The switch from “In The Beginning” to “End Of Illusion” on “Afterlife” – the first of these epic albums- is actually a decent signpost to the record as a whole.
It goes from grandiosity to heavy in a split second almost (and make no mistake the “heavy” is as heavy as Rage have ever been).
The German trio (they’ve had more members than you can shake a stick at) have never really made it over on these shores, but they’ve been making brilliant music like “Under A Black Crown” – where the drumming from Vassilios “Lucky” Maniatopoulos rattles like a gunshot – for years. Decades in fact. And for Peter “Peavy” Wagner, the man who’s piloted it since 1984, the occasion needed marking.
Not by a best of. Not a party. Not a gold watch. No. With this.
“Afterlife” and its title track which is somewhere between Priest, Saxon and a modern metal band is only one part of the story.
We’ll get to that, but it is staggering how good “Dead Man’s Eyes” and the likes are. Amongst the best and most thrash work they’ve ever unleashed. Jean Borman on guitar appears to fancy single-handedly breathing life into thrash metal.
Likewise “Mortal” unsettles with its darkness – the record is loosely a concept album which follows on from the previous one – and “Toxic Waves” slashes and burns its way through, yet does so with a real melody.
Basically, in short (and that’s one thing this collection definitely is not) if Peavy and the boys had put this out as “Afterlife” a proper metal record, you’d have hailed the thing, any record with “Justice Will Be Mine” and “Shadow World” on is a cracker, but this is only just getting started.
Remember what we said at the start about the switch from grandiosity to metal? Well, that works two ways.
And if Rage have explored orchestration before, then on “Lifelines” they mean it. “Cold Desire” is a decent insight into this. Overblown, yes, but it was meant to be.
Marco Grasshoff has lent his skills here, to work like “Root Of Our Evil” and it sounds like it should be on some soundtrack to a film.
I’ll be honest, I did wonder if these would be slower, ballads if you like a bit contrived even. But this is Rage. They still sound like they’re ready to unleash hell, just they’ve added a layer of strings over the top.
Some, like Curse The Night, are brilliantly disorientating, some like “One World” are magnificently ominous, like Power Metal thinks it is, and others, like “It’s All Too Much” are thunderous.
All, however, are as confident and classy as it gets.
“Dying To Live” does add a little light relief (it’s needed as things do get a little overwhelming) but there’s no doubt at all about the centrepiece here. The title track. All ten minutes of it. Dream Theater are even looking at it a little enviously. It puts the metal back into prog metal, no ifs or buts. More twists and turns than a miniseries, it’s the best example of what “Lifelines” is about.
After that, there’s “Interlude” as if even Peavy needed to calm down, and “In The End”. “What is left” it asks plaintively, when we are woken from our dreams?”
Rage, though, are still dreaming. Still making epic records after 40 years. “Afterlifelines” is perhaps the most ambitious they’ve ever done. Less a metal record than a hulking great behemoth.
It touches brilliance from time to time and Rage are keeping the anger alive.
Rating 8.5/10
