Soundchaser is the sixteenth studio album by the German heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Rage

Rage (band)

Rage are a German heavy metal band, formed in 1984. They were part of the German heavy/speed/power metal scene to emerge in the early to mid 1980s, along with bands such as Helloween, Running Wild and Blind Guardian.-Background:...

, released in 2003 by SPV/Steamhammer

SPV GmbH

SPV GmbH is an independent German record label.Founded on January 1, 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributors and record labels worldwide....

.

This is a concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 featuring a science fiction/horror story about the Soundchaser, Rage's mascot. A biomechanoid creature, crafted by the elders to serve as a sentinel, it has turned into a monster, attacking anything that issues a sound.

Track listing

1. "Orgy of Destruction" (Mike Terrana
   Mike Terrana
   Mike Terrana is an American hard rock and heavy metal drummer. His first professional work was in 1984 with the MCA band Hanover Fist from Toronto, after which he recorded and toured with other bands, playing many styles of music in Western New York state...
   
   , Victor Smolski
   Victor Smolski
   Victor Dmitrievich Smolski is a Belarusian musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is a constant member of the German heavy metal band Rage.-Biography:...
   
   ) - 1:26
2. "War of Worlds" (Smolski, Peter Wagner
   Peavy Wagner
   Peter "Peavy" Wagner is a German heavy metal musician. He is best known for being singer and bassist of the band Rage.- Biography :...
   
   ) - 6:07
3. "Great Old Ones" (Wagner) - 4:03
4. "Soundchaser" (Smolski, Wagner) - 5:37
5. "Defenders of the Ancient Life" (Wagner) - 4:05
6. "Secrets in a Weird World" (Smolski, Wagner) - 5:28
7. "Flesh and Blood" (Smolski, Wagner) - 5:13
8. "Human Metal" (Smolski, Wagner) - 5:27
9. "See You in Heaven or Hell" (Wagner) - 4:00
10. "Wake the Nightmares (Falling from Grace, Pt. 1)" (Wagner) - 4:59
11. "Death Is on Its Way (Falling from Grace, Pt. 2)" (Wagner) - 6:55

Limited edition digi-pack bonus track

12. "French Bourrée" (Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
    
    , Wagner) - 4:11

Band members

• Peter "Peavy" Wagner
  Peavy Wagner
  Peter "Peavy" Wagner is a German heavy metal musician. He is best known for being singer and bassist of the band Rage.- Biography :...
  
   - vocals, bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Victor Smolski
  Victor Smolski
  Victor Dmitrievich Smolski is a Belarusian musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is a constant member of the German heavy metal band Rage.-Biography:...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s, piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , sitar
  Sitar
  The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
  
  , orchestral arrangements
• Mike Terrana
  Mike Terrana
  Mike Terrana is an American hard rock and heavy metal drummer. His first professional work was in 1984 with the MCA band Hanover Fist from Toronto, after which he recorded and toured with other bands, playing many styles of music in Western New York state...
  
   - drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
  s

Additional musicians

• Andi Deris
  Andi Deris
  Andreas "Andi" Deris is the vocalist and the main songwriter for power metal band Helloween, and co-founder and former lead singer of German melodic metal band Pink Cream 69...
  
   - vocals on "Wake the Nightmares"
• Thomas Hackmann - backing vocals

Production

• Charlie Bauerfeind
  Charlie Bauerfeind
  Charlie Bauerfeind is a German sound engineer and producer who has worked mostly with power metal bands such as Angra, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Primal Fear, Rage, HammerFall and Saxon....
  
  - producer, mixing, mastering
• Ingo 'Charly' Czajkowski - engineer
• Jan Rubach - additional digital editing