RAGE
Speak of the Dead
(Nuclear Blast)

Rage guitarist Victor Smolski is a legendary figure throughout Europe, the former Soviet Republic and Israel. Smolski’s father is a respected professor of classical music in the Ukraine, and that classical influence has spread to this disc. Speak of the Dead is a well-crafted piece of Yanni gone metal. The mood alternates between dark, jubilant and redemptive, and alludes to rock opera theatrics. The early tracks tell the story of a young girl who dreams her own death, then actually dies and then somehow manages to sing about it afterwards in a male Teutonic accent. Much of the album is progressive rock entwined with classical music and quality power metal. But most of the instrumentals are film soundtrack pomp, as in opener “Mortituri te Salutant,� which sounds more like a salute to an MGM feature than your typically morbid metal. There is no shortage of technical virtuosity here. And sometimes, lyrical content degenerates into anti-war preaching, but if you can ignore the rhetoric the sheer quality of this album makes it definitely recommended.

See this review in its original context on American Wired.

AND YES WE DID DO AN INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR SMOLSKI – I’M JUST WAITING FOR MY DINGBAT FRIEND TO TRANSLATE IT