Band:	Rage
Album:	Carved In Stone
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	February 22, 2008
A review by:	Baz Anderson

Disc I [Carved In Stone]
01. Carved In Stone
02. Drop Dead!
03. Gentle Murders
04. Open My Grave
05. Without You
06. Long Hard Road
07. One Step Ahead
08. Lost In The Void
09. Mouth Of Greed
10. Lord Of The Flies


Disc II [Bonus DVD: RAGE & Lingua Mortis Orchestra live at Wacken]
01. Overture
02. From The Cradle To The Grave
03. Alive But dead
04. Lingua Mortis Medley
    1 - Don't Fear The Winter
    2 - Black In Mind
    3 - Firestorm
    4 - Sent By The Devil
    5 - Lost In The Ice
05. Turn The Page
06. Suite Lingua Mortis
    1 - Morituri Te Salutant
    2 - Prelude Of Souls
    3 - Innocent
    4 - Depression
    5 - No Regrets
    6 - Confusion
    7 - Black
    8 - Beauty
07. Higher Than The Sky

Rage are that stick in the mud when it comes to heavy metal from Germany, they have been around the block a number of times and it is highly unlikely that your path will not have crossed with Rage sometime in the past. As most of you will be familiar, Rage play a modern and very heavy form of power metal with vocals that, contrary to the power metal genre, isn't a Rob Halford sound-a-like but a grittier voice from Peavy Wagner, still singing all the way of course.

"Carved In Stone" is yet another album in the long line of albums Rage have put out over the last two decades, maybe the band don't even know which album number this is; but the main thing is that "Carved In Stone" has all the usual Rage traits and sounds that we have come to expect over the years. Thrashy guitar riffs, somewhat of an imposing masculine feel with Peavy's vocals and the odd heavy as hell stomper thrown in there every once in a while with plenty of headbanging and foot-tapping songs in-between. The album will not disappoint fans of the band as this is the same formula that has been used time and time again and is therefore a very comfortable listen.

The more eagle eyed of you will notice a lack of a certain Mike Terrana as André Hilgers fills his boots for the position in Rage. The band will not have had the years of bonding that will have been present from 1999 onwards and this may show itself on the album in the way that the album is good and has plenty of tracks of quality, but there is nothing that particularly sticks out and nothing on the album is perhaps as catchy and memorable as songs on the "Soundchaser" album from a few years ago, lets say. "Gentle Murders" is a great highlight as we approach maximum speed and power and also "One Step Ahead" nicely adds a little bit of attitude into the melody to catch the ear. On the whole however, unless you are a fanatical fan of the Rage trio there is a good chance you will be left feeling cheated as though they have simply released a past album again.

By no means is this a bad album or necessarily disappointing as such, although you may be banging your head on the wall wishing they would perhaps add a little more diversity into the mix. "Carved In Stone" is not groundbreaking material, it is not refreshingly original or breathtaking, but is it just typical Rage. Every element that makes Rage Rage is encompassed in this album and so you have a very heavy yet melodic album to look forward to. Just this is not the best album the band have put out during the years and so people new to the band may want to head towards other established classics in the back catalogue and keep this new one just for that odd separate occasion. Worth a listen but "Carved In Stone" will not blow your mind away.