Artist: Rage
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2010
Length: 55:05
Rating: 4/5
Rage, the German power metal band with roots in the early eighties, a pile of albums, and a pile of different incarnations that made up the lineup and drove the band through its career. Just two years after “Carved In Stone” came out, they’re back with a new album, “Strings To A Web”.
The word “strings” is a hint to anyone who knows Rage even a little that the album might feature another collaboration with an orchestra. And it does. That alone tells you that “Strings To A Web” is a different beast from its predecessor. Hell, can Rage even tell us anything new at this point? Not really. In the latest incarnation of the trio, with Viktor Smolski on guitar, they’ve pretty much exhausted the arsenal of the power metal vision they’ve been following for the past decade. And yet. The album really is different. It’s not a parody of past releases, either, but an intelligent recycling job that offers freshness and inspiration at the same time. So once again it’s a typical Rage album, soaked in that typical sound and songwriting style, where the Victor Smolski – Peter Wagner “Peavy” partnership once again lives together triumphantly. An album with a lot more going on under the hood than “Carved In Stone” (2008). The previous record was direct, light on interesting arrangements, played the card of short and punchy, expressing the drive of rage and aggression above all else. It hit less hard, was less interesting, and above all was very predictable. It wasn’t a bad album. Just easy to digest and stuck in the average of Rage releases.
In contrast, “Strings To A Web” is again fond of more complex song arrangements. But let’s not jump to conclusions. It’s a smart balancing act between the complex and the direct and punchy. Something this German trio has worked best with over the past decade, firing on all cylinders and thrilling listeners, always when everything inside the band was in its right place (“Unitiy” from 2002, “Soundchaser” from 2003). The typical Rage-style choruses are no great discovery, sure. On the other hand, they’re even expected. But in the new “environment” of livelier arrangements, they fit perfectly, because nowhere on the album do they tip the scales toward self-parody and a “copy-paste” syndrome.
The opener The Edge Of Darkness alone conjures up some nostalgic moments that reach back even to Welcome To The Other Side (2001), in the structure of the riff, the combining of motifs in the instrumental middle section, the way the guitar solos are woven in. You simply have to conclude that Victor Smolski is on fire this time and can still dig into the rich arsenal of his knowledge, talent, skills, and experience for ideas that sound fresh and inspired, which makes him the main player breaking the stereotypical cookie-cutter approach to forging songs in German power metal. Even Beggar’s Last Dime, the only track on this album with a whiff of “Carved In Stone”, and Hunter And Prey, with its expected solutions in the chorus, stand out for the sparkling, inventive combinations in the instrumental middle sections, where guitar soloing playfully trades off with synthesizer arrangements while the band rides through the riffing of the song.
The suite Empty Hollow is made up of five acts, and I’d dare say that, with the backing of the Prague orchestra “Lingua Mortis”, the band has this time pulled off the most successful capitalizing of the potential a heavy metal band gets when it invites an orchestra to collaborate. All the parts are sensibly connected, and the track sways in balance and rolls with dynamic waves. Those waves stretch from sections where the real riff-slinging fire of Rage’s most solid, unyielding language blazes up, to totally calm ones, where, especially in the part titled Conected, Rage pull a previously untried trick out of their “hidden bag of tricks”, conjuring a completely different atmosphere and scoring the most winning points needed to “break up” such a multi-minute mass as the Empty Hollow suite with the variety of the individual arrangements’ structures. Ambitious and effective execution, in which the band doesn’t lose the dynamite of its characteristic, one-of-a-kind power metal bite.
But the story doesn’t end there. The band impresses in the closing stretch of the album too, where in Saviour Of The Dead especially, the double bass pedal worked into the basic rhythm of the verse grabs your attention. And since we’re on drumming, let me point out that newcomer Andre Hilgers, who replaced Mike Terrana on “Carved In Stone”, is put to much better use this time. Hilgers’ mastery and drumming skill come through far more on the new album, and the guy offers even more variety, witty acrobatics, inventive transitions and other “little secrets”, proof that Andre Hilgers could really only show on the new album that he can fill, quite decently, the big shoes that the hard-to-replace Mike Terrana left behind when he left Rage. Rage are intense and bite relentlessly throughout the album, so the breather of Through Ages is a real kindness to the ears. The album’s last track, Tomorrow Never Comes, is the story from the beginning of the album all over again, with similar vibes, and it could easily swap places with The Edge Of Darkness on the record. It’s yet another excellent verse – chorus pairing that sounds fiery and thoroughly Rage-ish.
“Strings To A Web” is another great Rage album that, considering the long-running band’s road-weary mileage, thankfully doesn’t show creative fatigue. That was something to be seriously afraid of, given the less inspired predecessor “Carved In Stone”, which was a sign that the Rage flame was slowly dying. Contrary to that skepticism, “Strings To A Web” is a great career album that, in terms of quality, belongs on the short list of Rage’s best work of the past decade. Maybe the cover art itself had something to do with it, too, with the skull from “Soundchaser” showing up again, one of the best records in Rage’s whole career.
Lineup
Peter “Peavy” Wagner – vocals, bass guitar
Victor Smolski – guitar, keyboards
Andre Hilgers – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Lingua Mortis orchestra – tracks 5 to 9 (the Empty Hollow suite)
Production
Victor Smolski & Charlie Bauerfeind
Tracklist
1. The Edge Of Darkness
2. Hunter And Prey
3. Into The Light
4. The Beggar’s Last Dime
5. Empty Hollow
6. Empty Hollow II – Strings To A Web
7. Empty Hollow III – Fatal Grace
8. Empty Hollow IV – Connected
9. Empty Hollow V – Reprise
10. Saviour Of The Dead
11. Hellgirl
12. Purified
13. Through Ages
14. Tomorrow Never Comes
