Rage – Afterlifelines | soundsfromthedarkside

German metallers Rage are back with their twenty-sixth album. It’s a double whammy this time and we had a long, hard listen.

When you count their days as Avenger, German speed/power metal institution has been around for over forty years now and show no sign of slowing down. New albums are released regularly and although you’d expect the quality to drop considering the band’s high prolificity, they’ve yet to release a stinker. Afterlifelines is their twenty-sixth album and it’s the band’s first bonafide double album. Let’s dig in.

Afterlifelines is split up over two cd’s (or three records if you managed to snag up a copy of the vinyl version) and there is a stylistical difference between the two. The first disc is the heavier one, leaning more into thrash and speed metal territory. The riffing is heavy, Peavy screams, wails and growls through the material with the energy and conviction of a guy only half his age (Peavy is 59 years old at the time of writing). Jean Bormann is sprucing up every song with little licks and touches, essentially having the lead guitar front and centre all the time whilst Lucky pounds ferociously from start to finish. Songs like End of Illusions, Under a Black Crown and Justice Will Be Mine rank amongst the best songs Rage has released in their long discography and that’s an impressive feat in and of itself.

Disc two is the more symphonic side, where the songs are enhanced with subtle orchestration. After the forty minute barrage of aggressive riffing it makes for a nice change of pace. Not that the band drops the tempo on opening track Cold Desire, but the feel is different. Songs like Root of Our Evil, One World and the gargantuan Lifelines sound more melodic and, due to the added orchestration, more massive and larger than life than the songs on the first disc. The second disc also features two really nice power ballads in Dying to Live and the closing In the End.

The production on the entirety of Afterlifelines is crystal clear. The guitars sound crisp, the drums and bass pack a definite punch, adding an oomph to the songs that take the material to a higher level. At a massive eighty-six minutes, Afterlifelines should feel exhaustive and overlong and it’s testimony to Rage’s songwriting prowess that it doesn’t at all. Both discs just seem to breeze by. The fact that that isn’t a bad song on either side helps immensely.

That Rage manages to release this late career highlight is impressive to say the least. Twenty-one songs, including intros and interludes and not a bad track amongst them. There are songs on here that, for my money, really are amongst the best they’ve ever written. I’d even go as far as saying that Rage is at the best they’ve been in a long, long time. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of the band or a casual listener, Afterlifelines is an essential addition to your Rage collection and one of the finest power metal albums released so far this year.

Label: Steamhammer

Buy it here: https://shop.luckybob.de/collections/rage

Track listing:

Disc 1 – Afterlife