As a producer I have a big responsibility, but after 10 years of working together with Charlie Bauerfeind it's always getting easier, we understand each other blind, so to say. I'm very happy with the performances of Peavy and André (so evil you haven't heard Peavy before), with my guitar work I'm also really satisfied, I've tried to implement the best I can momentarily. The concept of the album has become really round, all songs are completely rounded, hard, aggressive, no "Happy Metal melodies", but nevertheless varying. My favorite song: "Forever Dead", something between "Kill Your Gods" and "Down". Release date will be the 24th of February 2012, beginning of March we will go for European tour. Concert dates you'll find at the "Dates" section, more photos out of the studio and from the photo shooting for the album you'll find at the "Photo" section".

Cover artwork of "21" More concert dates will follow

 

Victor Smolski has given some detailed interviews for the online magazine "UnderWorldMusic" and for the Spanish "The Breathless Sleep". A real special story you'll find at the newest issue of the "Guitar Dreams" magazine, where you come to know who's louder, Victors ENGL guitar rack ore the Teichmann Porsche. On the Motor Show Essen, Victor did also lots of interviews "Hellfyre"

For the new RAGE CD "21" a bonus DVD track was assorted, where speed and crazy driftings of Victor on different racing cars can be seen.

At the annual Motor Show in Essen, Victor Smolski will be present again. The bilious green Dodge Viper of Titus Dittmann from the 24h race will be in action there.

More news and lot's of photos of the rallye sport you'll find at the "Motorsport" section.

 

RAGE took care for the musical part with an accoustic set, certainly they relinquish for their fee for the benefit of skate-aid.

Victor Smolski is supporting the foundation already since a couple of years. During the 24h race on Nürburgring he has driven in donations together with Titus and Julius Dittmann on the Dodge Viper during the last 2 years. As well as Till Schweiger, Henry Maske and many more Victor asking all friends and fans using HEROSHOPPING, donate money without paying a cent.

At the end of the motorsport season Victor took part at the 41. ADAC Saarland rallye in Dillingen together with the rallye-team Sonnental. He took home many impressions...
(more infos at the motorsport section)

www.rallye-team Sonnental

www.zeitnahme-team Saar

A welcome change, as the 3 musicians have played about 70 concerts in more then 20 countries during the last 18 months after the release of "Strings To A Web". Highlight for sure the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise. Apart from neverending long-distance flights and everlasting long wait at the airports of the world, the RAGE fans worldwide compensating for the exertions of such a longlasting concert tour bringing along. "The temperamental Brazillian fans, who are controling a perfect balance between listening and freaking out, let become our South America tour absolutely awesome", so Victor Smolski.

Lately, the band decided to produce a new RAGE album first before starting the Lingua Mortis Orchestra work. After webmaster Joes visit at the rehearsal room he's sure that we can brace up for the hardest RAGE album which will be ever recorded.

Victor enjoying a holiday after the strenuous tour

At the issue 9 / 11 of the SOUNDCHECK magazine the Victor Smolski Signature cable of Cordial has been scored with full marks.

After the most successful workshop at the Masters Of Rock in the Tschech Republic, the Wacken Open Air organizer have invited Victor to play 2 workshops at the W:O:A also. In September there will be also a Spanish workshop tour. (see dates section)

Marcus Schleutermann of EMP Rockinvasion came for a visit to the Nürburgring lately to do a report about Victors passion as a race driver.
Detailed infos you'll get the "Motorsport" menue point and shortly on DMAX.

Adrian Weiss has released his instrumental solo CD "Big Time" on the market. Victor has contributed with a solo.

 

Victor supports the great idea of the charity project from skate-aid. Join us, tell your friends about HEROSHOPPING and donate without paying a cent: www.heroshopping.org

photo: Markus Ceglarski

This year, Victor will play 2. times a day at the Masters Of Rock festival! On Saturday, 16th of July at 3 pm with the band Seven and special guest vocalist Blaze Bayley, and at 8:45 pm Victor will present an instrumental set. ( www.mastersofrock.cz )

After the very successful performance on the Sweden Rock festival with their acoustic show, RAGE gets ready to the next performance in Osnabrück (Ballroom). The complete new setlist with lots of songs which were never played in acoustic version before, will be presented with cello performance by Victor and vocals, violin, the second guitar and percussion by Charlotte.

At the menu button "ENGL TV" ENGL is going to present videos of artists and sound examples of the different ENGL amps. Currently you can hear some sound examples of the new Victor Smolski Limited Edition amp of ENGL. Here are the coresponding links:

ENGL TV - Victor Smolski Limited Edition E646 Song 1

ENGL TV - Victor Smolski Limited Edition E646 Song 2

Backstage, St.Peterburg, Rina Lee in der Mitte

"I would like to convey my deep condolences. It is always tragic, when such a good person must leave us. Rina Lee was one of the best tour manager in Russia, she attended almost all bands from abroad at the territorium of the former USSR, such as RAGE or Apocalyptica. She was a director and a tour manager of lots of russian bands, for example Aria, Kipelov and others, a part of whose success was due to her professional achievement. Rina Lee was one of the best in the russian music business, a reliable, honest person and a very good friend of mine." V.S.

For the russian speaking fans: the reportage from Victor's guitar clinic in Minsk.

Workshop in Minsk

Victor Smolski also say thanks to the Cordial team for the fantastic Signature cable "Straight to Hell" Limited Edition, which was presented at the music fair Frankfurt. It's available at the market now.

Another thanks goes to the japanese fans for their voting at the poll 2010 of BURRN magazine. Victor was choosen among the best guitarist (position 19).

I am delighted to present you the new "Limited Edition" Victor Smolski SignatureAmp from ENGL: This lavishly appointed all-tube amplifier is perfect for gigging and studio recording, as well as for playing at home. Even at low volume, its unusually high gain reserves deliver what normally takes high volume levels to achieve - plenty of sustain, dynamics, and tone.

In tweaking this amp's tone, I focused on tuning all channels to deliver more aggressive and heavier sounds, respond with pinpoint accuracy to the picking attack, and render faithfully all the tonal nuances that an electric guitar produces. I would like to share some valuable tips and interesting insights into the four channels' sounds and the amp's key sound-shaping features that should help you dial in the sounds you are seeking:

1. Clean sound: This channel has a hair-trigger response to every change in dynamics, which makes it easy to slap strings, play funk riffs, tap with two hands, and hammer on with one. Boosting the gain adds sustain to chords and single notes.

2. Crunch sound: You can conjure all the typical sounds from a bluesy growl to a hard-rock roar using a humbucker in the neck or bridge position and varying the amp's gain settings.

3. Lead channels 3 and 4: These two channels will get the job done for rhythm as well as lead parts. The two Lead channels have different sonic characteristics, affording you an excellent opportunity to double guitar tracks on the left and right channels. Rock and especially metal players usually double all their riffs. (The PAN control distributes the signals to the left and right sides.) So you no longer need two amps to create big, bold sounds. Simply use Lead channels 3 and 4 instead. Lead channel 3 is your first choice for power chords; single-note riffs sound better on the Lead channel 4.

4. The sound-shaping option Middle-voiced is great for making a guitar solo cut through and stand out in the mix.

5. Presence and Depth Punch: These two power amp tone controls let you tweak your sound to better suit different venues and stage setups' varying acoustic properties.

Note: I created the sound setting samples with specific guitars and pickups (refer to my website) and ENGL 412 Vintage speaker cabinets. Different gear could require adjustments of the given settings. ( prize in Germany 1790,- Euro )

Victor Smolski Signature cabel "Straight to Hell" limited edition

Cordial info: As guitar player of the band RAGE and one of the most famous Rock guitarists of Europe, Victor Smolski has real high demands to sound and resilience of his equipment. He plays Yamaha guitars, amplified with ENGL amps connected with Cordial cables. Therefore, Cordial has designed his own cable:

Smolski 3m and Smolski 6 m

A limited special edition with highest cable quality ( basis CGK 122 ) combined with the best neutric gold-plug and an unostentatiously Victor Smolski laser-logo. Victor likes it - certainly also his fans!

www.cordial.de

Here the new Signature products from Shadow: Kill Pot and Humbucker Frame Tuner

Hi friends

Haven't talked to you for a long time. First of all I want to express my deepest sympathy to our japanese friends and fans. This devastating earth quake and the tsunami have brought endless sorrow to the country and millions of people. Regarding the situation in the atomic plants I can understand to well, how people may feel there near the nuclear plants and in many areas of the country. The distance between Tschernobyl and my home town Minsk was just 300 miles, I know what it means to live with that fear of health effects due to radiation exposure.

This year I've been on the road quite often, I'm just back from spanish tour of RAGE. At the last concert some hot-blooded spanish women realy teased me in such a way ( hahaha ), that I was acting on stage with fiver. But was fun to play for the spanish fan, even in spite of this circumstances.

In February I have absolved some studio jobs, for one thing as guest guitarist at Ralf Scheepers new CD production, for another thing as producer at the new Seven CD. Was real fun mixing at a good old SSL console at the Propast studio in Prague, not sitting infront of a computer as common nowadays. By the way, Seven, one of the best Czech bands have supported us during the spanish RAGE tour with their new programme. ( www.seven.cz ) Together with the band FreaKozaks I played some solo shows in Russia in March. On 1st of April the new live DVD of Saltatio Mortis, where I performed as a guest cellist, will be available on the market. Here a link to one of the songs: www.youtube.com/. Due to the many RAGE shows next months I have to postpone my solo CD once more.

Now I'm looking forward for the music fair in Frankfurt, where a packed programme is waiting for me. 2 RAGE shows with autograph hours, solo shows, I will be present at the ENGL and Shadow booth every day, PPV Medien will present the english version of my School Of Metal DVD. You can order this DVD as well as other RAGE merchandise at the RAGE online shop: www.rage-on.de/shop/

On 1st .+ 2nd of April the motorsport season will start again, the fresh polished Teichmann Porsche is prepared. It will become a real hard weekend for me, as RAGE will play a concert in Dettelbach at the Metal Franconia festival. So out of the racing car directly on stage...