonic elements that take over just as much of the album. Smolski, of course, didn’t forget to season the whole thing with his guitar escapades, which once again fascinate with a virtuosic output that, as usual, takes your breath away. In some places on the album Smolski even added motifs imitating the sound of medieval instruments, adding further contrast to the moods that effectively bring to life the drama theater the concept is tied to.
Luckily, this project also got a live realization, at the Czech Masters of Rock festival on 12.07.2013. That recording is included on the DVD of the retrospective release for the band’s 30th anniversary, titled »The Soundchaser Archives 30th Anniversary« (2014). The album »LMO« does come with a bonus DVD, but it carries documentary concert footage of Rage with an orchestra from 2010 (the Rock Hard festival in Gelsenkirchen, Germany) and from 2013, when the combination also came to life on the ship of the 70.000 Tons of Metal festival. The 2010 footage is far better, and neither of the two documentaries includes performances of the tracks from the album »LMO«. Since their quality is limited, the bonus DVD is entirely dispensable. If you’re a die-hard Rage fan, you really have to make sense of the aforementioned release »The Soundchaser Archives 30th Anniversary« (2014) to get to the whole essence of the album »LMO«.
You could say that, in combination with both orchestras and the guest singers, Rage created an exceptionally beautiful album to close out an era of the band, one that shows the maturity of its creators’ unsuspected talents, especially the brilliant Victor Smolski. An album that every true Rage fan must have in their collection!
Line-up
Peter “Peavy” Wagner – vocals, bass guitar
Victor Smolski – guitar
André Hilgers – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jeannette Marchewka – additional vocals
Dana Harnge – additional vocals
Henning Basse – backing vocals, vocals on the tracks “Scapegoat” and “Witches’ Judge”
Belarusian Symphony Orchestra
Spanish Symphony Orchestra
Production
Victor Smolski & Charlie Bauerfiend
Track list
CD
1. Cleansed By Fire: A) Convert the Pagans Pt. 1 B) the Inquisition (Instrumental) C) Convert the Pagans Pt. 2
2. Scapegoat
3. The Devil’s Bride
4. Lament
5. Oremus (Instrumental)
6. Witches’ Judge
7. Eye for an Eye
8. Afterglow
9. Straight to Hell (Orchestra Version)
10. One More Time (Orchestra Version)
DVD
1. Empty Hollow
2. Morituri Te Salutant
3. Prelude of Souls
4. Innocent
5. Depression
6. No Regrets
7. Higher Than the Sky
8. Interview
9. Morituri Te Salutant
10. Prelude of Souls
11. Innocent
12. Depression
13. No Regrets
14. Confusion
15. Black
