Rage - Soundchaser

*=Staff's pick	Orgy Of Destruction - Intro War Of Worlds* Great Old Ones* Soundchaser Defenders Of The Ancient Life Secrets In A Weird World Flesh And Blood Human Metal* See You In Heaven Or Hell Falling From Grace Pt.1 - Wake The Nightmares* Falling From Grace Pt.2 -Death Is On It's Way*

Genre	Heavy Metal	Peavy Wagner	Vocals
Tracks	11	Victor Smolski	Guitar
Runningtime	53 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	SPV	Peavy Wagner	Bass
Release	29 Sept. 2003	Mike Terrana	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	---

Rage is one of those bands that you always can rely on for good metal and never makes a bad album. They sure have their ups and downs like everyone, but their lowest level is so high that you are always satisfied anyway. Even though they can have some songs that might be lowmarks, they have enough pearls to lift the album way above average. This album lies somewhere in between excellent and very good. It feels like the previous effort Unity was just a tiny bit better but it's a close call.

Soundchaser pretty much continues where Unity left us, and is a logical step in their career. It's a bit heavier, more intense and darker but with full control over the melodies as usual. The characteristic vocallines are still there and the bridges and refrains with personal and original touches to them. After some problems in the end of the 90's, Rage has now found a killersetting in Victor Smolski on guitar and Mike Terrana on kegs and sticks, and it's by now a well-oiled machinery that produced a handful of hits on the last album and continue to do so here.

The album kicks off in good speed with War Of Worlds and Great Old Ones that are Rage songs after the schoolbook with catchy refrains and great riffs. The titletrack Soundchaser is a heavy smasher with a bulldozer riff that leads to a powerful, short chorus. The heaviest song on the album, and they have seldom sounded like this. Defenders Of The Ancient Life keeps the pace, and contains great riffing by Smolski the chorus is a special one - either you think it's to pop-ish or you'll love it.

Secrets In A Weird World - yes, it has the same name as the album from 1989 - is a very good, epic track in classic Rage style with a hint of orchestral arrangements. With the coming of the next track Flesh And Blood the pace takes down a notch, but the song it's a bit too non-saying for my likes. It just goes on basically in midtempo without leaving much marks. Human Metal that follows brings everything back to their normal standards again, and it has one of the best choruses of the album. See You In Heaven Or Hell is another classicsounding tune which is fast and contains brilliant riffs and breaks and the chorus is of course smashing.

The two closing parts of Falling From Grace are both good, with the first one being a very symbios of acoustic ballad-like pieces and galopping metalriffs. Part II is a bit more laid back at first until the speed increases more and more the closer to the end we come, and falls under the category above average. Overall it feels like a fresh breeze is blowing in Rage lately, with the new members and they are focusing on the metal again, and are picking up the best piece from the Black In Mind/Trapped-era and are forging it in a new, modern sound.

I think Rage are on the perfect track here, and if they can (which I don't doubt for one second) keep this level of development and creativity in the future they will overcome most bands of today. Rage has personality, charisma and of course great songs and they don't make it harder than it is - they just deliver straight, good metal. That's a winning concept.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	7,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy