Good morning, good afternoon, good evening or good night (depending on where you are in the world), how've you been? I'm good, thanks. Anyways, first thing's first, before we get to the review, let's take a minute to explain what is "Lingua Mortis"? "Lingua Mortis" was a 1996 album by German Heavy Metal legend RAGE, an album which took some of their classic songs and presented them in new symphonic arrangements.

Fast forward 17 years, RAGE is still going strong, and after playing live shows with what's known as "Lingua Mortis Orchestra" over the last few years, RAGE finally decided to create a new "Lingua Mortis" album, this time however the band chose to create an album of all new material. Based on the true story of the "1599 Gelnhausen" witch hunting's and featuring around 100 musicians, "LMO" is a monster of an album. Make no mistake about it, this is a Metal album through and through, Composed by Victor Smolski with Lyrics by Peavey Wagner, this album is as much RAGE as any album they have released in their illustrious career, but this is RAGE with a completely different edge to them.

It opens with "Cleansed by Fire" a ten minute opus opening with a witch chanting with a choir coming in, this is the song that tells you all you need to know, the song is melodic, deep, heavy, catchy, this is Rage at their finest, Peavey Wagner's usually harsh vocals are softer here and are perfectly complemented by the female accompaniment, this song incorporates three parts into it, "Convert the Pagans Pt1", "The Inquisition" and "Convert the Pagans Pt2", the guitar work by Victor Smolski is absolutely exquisite throughout.

I wanted to do the usual track by track review, but I honestly can't, it would take too damn long, this album moves and twists more times than I could possibly put into a single review, it's heavy as hell, the masterful blast beats are here, the guitars are incredible and at times reminiscent of the masters like Pell and Malmsteen. The choice to mix Peavey's heavy vocals along with softer and operatic female vocals and at times choirs is a brilliant move as they blend perfectly. The album at times even has an 80s sound (like the opening of "Devils Bride").

The bottom line here is that this album is nothing short of a masterpiece, if you love RAGE (like me), you'll love this album, if you love Symphonic Metal, you'll love this album, hell, it's very hard not to love this record as it features elements from a lot of metal genres and mixes it in with an amazing array of orchestral work. I'm not really the type to call an album perfect, but I find it hard not to in this case, the hooks are there, and so is the heaviness, it's probably the best symphonic album I've heard without a NIGHTWISH label on it.

The album comes out August 2^nd, and I certainly suggest you go on YouTube right now, have a listen to a sample and go out and get this album as soon as it's out, you won't regret it.