I have nothing but respect for Peavy Wagner and his creature Rage.
A band with no bad albums despite constantly releasing new material for almost 40 years. We are here to talk about the latest creature "Afterlifelines". Recorded with Vassilios "Lucky" Maniatopoulos on drums and Jean Bormann on guitars.
It's a double album divided into two halves designed to represent two sides of the band. The first part, titled "Afterlife," is a representation of the most recent form of Rage, which is hard, thrashing, and furious, while in "Lifelines" Peavy (partially) goes back to the atmospheres of albums like “XIII” and “Ghosts”, and with his love for classical music in evidence.
The music of the first part (Afterlife) is what you expect from Rage. Energy, power and the usual melodic hooks. The songs are great: the first single Under A Black Crown, the title track, Dead Man's Eyes, 100% Rage, the groove of Mortal, the drumming and the solo of Toxic Waves, the chorus of Shadow World. The songs are all inspired (including the almost pop chorus of Justice Will Be Mine) but may need more variety. Personally, I find the content of this one way more inspired than the last album Resurrection Day, not a bad one but a little with the autopilot feeling.
The second part (Lifelines) opens with Cold Desire and with a piano and the Lingua Mortis feeling before the fury of Peavy and the band is unleashed. Root of Our Evil and Curse the Night and, in general, the songs slow down a bit compared to the first part. We also have a good ballad like Dying to Live and, One World is one of my favourite album tracks (I love the guitars during the verses). Speaking of favourite tracks, Lifelines is an unexpected 10-minute long song with a slow first part, an aggressive and technical second one, and probably the peak of the entire "Afterlifelines".
Here's the thing about the second part of the album: the songs are good but the feeling I have is for the majority of the tracks the orchestral parts are not blending with the music like in the past. In albums like XIII and Ghosts, for instance, I felt the songs were created with the orchestra in mind, while in this one it was just applied at the end, as the songs make sense even without it.
Personally, I would have preferred a single and shorter album (even without the orchestra) rather than 86 minutes of new material. But I'm not gonna tell Peavy what to do, he goes his way (or no way at all) and this album is quality with no bad tracks, despite the length and the orchestral parts not at the level of other releases.
Rating: 68/100
Top tracks: Dead Man's Eyes, Cold Desire, Lifelines.
Tracklisting
Afterlife - In The Beginning
Afterlife - End Of Illusions
Afterlife - Under A Black Crown
Afterlife - Afterlife
Afterlife - Dead Man's Eyes
Afterlife - Mortal
Afterlife - Toxic Waves
Afterlife - Waterwar
Afterlife - Justice Will Be Mine
Afterlife - Shadow World
Afterlife - Life Among Ruins
Lifelines - Cold Desire
Lifelines - Root Of Our Evil
Lifelines - Curse The Night
Lifelines - One World
Lifelines - It's All Too Much
Lifelines - Dying To Live
Lifelines - The Flood
Lifelines - Lifelines
Lifelines - Interlude
Lifelines - In The End
Afterlife - Under A Black Crown
Afterlife - Afterlife
Afterlife - Dead Man's Eyes
Afterlife - Mortal
Afterlife - Toxic Waves
Afterlife - Waterwar
Afterlife - Justice Will Be Mine
Afterlife - Shadow World
Afterlife - Life Among Ruins
Lifelines - Cold Desire
Lifelines - Root Of Our Evil
Lifelines - Curse The Night
Lifelines - One World
Lifelines - It's All Too Much
Lifelines - Dying To Live
Lifelines - The Flood
Lifelines - Lifelines
Lifelines - Interlude
Lifelines - In The End