Artist: Rage
Label: SPV Records
Release: 2003
Rating: 4.5/5
The story of the second concept album since “Ghosts” (1999) is in many ways strikingly similar to the sci-fi novels of H.P. Lovecraft. An almighty man, self-proclaimed rightful heir to the legacy of the great sages (the Great Old Ones), the creators of living forms on Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first hominids showed up, discovers ancient construction blueprints under the icy crust of Antarctica. They’re for biomechanical beings called soundchasers, which once crawled across the surface of the Earth. He claims the right to rebuild them. A right whose legitimacy is, as always, questionable. So he designs a new race of soundchasers and breathes life into it (Secrets In A Wierd World). It’s hard to imagine state authorities ever using a single thing for genuinely good purposes, but in the concept the soundchasers were used with honestly decent intentions. To protect “free” societies. The soundchasers, a mix of half human, half robot, carried computer microchips in their heads, sensitive to the finest sound details, even the ones human mechanoreceptors at the level of the physical body just don’t reach, evolution being what it is. That way they could track down, catch and instantly finish off any scoundrel who gave off bad, evil vibrations, or vibrations that in any way threatened the existence of the spiritually more advanced “free” new society (the title track Soundchaser and Defenders Of The Ancient Life). Why the story deals with the life and death of the last soundchaser on Earth is left to the listener’s imagination to untie the Gordian knot. As far as I dug into it myself, the people of the free society lost hope and faith, and so the soundchasers were left without the purpose and tasks they were created for. Their existence was thus doomed to total extinction (Falling From Grace).
Funny enough, just about a week ago I came across the story of a book describing life in the future. Supposedly some people appeared who had come into contact with universal truth. They operated on higher spiritual frequencies that ordinary citizens, who meekly believed in the omnipotence of their “goon squad” state, were unable to understand. The state authorities hounded these people by every means available, because they had gained powers that the state had successfully concealed and twisted to its own advantage for all the centuries of its existence, so that a handful of people called the state could rule over mere mortals (I think there’s no need to point out the parallels in everyday life). So the people who had come to know love above all else knew that humanity and its harmony don’t need the pillars of institutions made up of politicians, the army, the police, lawyers, self-crowned church intermediaries, scientists, teachers, doctors… because the realization of life in the light protected them from everything. They no longer knew fear. That’s why they were a danger to the state’s existence: they had realized it was unnecessary. They could leave their physical body and take on an astral form. They could travel through electrical wiring in a non-physical body, break into computer networks and databases, with only computer viruses causing them minor headaches along the way. So this new generation of young people was capable of communicating with the whole creation of the cosmos. And the most delightful fact of all is surely that they listened to heavy metal and wore worn-out leather with chains. Isn’t that insanely exciting?
Anyway, here’s finally the review of the new Rage! This bombastic trio, which probably represents one of the highest levels of perfection in heavy metal when it comes to combining direct aggression with melody, has raised the standards set by “Unity” (2002) with its new record. The significance of “Welcome To The Other Side” (2001) was in affirming the reborn band. “Unity” then served as a warm-up, a taste test of where Rage are musically at the moment and what they’re capable of. Now the confident lads are serving up a concept album. It’s draped in grayness and gloom. Well, the feeling is that “Soundchaser” isn’t as melodic and pompous as its predecessor. And that’s a good thing. A dark concept demands a higher level of punch and grounding aggression. Rage attacked with everything they had. They’ve delivered nine equally compact killers. War Of Worlds is driven in the pre-chorus by a thrashy riff and, in places, a Peavy vocal approach that, knowingly or not, pulls toward the album “Black In Mind” (1994), and then the chorus flips to total melody, which is now a constant for the new Rage and the trademark of their freshly recognizable style. Great Old Ones follows the same parallel. The title track directly confirms that the guitar of Belarusian guitar wizard Victor Smolski has never sounded so uncompromisingly lethal and devastating since the man became a permanent member of Rage. The sanguine one can’t stay still for a moment this time either, hunting down every inch of room in Rage’s musical stance to slip in his trademark arpeggio bits and a varied palette of other tasty spices. In the melodic instrumental middle sections of the songs, his recognizable solo madness provides an excellent contrast. The lads don’t let up and the tracks roll on unstoppably, bomb after bomb, with a heaping dose of brutal instrumental neighing. Rage really are rage in the truest sense of the word. Peavy’s vocals sound more convincing than ever, and without a doubt he’s delivered the best vocals of the band’s existence. The venomous vocals and pulsing bass playing undeniably confirm that Peavy is Rage!
With the sixth song, Secrets In A Wierd World, the record’s atmosphere starts to gain wider and higher dimensions and real momentum. The keyboard arrangements of the excellent melodic chorus are especially pleasing in this one. The lads somehow calm the ball down with the seventh track. With the mid-tempo Flesh And Blood, Peavy’s subtle singing really comes into its own. But the song is no “crybaby” number, as in the middle section Mike Terrana’s massive drums try to literally tear it apart. The fire-spewing carries on with the intense and accelerated rowdy Human Metal.
The last song, Falling From Grace, is a oddity made up of two parts and the atmospheric peak of the record. In the first part, called Wake The Nightmares, Peavy trades verse parts with Helloween singer Andi Deris. Interestingly, though, the two vocalists don’t manage to conjure up any special contrast in the song. Falling From Grace is a mini epic, a nearly 12-minute poem. It strives to sound progressive and unpredictable. Acoustic passages with Peavy’s deeply felt, sensual singing create the phantasmagoric atmosphere of a dying soundchaser (the whiff of death’s touch really isn’t hard to feel with such an immersed performance by the band), and in the same breath they’re brilliantly combined with eruptive cutoffs of bombastic guitar riffing and the untamed wildness of Mike’s drums. It’s incredible how much of the sonic spectrum Mike Terrana covers with his mastery. Mike has actually set new standards for drumming in heavy metal. Superb command of the double bass pedal! Nobody’s going to top him at that for quite a while. His drums talk, they’re actually alive. Okay, I don’t know if they exactly walk around, but Mike has undoubtedly breathed a piece of his soul into them.
I can’t skip the fantastic production by Charlie Bauerfeind, who simply felt the heart of the band and pulled the essence of the essence out of it. To be Rage!
While listening to the new Rage record there isn’t a moment when the hair on the listener’s neck doesn’t stand up and their skin doesn’t crawl. Such fullness of playing and musical perfection means a new dimension of heavy metal and a new musical revolution. Throughout their entire history Rage have boldly set out on paths nobody had trodden before. “Soundchaser” is yet another successful proof of that. It’s a new stage in the band’s constant evolution. The chemistry among the trio is flawless. “Soundchaser” is a new milestone for what just three people in a band are capable of when they supremely command their dangerous toys. Metal blockheads! This is your day of salvation, what are you waiting for? Don’t you know what you were made for? Enough hesitation, “Sounchaser” is waiting for you impatiently! “Dies irae!”
Line-up
Peter “Peavy” Wagner – vocals, bass
Victor Smolski – guitar
Mike Terrana – drums
Production
Charlie Bauerfeind
Track list
01. Orgy Of Destruction (Intro)
02. War Of Worlds
03. Great Old Ones
04. Soundchaser
05. Defenders Of The Ancient Life
06. Secrets In A Weird World
07. Flesh And Blood
08. Human Metal
09. See You In Heaven Or Hell
10. Wake The Nightmares (Pt. 1)
11. Death Is On Its Way (Pt.2)
12. French Buorree*
* limited edition bonus track
Running time:57:25
