Rage - Reflections of a Shadow (1990)

My copy of "Reflections" looks rather the worst for wear. It was a pre-loved copy, acquired because I feared my cassette version would not survive the digital age. The creases are worn, and there is a hole drilled through the plastic box, indicating that before it was being loved, it was being very unloved; lying disregarded in a CD warehouse until finally its price was reduced. And then, of course, its previous owner chose to pass it on too. This poor, slightly battered, slightly marred cd has now found itself a forever home with me.

This is Rage's fifth album, and the third that I have reviewed (I do own their second, which will be reviewed in due course). It is clean, polished, and so very metal. The cover is, well a bit drab, and fairly bleak - a skull lying on concrete, casting a black shadow beneath it. Maybe it's supposed to be a mirror, not concrete. Hmmm. I remember reading once that Peavey Wagner, the vocalist, collected skulls. Alledgely it's legal to keep human skulls in Germany. The things that stick with you. Maybe this is one of his collection. Maybe it's called Yorick. His skull collecting is confirmed by this article here which also contains a nifty description of this cover that I am resisting plagerising and a review of this album.

I'm rambling. Sorry. Shall we give it a spin? Yes, lets.

"Introduction (A Bit More of Green)" is a nicely classically inspired instrumental. It does have a vaguely organic feel to it - like a sprouting shoot rising from a concrete wilderness.

"That's Human Bondage" has slamming rhythms but a relatively sedate pace. It's not about actual bondage, but about being trapped by society. Still, it's quite a fun song to scream along with when you're listening on headphones. Catchy chorus, vocals a bit indistinct in the verses.

The "True Face in Everyone" is another slower, heavy piece with nicely sung choruses. Otherwise kind of dull.

The heartbroken, tortured emotionally "Flowers that Fade in my Hand" is one of the stand out tracks on this album. Peavey's voice seems broken with his anguish and his desperation. And the music is heavy and emotionally fueled. His falsetto shrieks are a little too high pitched, alas, making him sound a little like a cartoon character*. But he can actually hold his notes quite well.This is the compulsory song about death:

"And I know my death holds no scares. There is no mysterium for someone who dares to die..."

Is "mysterium" actually a word? Yes! It means "overwhelming mystery". Wooh, new word to my vocabulary, taught by someone who doesn't even speak English as a first language (ha, Helloween taught me "darkling").

We pick up the pace again with "Reflections of a Shadow" with its thrashing beats, and rousing chorus. Nice keyboard/organ solo towards the end.

Crazy keyboards and distorted show-tunes type music "Can't Get Out". It's like someone is trapped within a record. Then the drums crash in and the beat begins. The vocals are fast, lower, Peavey is quite close to tripping over his tongue, or possibly falling into funk metal. It's nicely erratic and discordant, portaying a feel of confusion and desperation. I like it. It's different and interesting. The fade out is slow and eerie, and we get to hear Peavey speak - sounding not unlike Dan Swano in his Nightingale album, where he too sucuumbs to insanity.

Ah, now for one of my favourites - "Waiting for the Moon" starts with energy and passion, the vocals turning into snarling melody, twisting into a scream and then soaring into the chorus. This is a nicely catchy, faster paced number with good melodies and a refreshing sense of semi-positivity.

Now, we should have a little "Faith" in Rage. Starts with a scream, and then falls into Peavey's lower range, bitter and broken, pleading. The chorus is torn, pained. Strangely beautiful in its hopelessness. Also their most anthemic song - on this album at least, and contains one of my favourite lyrical quotes:

"We are branches on the tree of life, we can only get together by touching with our leaves. But we've got the same roots close in ourselves, so let's grow up to the sky."

A faster, victorious track, it's time to leave it all behind and "Saddle the Wind".

Another death song. We have "Dust" with its haunting and beautiful verses tainted somewhat by the squealing falsetto on the choruses. Peavey should stick to baritone and low tenor. It does create a mood of passionate desperation, however. Like he is screaming out his grief to the world. A fairly competent and invovled guitar solo.

Another raucous piece, "Nobody Knows" returns to the catchy speed rhythms of the past. Screaming, singing, shouting, Peavey seems completely capable of switching between the three within a few bars.

"Wild Seed" has a good narrative - a story about a young man gone wrong from the start. Fast, aggressive, with a nice warble in the chorus.

