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I disagree completely with the review. The whole eight tracks is supposed to be a 'musical journey', but you view it like a normal album and thus fail to grasp the purpose of the instrumentals. And you automatically write off track 8 just because it is a ballad with no other reason other than that.

I love the two heavy songs with the orchestra. And I think the instrumentals work in keeping the songs flowing. The 2nd half of album is fairly typical for Rage, but there's some good tunes on there too (Kill Your Gods).

I'd give it a 90, as I still prefer Unity to this, as the songs were catchier then. This is more prog, but its very good.

I agree with Nightmare. I actually liked this one quite a bit as well. Not as good as SoundChaser but still a damn fine album. I could do with out the orchestrated intrumentals but that's what the skip buttons for. Full Moon, Innocent, and Speak of the Dead are some really great tracks IMO. Full Moon is one of my all time favorites from Rage. I love the in your face guitar sound and Victor has some very interesting solos as always. 88 is my score!

RAGE ON!

I hate it when great albums get reviewed by someone with a bee stuck in their bonnet. If the reviewer disliked the album that much, he should have asked someone else on the staff to take it. Rage isn't capable of putting out an album that rates in the 60s. It's sacrilege!

I'll give this one a 90 so far and it's still growing on me as I only just got it this weekend. I will agree it's not as strong as Soundchaser, but that album was a masterpiece. I expect Speak of the Dead to creep up a few more points in the coming weeks.

I agree with the others up there. Seriously, the reviewer says that crappy & uninspired Flesh And Blood from Soundchaser has something unique (ie. the chorus) and that for example Turn My World Around from the new one doesn't have? Pff, rubbish.

And Danny doesn't even get the name of the one of his fav albums right: Ghosts. For that I agree, it is a great, solid album as a whole. In fact, the best from the 'new' Rage-trio along with Unity & Welcome To The Other Side. This one has some dull bits, but the worst choice concerning it was that they played the whole 30min Lingua Mortis Suite live couple of weeks ago. I have learned to like this mammoth-of-a-song since, but it's place could've been filled with so many absent oldies..

Luckily I got the chance to hear Enough Is Enough > neckbreaker!

While I disagree with the notion that someone who liked this should have reviewed it, I do agree that it is a good album. It's not a 90, but a solid 80 in my book. Yes, the orchestral instrumentals do kind of grate on my patience, but I understand that they are part of this Lingua Mortis Suite. The thing is, if you take away the instrumentals—and even the ballad if you want—you still have 10 kick ass metal tunes, very similar to their more recent material. I think the orchestral stuff at the beginning of the album is just turning some people off for what comes after that.

Personally, like I said, I could care less about the orchestral shit. The heavier instrumentals are OK, but I'm not big on instrumentals. Still better than the orchestral ones, though. But the rest of the tracks are killer and considering that metal bands often release albums with less than 10 songs I can't complain.

I agree with Danny with this one. It's one of the biggest disappointments of the year for me. The orchestral parts of the album are unnecessary and I think Rage went to far with the whole symphonic idea. Good thing that some songs still has the old "rage" in them otherwise Speak Of The Dead could have been the biggest blunder of the year. 60/100

I'm not worried though. I'm sure Rage simply took a slight detour from the direction they were going with Unity and Soundchaser and with their next album they will return to it.

Would you still give it a 60 if there were no instrumentals? I don't think anyone would be complaining. Also, anyone who expected anything different hasn't been paying attention because the band chronicled the entire recording process and we knew a year ago what this Lingua Mortis Suite was going to be like.

You don't understand dude. It's not because of the instrumentals, sure they suck but they are like 8 min. long for the duration of the album. Most of the songs circle around the idea of using the lingua mortis and probably because of that or maybe it's something else, but the songs don't feel natural and are kinda forced. In another words I find most of them boring.
A week ago i think, I watch the video for No Fear and it did absolutely nothing for me. When it was over I thought "man, what a dull and uninspired song". I like Innocent and Turn My World Around probably because those are the only songs that I play repeatedly. I heard the album enough to know this is my final opinion.

