German heavy metal masters RAGE are about to celebrate their 30th band anniversary with the release of a unique collection of songs from their outstanding back catalogue. The Soundchaser Archives will contain 30 tracks put on two brimful CDs, covering everything from previously unreleased material or versions, demo recordings to fractions of ideas that finally went to find clear sonic ground. Additionally the 2CD will contain a bonus DVD including the Rage performance from last years Masters Of Rock festival.

The Soundchaser Archives will be out on May 23rd via Nuclear Blast. Diving into their own history, Rage has 21 studio albums released to date, covering three decades of an unbeatable heavy metal career. Check out a lyric video for the track 'Anybody Home?' below.

The Soundchaser Archives tracklisting:

CD1

'Anybody Home?

'Mystery Trip

'In Union

'Long Hard Road

'Full Moon (International Version)

'Nevermore

'French Bourrée

'A Perfect Day

'Enough Is Enough

'Here Comes The Night

'Spiritual Awakening

'Lost In The Void

'The Missing Link

'Another Kind Of Madness

'Down To The Bone

CD2

'The Speed Of Sound

'Darkness Turns To Light

'Death Is Alive

'Gentle Murders

'From The Cradle To The Grave

'Refuge

'Fugue No. 5

'Last Goodbye

'Dirty Wings

'The Pit And The Pendulum

'Waterfalls

'Heads Off

'Assorted By Satan

'Shame On You

'Soundchaser

DVD - Live at Masters of Rock Festival 2013

'Cleansed By Fire'

'From The Cradle To The Grave'

'Scapegoat'

'The Devil's Bride'

'Empty Hollow'

'Lament'

Suite Lingua Mortis:

- 'Prelude Of Souls'
- 'Innocent'
- 'Depression'
- 'No Regrets'

'Witches' Judge'

'Straight To Hell'

+ Interviews & Bonus Videos

'Anybody Home?' lyric video:

Rage now present the complete liner notes on this ultimate song collection...

CD1:

1. ‘Anybody Home?’: "This is a newly recorded song we created from leftover ideas we had from the 21-sessions. At that time we couldn't find the right grooves for it and after changing the arrangement a million times, it was too late for that album. Now, after re-visiting the tune two years later, it came out naturally. It was real fun for us to turn up the volume and kick it out roughly, a good marker for our future."

2. ‘Mystery Trip’: "This was a bonus track for the European limited edition version of Unity."

3. ‘In Union’: "This is a leftover Song Victor wrote for the album »Into the Light« which he produced for the Nuclear Blast 25th Anniversary. Originally it was planned that HAMMERFALL's Joacim Cans would sing it, but we couldn't schedule the recording session, as he was too busy. So we planned to give it to Tarja Turunen with new lyrics written especially for her (‘Raven And Swan’). Unfortunately she also turned it down, as it seemed too heavy for her, so she sang something different. In the end the song was used by MIND ODYSSEY for their Time To Change It album. What you hear now is our first demo with Peavy's pilot vocals."

4. ‘Long Hard Road’: "At the time we worked on Carved In Stone, we used to rehearse in the studio, so we would record our new ideas directly in a good quality. What you hear is absolutely live with no overdubs at all. This is already the second version we recorded, five minutes before that, Peavy finished the lyrics."

5. ‘Full Moon’ (international version): "This is a remix from several versions of this song we did as bonus tracks for the diverse versions of Speak Of The Dead. At this time we recorded the song in five different languages that were only issued in the specific territories. Peavy sung it in English, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. Of course these versions were real live killers in the language's countries, as you can imagine. For the first time you can hear a funny new mix with all these languages, a Babylonian joy."

6. ‘Nevermore’: "This first demo version of this song we recorded on an 8-track-machine in our rehearsal room. We didn't change much for our later issued version for The Missing Link. The band was in a very creative phase at that time and we used to meet nearly every day, drink too much coffee and work on songs till the late evening."

7. ‘French Bourree’: "A while before we recorded Soundchaser, Victor had put out his second solo album Majesty And Passion where he interpreted music from Johann Sebastian Bach in his very own style. He had arranged a lot more tunes from that fantastic Baroque composer, so we could also use two of them for Rage. Unfortunately they were only used as bonus tracks; this one was for the European limited edition of the album. We've played it live several times with the LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA."

8. ‘A Perfect Day’: "This is another song written for the Into The Light album. The original version was sung by Andi Deris from HELLOWEEN. Here we issue our demo version with Peavy's pilot vocals for the first time."

9. ‘Enough Is Enough’: "This is a very early sketch of this song, recorded even before we did a real demo. After we had recorded the Extended Power EP, we had some studio time left that we used to tape some rough ideas for the next album, which turned out to be Trapped!. This recording is absolutely live with no overdubs."

10. ‘Here Comes The Night’: "This is a leftover song we had written for Soundchaser. As we had too many songs in the end we decided to use it for the next album, which, of course, we forgot. Issued here for the first time with new drum tracks from Andrè, as we were not permitted to use the original drum tracks from Mike Terrana."

11. ‘Here Comes The Night’: "This is the demo version of that song written for the Ghost album. There's no orchestration or keyboards here like later on the album version. Victor had just joined the band and we tried to give the material a bit more heaviness, as the former guitarists had left the scene with just a few poor tracks. Unfortunately the record company demanded a less heavy version, so here you can hear that song for the first time in a heavy riffing shape, like it was meant to be."