I'm not sure why, but I always think of Rage as being the aural equivalent of author Dean Koontz. Like Rage, Koontz is prolificate, releasing at least one book a year. Also, like Rage, he has his specific style which is appealing and with enough quirks to keep you reading his books. However, his books tend to blur into one and some are downright terrible, others just plain bland, and every so often you get the one that is pure gold. For Koontz it is "Watchers" and for Rage it is... not this album. Like Koontz, their earlier stuff is better, with more originality and passion, than the later stuff where it starts to feel like they are just in it for the money and because they are good at what they do.

This is not a bad album. It has some really good tracks, particularly the slower pieces. The album as a whole has cut down the pace rather since the earlier albums. It's not speed metal anymore, but not quite power metal either. It is, like a Dean Koontz novel, worth following through to its conclusion.

Rating = 7/10

* Ever since I read that "Skulls" review I can't stop thinking "Mickey Mouse"!

Rage - Secrets in a Weird World (1989)

This is German speed metal band Rage's fourth studio album. It has a rather uninspiring cover - the three band members all looking suitably bored in sunglasses and black and white.

It begins with the classically inclined "Opus 33 Nr 3" a slightly ominous piano piece with solid beats - somewhat one-fingered playing.

"Time Waits for No One" is a determined and powerful song. Peevey's voice alternates between soaring and screaming, with a little shouting thrown in for good measure. Nice skillful guitar solo.

The guitar surges with the bass in slow steady beats before taking off at a gallop in "Make My Day".  Lyrics are fast paced and aggressive:

"This is the sign of my deadly hammer, leaving its marks in your face right now..."

My favourite line is:

 "I'd like to smash all your toys to pieces, tickle your feet until you drop down dead..."

"The Inner Search" delivers pure speed with a cruisy chorus and some surprisingly menaingful lyrics:

"Be True to yourself, that's all you have to be..."

There is something inspiring about "Invisible Horizons" which reveals Peavey's love of the extra-terrestrial. This was the first Rage song I ever heard, from the compilation cassette "Thrash the Wall", a single album that pretty much shaped my musical future. It is quite an intense song, with melodic vocals, pounding drums and chugging guitars. 

"She" gets off to an ominous start. The title is rather ambivalent - it could be a love song (but this is Rage, so that seems unlikely), could be about a lady of the night... but no, it's about a car. A distorted, snarling (and possibly backwards) voice gets this song kicking into action. Indeed, this is about Christine, the red plymouth fury of the Stephen King novel.

With a determined beat and guitar flare, we shift into "Light into the Darkness". A slower pace and an almost positive vibe.

"... Blossom's better than decay"

We charge on in to "Talk to Grandpa" - a song about communicating with the dead to find out what happened to his money. Fairly repetitive, but catchy chorus and aggressive riffs.

"Distant Voices" is about those voices you hear before you fall asleep. The ghosts that call for you. Peavey likes to write songs about death and the supernatural - as you may have noticed. It is a slightly slower piece, with a hint of the eerie about it, but mostly classic Rage.

Slower, creepier, with a hint of the classic rock to it, "Without a Trace" has a jerky, rock beat. As you may be able to guess, it's about the Bermuda Triangle and other such mysterious - possibly supernatural, disappearances.

"Lost Side of the World" starts with slow, deliberate beats gathering in tempo until they erupt into the chorus. Has a few slower moments but is otherwise classic Rage.

Rage have found their stride - and whilst it is decent speed metal with good rhythms, catchy choruses and intriguing lyrics, it's nothing exciting or earth-shattering dramatic. They're a good, solid band  but this does not offer anything new or original or different from many of their other albums (admittedly most of which come after this one).

Solid metal, that I'm going to rank a 7/10.

Rage - Perfect Man (1988)

Rage are a speed/power metal band hailing from Germany. They were one of the first of this genre, forming in 1984 as Avenger and then changing the name to Rage in 1986. They should not, on any accounts, be confused with Rage Against the Machine. RATM suck*, Rage rule!

Okay, so I got through my Formative Years listening to Rage and people always assumed I meant that band-with-the-similar name. It so pissed me off.

This is their third album, and marks the one where they broken out of the pure speed and fell into the power. It is more melodic than the earlier ones, despite the fact the line-up has not changed at all. Rage have released 21 studio albums over the past 26 or so years, one a year pretty much (except for '91, '97, '05, '0, '07 and '09) and as such their sound has become a little generic, excepting, of course, that they now perform frequently with an orchaestra.

I should warn you - I have a LOT of their albums. So many that when I find one in the music store I cannot buy it impusively since I cannot remember which ones I own. I even have one on vinyl. Alas, I cannot play it, because I do not have a record player.

