Lingua Mortis Orchestra feat. Rage - LMO

Published August 13 2013

*=Staff's pick	Cleansed By Fire* I) Convert The Pagans Pt. 1 II) The Inquisition III) Convert The Pagans Pt. 2 Scapegoat The Devil's Bride* Lament Oremus Witches' Judge Eye For An Eye Afterglow Straight To Hell One More Time

Genre	Heavy Metal/Symphony	Peavy Wagner	Vocals
Tracks	10	Victor Smolski	Guitar
Running time	66 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Peavy Wagner	Bass
Release	02 July 2013	André Hilgers	Drums
Country	Germany	Jeannette Marchewka	Vocals
Producer	Charlie Bauerfeind, V. Smolski	Dana Harnge	Vocals
Similar artists	---

Ever since Victor Smolski's first involvement with Rage in the late nineties, he has gotten more and more room to create music from his fascinating and attractive guitar playing. With this release, entirely written by the guitar virtuoso with lyrics from main man, veteran and original member Peavy Wagner, he has written another chapter in the Lingua Mortis suite, meaning orchestral arrangements on top of heavy metal. I must admit that I never was a huge fan of these collaborations with foreign elements, which the band first started a few years before Smolski's entry.

Nevertheless, it's truly skilled playing throughout the record with killer riffs and strong leads succeeding each other. Still I miss the major part of that striking and straight kick ass heavy metal from the early 2000's with the Unity and Soundchaser albums. Certainly there's real heavy stuff present on LMO, but those parts are often overshadowed by the more neat melodies accompanied by symphonic elements set pretty high in the mix and this can sometimes feel like an annoying moment instead of a captivating fusion.

Wagner's voice sounds pretty much like on the latest releases and the female vocals are nothing but amazing, yet I feel the latter somehow don't belong in metal. The record's foundations are great, yet all difficult arrangements takes the killing edge of most songs. They feel stretched to fit the symphony and not the other way around, with the orchestra there to back up the metal. Surely this is not groundbreaking news and I would be a total moron if I was caught by surprise over this matter.

LMO is in no way a bad release, although my words above perhaps aren't all flattering. The opener, Cleansed By Fire and also The Devil's Bride and The Witches' Judge have what it takes. Still I would have preferred hearing them with a more traditional heavy metal approach. The middle section with the ballad Lament and the intermission Oremus are there to complete the concept and after listening to them a couple of times, I'm one inch from pressing the skip-button. The album is closed by two re-arranged versions from Smolski's first Rage album, Welcome To The Other Side, and those songs are both crushing, even though I prefer the originals.

In conclusion. If you're a fan of heavy metal with brilliant guitar playing blended with symphonic elements, this album will totally rock your world. Since I basically am not, I can't hand out more than 6 chalices to a rather good album.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	6	7	7	5

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe