By Georgia Smith
Anonymous masked musical collective Rage Behind release an unforgiving assault on society and its ills in their newest release, demanding that listeners assess their own shortcomings, and fighting for the achievement of human eminence, this newest album is an onslaught of impassioned and righteous rage – delivered in a way that its message is unavoidable in its lyricism and ceaseless in its sound.
Having toured with bands such as Heaven Shall Burn and Rise Of The Northstar, Rage Behind are seasoned and well-received live musicians whose self-fuelling rage makes them a force of metal to be reckoned with. A blend of thrash metal and groove infusions, their sound is fundamentally unmistakeable in its ferocity. The opening title track sets this tone immediately; thrashing, untethered guitars run amok beneath the impassioned harshness of their unnamed vocalist demanding listeners never surrender to the forces that seek to hold them down. It is an instant call to arms, a twisting, spilling battle cry of hollow riffs and gravelly screams. To set such a powerful presence from the opening note is a feat in itself; to continue with such crushing grip throughout an entire album is a testament to the strength of their convictions and breadth of their skill.
Early tracks such as ‘Eye For An Eye’ demand listeners ask themselves difficult questions about the nature of society and the roles they play within it, whilst later tracks such as ‘The Reign’ demand answers for the nature of the world’s power structures with such ferocious conviction that it becomes impossible to argue. ‘Eminence or Disgrace’ does not waver once in its demands of its listeners, nor in the all-encompassing power that Rage Behind possess in order to ask it of them in the first place.
These powerfully confident vocals are backed up by the kinds of thrumming, twisting guitars and war-cry drumming of ‘Through Wrath’, where a call-and-response layered vocal style and subtle melody promise a roaring translation into live performance. ‘Genesis’, with its pulsating rhythms is almost a living thing in itself, so imbued is it with technical skill and righteous, fuelling rage. Tracks are sprawling, ungoverned, collapsing into impenetrable breakdown or shrieking, twisting guitar solo in a way that feels consistently organic. ‘Through Wrath’’s distorted vocals fall into a harshness that is so raw as to be genuinely arresting in its intensity, whilst ‘Dictated Freedom’ is powered by a sense of internal and unrelenting anger. Its long, protracted descents into thudding breakdowns are almost threatening, powerful, whilst cymbals tick across a shouted title so impassioned as to be melody-less. The track is a bomb, simply waiting to be lit with the spark of its listener’s companionable rage.
The thrash metal inspirations are never more evident than in ‘Don’t Break’, with its quintessentially rapid, thrumming guitar style and exciting increases in pace sinking into extended shredding guitar solos; forefronted and allowed to make its point clear. The freedom of this album’s guitars is notable, and it appears to run almost entirely free on ‘Hourglass and Revenge’, with its building, expulsions of sound exploding into a cathartic release. ‘Season of Blood’ has this same churning, rolling guitar sound and indulgent winding solos.
‘Eminence Or Disgrace’ creates a sense of musical unpredictability; the tracks are as apt to descend to solo as to breakdown- ensuring that there is never a break, never a pause for breath, whilst simultaneously triumphantly showing an accomplished range of thrash metal techniques that their inspirations mean fans have come to expect.
The album grapples with a rising sense of tension, a lack of solution, a desperation and rawness in its need for answers or change. ‘Worldwide Hostility’ also makes notable use of an almost spooky electronic element, suggesting that as the album draws to a close, these questions remain unanswered and necessary change remains unenacted. Rage Behind’s interesting creative directions run free on this track in particular- layering operatic female vocals (non-lyrical) and melancholic, empty-sounding guitar sequences to create a tone of unreality, ethereality, a nod to their ability to seize unlikely elements and fit them to this agenda of thrash and fury.
‘Eminence Or Disgrace’ parts with ‘The Hand Of Revenge’, a thundering final assertion of their position; echoing harsh vocals interspersed with punchy guitar tones and held together with the ever-present heartbeat of the album- its drums, and its demands.
Range, conviction, and finesse meet on this battlefield of an album, one in which Rage Behind demand that listeners do not shy away from their anger but instead sit in it, become comfortable with it, and feel the powerful vast expanses that such righteous wrath can open up.
- ‘Eminence Or Disgrace’ is released on Friday (8 December).
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