12. ‘Lost In The Void’: "That's another one from the Carved In Stone demo session. Again, absolutely live in the studio without any overdubs with a spontaneous crazy jam session solo from Victor."

13. ‘The Missing Link’: "Another track from The Missing Link demos."

14. ‘Another Kind Of Madness’: "Here you can listen to the first recording of that song, in a complete different arrangement, like it was planned for Trapped!. It didn't make it on the album, as Noise Records thought it was too progressive for us. Later, we did an acoustic version that was used as a bonus track for 'The Missing Link'. What you here now is a rough sketch, absolutely live in the studio, no overdubs and nearly no lyrics (!), Peavy is improvising on some early ideas."

15. ‘Down To The Bone’: "This is a song from the long lost AVENGER EP Depraved To Black, originally released on a very small German label (Wishbone) in 1985. Avenger was the original name of the band, after this EP we had changed our name to Rage, as our next Label Noise demanded. The Avenger material (Prayers Of Steel plus the songs from the EP) were added as a bonus CD to the first edition of Black In Mind in 1995, but were never really re- released. Here you can get an idea of how the band sounded in their very beginning. There's some funny sound features in the middle part of that song: check out the "torture scene" with self-recorded chain whips (we used Peavy's bass belt for that (!)."

CD2:

1. ‘The Speed Of Sound’: "Here's another newly recorded song we've made from leftover ideas. It is based on stuff written for »End Of All Days« in 1996, now freshly pimped up with new ideas. It captures some of the good old power metal spirit but our performance sounds a lot more modern."

2. ‘Darkness Turns To Light’: "The second bonus track we recorded for »Unity«. It was issued only in Japan so far."

3. ‘Death Is Alive’: "This song was also written for »Into The Light« for Nuclear Blast's 25th Anniversary. The original version was sung by Mats Leven (ex-THERION). The here issued demo version features Peavy's guide vocals (including his imitation of the female voice)."

4. ‘Gentle Murders’: "'Carved In Stone' demo session, part three. Strictly live in the studio without any overdubs. The decision to go down with the main guitar part from comfortable A minor to G minor gave this killer riff much more energy, but also made it difficult to play."

5. ‘From The Cradle To The Grave’: "This is a special version of this demo recorded for the »XIII« album. After Victor had joined the band we wanted to give the song a more interesting guitar solo, so we tested some ideas from Victor on that old demo, as the solo track was free. As we were quite consumed by putting the band together again we lost it out of sight. As we went through our archives we found it again. It's a real rarity."

6. ‘Refuge’: "The Missing Link: Demos, part three."

7. ‘Fugue No. 5’: "This instrumental is another genius composition by Johann Sebastian Bach in the fantastic arrangement by Victor Smolski. It was used as a bonus track for the Japanese version of 'Soundchaser' and is previously unreleased in the rest of the world. We played it live once on the international Bach days Festival in Leipzig, the place where the master lived and died."

8. ‘Last Goodbye’: "This song was quite rare already in its original version for the Beyond The Wall EP in 1992. This is the rough demo for it we had recorded live in the studio more than a year before. No overdubs."

9. ‘Dirty Wings’: "Another track we did for the Into the Light session. It has a different solo than the later recorded album version. On the original you hear Tobi Sammet from EDGUY/AVANTASIA singing. This demo has Peavy's guide vocals."

10. ‘The Pit And The Pendulum’: "The last one from the Missing Link demos issued here."

11. ‘Waterfalls’: "Previously unreleased. This funny long song is an example of our overloading creativity in the early 90's. We were jamming on the quite psychedelic composition with an open end. Here you can hear an already edited version; we have cut out some longer endless solos and vocal experiments, too strange for unexperienced ears. Everything is live in the studio, no overdubs, of course."

12. ‘Heads Off’: "This is the first demo version of the song later called ‘Brainsucker’ which Victor produced for Into the Light, sung by DESTRUCTION's Schmier. As he wanted to contribute some of his own ideas, we wrote some new words together. This early demo with Peavy's vocals features the original text."

13. ‘Assorted By Satan’: "The track starts with the complete intro played by Peavy on the classical guitar which was faded at half on the AVENGER Prayers Of Steel album. The intro was taken from Avenger 's first demo , the rest of the song is the original album version. This is how it all started."

14. ‘Shame On You’: "This track is from the second demo session for Trapped!, the band recorded in their rehearsal room. Check the very authentic Arabian native vocals in the intro."

15. ‘Soundchaser’: "Finally here's the first version of our Soundchaser title track. It has various arrangement differences compared to the later released album version. The demo is issued here with newly recorded drums from Andre, as we couldn't use the original tracks from Mike."

Catch Rage live during the following dates. There will also be a European tour in September and October being announced soon.

April

19 - Mons, Belgium - PPM Fest
26 - Dernbach/Pfalz, Germany - Dorfgemeinschaftshaus

May

23 - Bergeheim, Germany - Tribute to Jon Lord
30 - Geiselwind, Germany - Out & Loud Festival
31 - Plzen, Czech Republic - Metalfest

September

6 - Porsel, Switzerland - FestiWolf

LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA feat. Rage

July

5 - Gelnhausen, Germany - 1. Gelnhäuser Sommerfestival 2014
11 - Hamm, Germany - Klassik Sommer Hamm