OK, no problem. I asked because I hear all these complaints about the orchestral stuff even though that stuff is only on the first 7 or 8 songs. If you don't like it, no problem.

I could bet my salary that Dream Theater secretly decided to record an orchestral album if Peavy wasn't singing.
....Bang Nail on the Head....

Depression then No Regrets ,Confusion , Black and Beauty all in a row for me I had to skip those tracks. I eventually woke up at soul survivor

As I put Soundchaser into the cd player and press play I know this one will gather dust.

"No Regrets" is one of the best songs Rage has ever written! :shock: Love that song! And I hear very little of this Dream Theater connection people are making, there is no more prog on this album than on something like Secrets In A Weird World.

I agree, I think if you listen to lots of the songs on this new one, especially the 2nd half - they're not that Prog at all if you compare it to SoundChaser.

I really loved Unity, liked SoundChaser, and am loving this. SoundChaser was good but many of the choruses felt uninspired and some songs I could never get into.

I've heard Unity and thought it was hilarious in its lack of subtelty (seriously on par with Rhapsody or Nevermore for hugeness of drama). I liked much of the playing but the vocals were kinda sketchy... should I check this out?

Wagner has never been the greatest vocalist, but he's solid. He can actually go pretty high when he wants to, hasn't done that for a long time, though.

Anyway, I would suggest trying to sample it first. You get 10 songs of heavy Rage, one ballad and five inconsequential instrumentals.

Here's part of a different review, this guy actually likes the Suite more than the latter half. Weird.

I am a bit puzzled about my feelings here since the first half is a real knock-out but I can't look away from the fact that the second part feels a bit lukewarm. It is still very good but it doesn't seem to fit with the first half. I'm in favour of diversity but the border between the first and second half are way to obvious, it almost feels like two different records. But enough of criticism, at the end of the day this is another really good record from a fantastic band.

He also says "No Regrets must from now on be considered as a Rage classic" which I agree with more.

I didn't exactly say "someone who likes this album should have reviewed it". What irks me is the reviewer is a long time fan of the band and gives this album a rating of 60. Like I said, that's sacrilege.

I would've accepted a score of 75 or 80 without bitching publicly, but a 60 (from a reviewer who is a Rage fan) is enough to chap my hide. This comes from a guy who seldom rates ANY album he reviews less than 69. Does this album really suck that bad in his opinion? Worse than 90% of anything he's ever reviewed here?

Methinks his pipe-dreams of another Soundchaser and his aversion to short classical instrumentals had too much influence on his judgement of how good/great this album might be.

60/100? Pish-posh, I say! At least give an 80 because it's Rage and the songwriting and performing talent is still there. Not like this is their St. Anger, for god's sake.

I'll be ordering a copy if it's as good as Latest Vanden Plas I'll be pleased really like Christ 0.

I just realized that I have absolutely nothing in common with this reviewer. I mean, ok... some of the music was not divided in small neat packages of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-solo-chorus, but is that such a bad thing?
Personally I think the first part of the album as well as the more progressive parts were the highlights. And I was not too pleased with the direction Rage had taken with "Unity".

The fact that the word Dream Theater is often being used almost like a profanity when it is not referring to their later dirt (Train of Thoughts and Octavarium) makes my blood boil and my head spin uncontrollably.

Any way... I would probably give this one an 85%, the low points being the songs "Fear" and "Speak of the Dead". Note that I did not include the instrumentals amongst the list of low points as I have nothing against either instrumentals or intros.

My comments didnt come out right . I agree "No Regrets" is an awesome songs .The vocals are excellent on this. The first half of the album is instrumental overkill and it would so easily to skip the first half and go straight to the second half.

instrumental
instrumental
- Innocent
instrumental
- No Regrets
instrumental
instrumental
- Beauty - slow/instrumental ( As the fat guy from the simpson's would say - Worst song ever)