The tracks on "Perfect Man" are very short, the longest clocking in at an epic 4 mins 26. The cover features a strange mechanical being bearing some resemblance to those in Alien. He is wearing headphones. Although he does appear on numerous Rage albums - much as Maiden have Eddy and Gamma Ray kept Fangface, he does not seem to get a name and a story until 2003, when they name him "Soundchaser" (maybe I should buy that album, what do you think?). The lyric booklet contains the lyrics for less than half the songs, but is graced with a two page spread advertisement for other Modern Music GMBH albums. Grr... Luckily vocalist Peavey Wagner has a strong voice, that manages to soar melodically up and down the octaves (but mostly up), with a slightly harsh edge, but almost perefctly coherant vocals. The music is hard and raw - pure, honest, old-fashioned speed/power metal intermingling political messages and songs about death with the occasional social sattire. They are both mature and intelligent with catchy choruses. Thus, very good stuff indeed.

I've listened to this album many times and it was one of the very first CDs I actually owned. I was quite late making the switch from cassettes to CDs. I know most of the lyrics to most of the songs, so this review should be one of the easiest I have done.

The CD opens with the pounding "Wasteland" singing about the destruction of the world via the human race:

"... Is there any race as destructive as we are?"

"In the Darkest Hour" reveals the dark truth of what happens to some people after dark with pounding drums, a catchy chorus and the occasional frenzied verse.

Birdsong leads us into "Animal Instinct" the natural and mellow being bulldozed by the thrashing guitars as the song begins. Contrary to this, it is not a song about animals at all, but about the darker side of human nature, following on from the same theme as before.

"Perfect Man" introduces a slightly sci-fi-ish edge as scientists work in secret labs to constrcuct a man that has:

"...Perfect mind and body..."

Given Rage's inbuilt cynicism, this will of course fail. Or possibly end up destroying the human race. The lyrics are not *entirely* clear on this score.

Back to the political, "Sinister Thinking" is about the Iran and Iraq war - about the evils of religion and how:

"They drill this evil spirit in their children's head, so there's no end in sight, no..."

 Stepping aside from the more serious, we step into "Supersonic Hydromatic" which is picking fun at how people always seem to want to have the latest gadgets and devices - even if they have silly names and everyone needs it now, despite the fact that they never had one before. I always imagine it as being a bit like a Dr Seussian vacuum cleaner.

The rip-roaring opening chords of "Don't Fear the Winter" are immense and powerful. The choruses beautifully melodic. I can completely understand why this was chosen as the single from this CD. And for once, we have almost romantic lyrics. It's also one of the faster, heavier numbers. Pure Speed.

Every Rage album has at least one song about death - "Death in the Afternoon" is the first on this CD. It's about car accidents. The lyrics are very narrative.

"A Pilgrim's Path" is another pounding speed metal anthem.

Now we have a sorta-kinda-ballad, and another song about death. "Time and Place". It appears Peavey believes in reincarnation. At least for this album! It is quite a beautiful song, with some haunting music adding to the atmosphere. Of course, like many Rage sounds, it becomes more frenzied and urgent as it nears the end.

"Round Trip" is more of a rockin' number. It is something of a roadtrip song, with a certain amount of cynical irony in the lyrics. Basic fare, but good solid guitar rifts and drums.

Another speed metal piece with barreling drumbeats is "Between the Lines". Probably one of the least memorable songs from this CD. The bridge is raw and angry, the chorus soaring.

"Symbols of our Fear" expresses the  fear of nuclear holocaust that was particularly relevant in the late 80s (following the Chernobyl disaster). More pure speed.

Taunting guitars open "Neurotic" with its rather vicious lyrics, and swear words, which I never really noticed because it's so fast that the words are almost indistringuishable. It is a mocking, taunting song, that is actually kinda nasty. With the pounding drums and raging guitars, it is pure, unadulterated speed metal.

Rage are a rockin' speed metal band. Their rifts are polished, their lyrics mature (mostly) and the vocals pretty damned sweet. They're not outstandingly original (at least, not yet, wait until I get into some of their later CDs**) but there is a clean edge to their sound that makes them a pleasure to listen to - unlike some of the raw and ragged speed metal bands from the same era.

Rage ROCK, and this CD earns an 8/10 from me.

* Okay, so RATM do have an awesome guitarist, and that one song has probably sold more and received more radio play than all of Rage's albums put together, but that don't mean nothing to me. Okay?

** Although some of those are a little bit boring too. When you're as prolific as Rage, you do get a little same-ish.