The Soundchaser Archives

When you talk about which bands were the pioneers of European heavy/speed/power metal, we talk about Helloween, Blind Guardian, and then onto Gamma Ray and Stratovarius. But there’s another band that sometimes gets looked over for whatever insane reason it is – Germany’s Rage. Forming in 1983 (as Avenger), the band changed their name (under instruction from Noise Records) to Rage in 1986. Since then Rage has gone on to bigger and better things, becoming one of the most well-known names in European power metal. Only one original member of Rage still remains to this day and that is the larger than life bassist/vocalist, Peter “Peavy” Wagner.

Never afraid to experiment, Rage have been trying new and different things with their sounds for decades now, while other bands were too afraid to try something different, fearing fan/media backlash. Rage has been one of those bands who made their own destiny and went by the beat of a different drum. Now they are one of the most respected and acknowledged metal bands in the world, but especially in Europe.

With over 20 full-length albums under their belt in 30 years (that’s a great average), plus live albums/DVDs, Rage have kept their fans happy over their career with solid albums that isn’t just your straight up and down European power metal. So in celebration of Rage’s 30 years in the business, they have decided to come up with a compilation CD spanning over their entire career of rare, previously unreleased, demo versions and re-worked songs entitled 'The Soundchaser Archives'.

The album contains two discs totaling 30 tracks, plus an additional DVD from their live show at the Monsters of Rock festival. The compilation also includes (aside from already mentioned above) a couple of new tracks that were left off their previous releases but now available on this album. Rage are no strangers to compilation albums that include rare or unreleased material; releasing '10 Years in Rage: The Anniversary Album' back in 1994. With that album being a success, why not do it again 20 years later with even more material to choose from?

'The Soundchaser Archives' is a pretty cool compilation, especially if you are a rare song collector or just a massive die-hard Rage fan. The CD is also quite interesting, particularly with the tracks they have decided to include here. It’s not just your typical tracks that were left off an album or a bonus track just for a particular country and nowhere else, or a limited edition thing; there are track here that were originally not meant for any Rage album, or songs that have been long forgotten from their short stint as Avenger.

Some of those non-Rage album tracks include “In Union”, “A Perfect Day”, “Death is Alive”, “Dirty Wings”, and “Heads Off”, which were written by guitarist Victor Smolski for the Nuclear Blast compilation album 'Into the Light'. Although you can hear the official versions of these songs on that CD (except for “In Union”), what we have here on 'The Soundchaser Archives' are the original demo versions with Peavy Wagner singing, rather than the vocalist it was eventually intended for (such as Tobias Sammet, Andi Deris, Mats Leven and Schmier).

The other cool thing about this compilation, is that aside from hearing the current three Rage members belting out these tracks, we also get to hear from the majority of the past members of Rage; which include Jorg Michael, Mike Terrana, Chris Efthimiadis and Manni Schmidt. Lastly, we also get to hear the interesting rough versions of songs before they were turned into the tracks we know today, back when they were done live in the studio with no overdubs and hardly any production polishing that we are so used to these days.

In the end, 'The Soundchaser Archives' is an interesting and entertaining collection of tracks covering this iconic band’s journey through 30 years, displaying not only their ideas and influences, but also their work outside of Rage as well. As I mentioned, this compilation is really for die-hard Rage fans, and/or collectors of rare and unreleased works. Casual Rage fans should also find this double album interesting, plus the addition of the live DVD will be enough to part with your hard earned money to purchase this; while those new to the band should look to their most recent studio albums first before hunting down this one.

Originally written for www.themetalforge.com (2014)