German Heavy Metal masters RAGE recently revealed the first part of their liner notes on the upcoming 30th anniversary release »The Soundchaser Archives«. Now the band gives an insight on the second half of this ultimate song collection.
»The Soundchaser Archives« will be out on May 23, 2014 via Nuclear Blast. Diving into their own history, RAGE has 21 studio albums released to date, covering three decades of an unbeatable Heavy Metal career.
Additionally the 2-CD will contain a bonus DVD including the LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA – feat. RAGE performance of last years »Masters Of Rock« festival.
Following more info about the tracks #16 - #30 of CD #2:
1. ‘The Speed Of Sound’: Here´s another newly recorded song we´ve made from leftover ideas. It is based on stuff written for »End Of All Days« in 1996, now freshly pimped up with new ideas. It captures some of the good old power metal spirit but our performance sounds a lot more modern.
2. ‘Darkness Turns To Light’: The second bonus track we recorded for »Unity«. It was issued only in Japan so far.
3. ‘Death Is Alive’: This song was also written for »Into The Light« for Nuclear Blast´s 25th Anniversary. The original version was sung by Mats Leven (ex-THERION). The here issued demo version features Peavy´s guide vocals (including his imitation of the female voice).
4. ‘Gentle Murders’: »Carved In Stone« demo session, part three. Strictly live in the studio without any overdubs. The decision to go down with the main guitar part from comfortable A minor to G minor gave this killer riff much more energy, but also made it difficult to play.
5. ‘From The Cradle To The Grave’: This is a special version of this demo recorded for the »XIII« album. After Victor had joined the band we wanted to give the song a more interesting guitar solo, so we tested some ideas from Victor on that old demo, as the solo track was free. As we were quite consumed by putting the band together again we lost it out of sight. As we went through our archives we found it again. It´s a real rarity.
6. ‘Refuge’: »The Missing Link«: Demos, part three.
7. ‘Fugue No. 5’: This instrumental is another genius composition by Johann Sebastian Bach in the fantastic arrangement by Victor Smolski. It was used as a bonus track for the Japanese version of »Soundchaser« and is previously unreleased in the rest of the world. We played it live once on the international Bach days Festival in Leipzig, the place where the master lived and died.
8. ‘Last Goodbye’: This song was quite rare already in its original version for the »Beyond The Wall« EP in 1992. This is the rough demo for it we had recorded live in the studio more than a year before. No overdubs.
9. ‘Dirty Wings’: Another track we did for the »Into the Light« session. It has a different solo than the later recorded album version. On the original you hear Tobi Sammet from EDGUY/AVANTASIA singing. This Demo has Peavy´s guide vocals.
10. ‘The Pit And The Pendulum’: The last one from the »Missing Link« demos issued here.
11. ‘Waterfalls’: Previously unreleased. This funny long song is an example of our overloading creativity in the early 90´s. We were jamming on the quite psychedelic composition with an open end. Here you can hear an already edited version; we have cut out some longer endless solos and vocal experiments, too strange for unexperienced ears. Everything is live in the studio, no overdubs, of course.
12. ‘Heads Off’: This is the first demo version of the song later called ‘Bloodsuckers’ which Victor produced for »Into the Light«, sung by DESTRUCTION´s Schmier. As he wanted to contribute some of his own ideas, we wrote some new words together. This early demo with Peavy´s vocals features the original text.
13. ‘Assorted By Satan’: The track starts with the complete intro played by Peavy on the classical guitar which was faded at half on the AVENGER »Prayers Of Steel« album. The intro was taken from AVENGER
