Holy crap... where the hell has Rage been all these years?

"Speak of the Dead" is the seventeenth (!) studio release by the German power metal band called Rage. It is also the first time I have laid ears upon this 20+ year-old group, a fact that is admittedly a burden when tackling an album review. But more than this encumbrance, I feel distraught that I have been missing out on a band of this caliber for so many years. I may not know what Rage's first sixteen albums sound like, but if they are anything like "Speak of the Dead" they have already earned a place in my music library.

This is an album that opens with a 21:53 epic divided into eight tracks. Combining a full orchestra with aggressive and virtuosic power metal (and even a momentary touch of industrial electronics), "Suite Lingua Mortis" immediately define Rage's sound as one combining the technical progressive metal of Symphony X with the neoclassical bombastic power of Kamelot. From the grandiose opening notes of a full symphony, "Suite Lingua Mortis" launches into crisp guitar rhythms, Romeo-esque arrangements, and the angry quicksilver voice of Peter Wagner. Rage's similarity in sound and scope with Symphony X is very strong, but never so much as to give the impression that one is directly influenced by the other. Besides, seeing as Rage has been around for almost twice as long as Symphony X, one could only wonder which direction such hypothetical inspiration would go.

"Suite Lingua Mortis" encompasses the first half of "Speak of the Dead." The second set of eight tracks commences with "No Fear," a dark and thrashy beast of a song that refutes the idea that growling has no place in melodic music. Power metal this may be, but I've heard death metal that doesn't approach the thick weight of this song. "Soul Survivor" tap-dances between sing-along arena hit and Nocturnal Rites with a different vocalist. "Full Moon" begins as a DragonForce ballad but morphs into a pissed-off Helloween attack. A version of this track with all lyrics sung in Spanish makes an appearance at the end of my promo copy of "Speak of the Dead" as an unlisted bonus track; apparently, Rage have recorded versions of this track with lyrics sung in English, Spanish, Russian and German. Amazing.

The aforementioned "No Fear" is also apparently being released as a single, complete with filmed video, and will be included on the soundtrack to the German movie "Ludgers Fall." All I can say is, this is one hell of a heavy song to be a power metal single or soundtrack tune.

And "Kill Your Gods" is only the second example I have ever heard of blast beats in power metal (with Falconer retaining the honor of being my first). Thank you, Rage.

Despite apparent lineup changes in its past, Rage has consisted of the same three men since 2001's "Welcome to the Other Side," four consecutive studio albums (and one live CD/DVD). The aforementioned Wagner is the mastermind behind Rage, and serves as the band's primary songwriter and bassist as well as vocalist. While there is no great bass guitar presence here, Wagner more than proves his metal mettle and defines himself as one of the strongest and most diverse vocalists in power metal. He can hit high notes without sounding strained, and he can drop into harsh emotional magma and swampy death growls with equal ease. Balancing brutal with balladic and somehow managing to throw in plenty of choral harmonization, Wagner combines the best aspects of Jon Oliva, Curtis Skelton and Tomi Joutsen, while possessing a distinctive sound of his own.

Wagner is also complimented by guitarist Victor Smolski and drummer Mike Terrana. The former is a startlingly diverse guitarist, a lesser John Petrucci that still manages to stand on his own as a great metal guitarist. About the only technique Smolski doesn't pull out on "Speak of the Dead" is the use of acoustic guitars, but I'm usually too busy listening to what he does do to care. From nu crunch to prog technicality to virtuosic emotional noodling, he is all over the place. In a good way. And Terrana is a magnificently complex drummer, ranging from hard-hitting power ballad percussion to rapid-fire fills and the blasting mentioned above. Terrana shows of his percussive pyrotechnics in a short segment of "Suite Lingua Mortis" entitled "Confusion," and it is an explosive display indeed.

Too many bands that have a career spanning three decades and almost two dozen releases relegate themselves to rehashing old hits and old sounds and pleasing a stagnant fan base. But not so with Rage, apparently. This is a band that is mind-blowing twenty years into their musical existence. "Speak of the Dead" is an album that is perfectly relevant to the contemporary metal scene as well. The ways in which Rage balance pop sensibilities with underground metal ingenuity is nothing short of incredible. Strongly melodic and pleasantly heavy, catchy and brutal alike, Rage is a band that bucks the trend of stagnating power metal. This is a band that plucks all the right strings while doing so in a creative way. And this is a band that, despite my (soon to be rectified) lack of additional material, has suddenly and startlingly become a major contender for my top ten metal albums of 2006.