After previously announcing the cover artwork and tracklist of their upcoming 30th anniversary release »The Soundchaser Archives«, which will be out on May 23, German Heavy Metal masters RAGE now present the first part of their liner notes on this ultimate song collection.
1. ‘Anybody Home ?’: This is a newly recorded song we created from leftover ideas we had from the »21«-sessions. At that time we couldn´t find the right grooves for it and after changing the arrangement a million times, it was too late for that album. Now, after re-visiting the tune two years later, it came out naturally. It was real fun for us to turn up the volume and kick it out roughly, a good marker for our future.
2. ‘Mystery Trip’: This was a bonus track for the European limited edition version of »Unity«.
3. ‘In Union’: This is a leftover Song Victor wrote for the album »Into the Light« which he produced for the Nuclear Blast 25th Anniversary. Originally it was planned that HAMMERFALL´s Joacim Cans would sing it, but we couldn´t schedule the recording session, as he was too busy. So we planned to give it to Tarja Turunen with new lyrics written especially for her (‘Raven And Swan’). Unfortunately she also turned it down, as it seemed too heavy for her, so she sang something different. In the end the song was used by MIND ODYSSEY for their »Time To Change It« album. What you hear now is our first demo with Peavy´s pilot vocals.
4. ‘Long Hard Road’: At the time we worked on »Carved In Stone«, we used to rehearse in the studio, so we would record our new ideas directly in a good quality. What you hear is absolutely live with no overdubs at all. This is already the second version we recorded, five minutes before that, Peavy finished the lyrics.
5. ‘Full Moon’ (international version): This is a re- mix from several versions of this song we did as bonus tracks for the diverse versions of »Speak Of The Dead«. At this time we recorded the song in five different languages that were only issued in the specific territories. Peavy sung it in English, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. Of course these versions were real live killers in the language´s countries, as you can imagine. For the first time you can hear a funny new mix with all these languages, a Babylonian joy.
6. ‘Nevermore’: This first demo version of this song we recorded on an 8-track-machine in our rehearsal room. We didn´t change much for our later issued version for »The Missing Link«. The band was in a very creative phase at that time and we used to meet nearly every day, drink too much coffee and work on songs till the late evening.
7. ‘French Bourree’: A while before we recorded »Soundchaser«, Victor had put out his second solo album »Majesty And Passion« where he interpreted music from Johann Sebastian Bach in his very own style. He had arranged a lot more tunes from that fantastic Baroque composer, so we could also use two of them for RAGE. Unfortunately they were only used as bonus tracks; this one was for the European limited edition of the album. We´ve played it live several times with the LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA.
8. ‘A Perfect Day’: This is another song written for the »Into The Light« album. The original version was sung by Andi Deris from HELLOWEEN. Here we issue our demo version with Peavy´s pilot vocals for the first time.
9. ‘Enough Is Enough’: This is a very early sketch of this song, recorded even before we did a real demo. After we had recorded the »Extended Power«-EP, we had some studio time left that we used to tape some rough ideas for the next album, which turned out to be »Trapped!«. This recording is absolutely live with no overdubs.
10. ‘Here Comes The Night’: This is a leftover song we had written for »Soundchaser«. As we had too many songs in the end we decided to use it for the next album, which, of course, we forgot. Issued here for the first time with new drum tracks from Andrè, as we were not permitted to u
2. ‘Mystery Trip’: This was a bonus track for the European limited edition version of »Unity«.
3. ‘In Union’: This is a leftover Song Victor wrote for the album »Into the Light« which he produced for the Nuclear Blast 25th Anniversary. Originally it was planned that HAMMERFALL´s Joacim Cans would sing it, but we couldn´t schedule the recording session, as he was too busy. So we planned to give it to Tarja Turunen with new lyrics written especially for her (‘Raven And Swan’). Unfortunately she also turned it down, as it seemed too heavy for her, so she sang something different. In the end the song was used by MIND ODYSSEY for their »Time To Change It« album. What you hear now is our first demo with Peavy´s pilot vocals.
4. ‘Long Hard Road’: At the time we worked on »Carved In Stone«, we used to rehearse in the studio, so we would record our new ideas directly in a good quality. What you hear is absolutely live with no overdubs at all. This is already the second version we recorded, five minutes before that, Peavy finished the lyrics.
5. ‘Full Moon’ (international version): This is a re- mix from several versions of this song we did as bonus tracks for the diverse versions of »Speak Of The Dead«. At this time we recorded the song in five different languages that were only issued in the specific territories. Peavy sung it in English, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. Of course these versions were real live killers in the language´s countries, as you can imagine. For the first time you can hear a funny new mix with all these languages, a Babylonian joy.
6. ‘Nevermore’: This first demo version of this song we recorded on an 8-track-machine in our rehearsal room. We didn´t change much for our later issued version for »The Missing Link«. The band was in a very creative phase at that time and we used to meet nearly every day, drink too much coffee and work on songs till the late evening.
7. ‘French Bourree’: A while before we recorded »Soundchaser«, Victor had put out his second solo album »Majesty And Passion« where he interpreted music from Johann Sebastian Bach in his very own style. He had arranged a lot more tunes from that fantastic Baroque composer, so we could also use two of them for RAGE. Unfortunately they were only used as bonus tracks; this one was for the European limited edition of the album. We´ve played it live several times with the LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA.
8. ‘A Perfect Day’: This is another song written for the »Into The Light« album. The original version was sung by Andi Deris from HELLOWEEN. Here we issue our demo version with Peavy´s pilot vocals for the first time.
9. ‘Enough Is Enough’: This is a very early sketch of this song, recorded even before we did a real demo. After we had recorded the »Extended Power«-EP, we had some studio time left that we used to tape some rough ideas for the next album, which turned out to be »Trapped!«. This recording is absolutely live with no overdubs.
10. ‘Here Comes The Night’: This is a leftover song we had written for »Soundchaser«. As we had too many songs in the end we decided to use it for the next album, which, of course, we forgot. Issued here for the first time with new drum tracks from Andrè, as we were not permitted to u
