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aka: Rage

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Soundchaser, their mascot.

Don't you fear the winter,
I will keep you safe and warm
Don't you fear the winter,
Nothing's gonna do you harm
"Don't Fear the Winter"

Rage is a Heavy/Speed/Power Metal band from Germany. Initially started out as Avenger in 1984, they released an album and EP under that name before changing it to Rage due to a British band Avenger. They have steadily released studio material and toured and they are very popular in Europe and Japan.

Not to be confused with the Australian music show of the same name, Rage Against the Machine or the video game.

Current line-up:

  • Peter "Peavy" Wagner - Vocals, Bass
  • Jean Bormann – Guitars
  • Stefan Weber – Guitars
  • Vassilios "Lucky" Maniatopoulos - Drums


Discography:

Full-length releases:

  • Prayers of Steel (1985, as Avenger)
  • Reign of Fear (1986)
  • Execution Guaranteed (1987)
  • Perfect Man (1988)
  • Secrets in a Weird World (1989)
  • Reflections of a Shadow (1990)
  • Trapped! (1992)
  • The Missing Link (1993)
  • 10 Years in Rage (1994)
  • Black in Mind (1995)
  • Lingua Mortis (1996)
  • End of All Days (1996)
  • XIII (1998)
  • Ghosts (1999)
  • Welcome to Other Side (2001)
  • Unity (2002)
  • Soundchaser (2003)
  • Speak of the Dead (2006)
  • Carved in Stone (2008)
  • Strings to a Web (2010)
  • 21 (2012)
  • LMO (2013, with Lingua Mortis Orchestra)
  • The Devil Strikes Again (2016)
  • Seasons of the Black (2017)
  • Wings of Rage (2020)
  • Resurrection Day (2021)

Extended plays:

  • Depraved to Black (1985, as Avenger)
  • Extended Power (1991)
  • Beyond the Wall (1992)
  • Refuge (1993)
  • Higher Than the Sky (1996)
  • Live from the Vault (1997)
  • In Vain - Rage in Acoustic (1998)
  • Gib Dich Nie Auf (2009)
  • My Way (2016)
  • Spreading the Plague (2022)


Associated Tropes:

  • Age of Titles: "The Age of Reason" from Resurrection Day.
  • And I Must Scream: "Frozen Fire" from End of All Days is a song from point of view of cryogenically frozen man who is still conscious.
  • Anyone Can Die: "Death in the Afternoon" from Perfect Man.
  • Atomic Hate: "Symbols of Our Fear" from Perfect Man.
  • Audience Participation Song: "Higher Than the Sky" from End of All Days.
  • Burn the Witch!: The main theme around the LMO album, which follows the concept of the burning of witches in Gelnhausen in 1599.
  • Callback: "Overture" on XIII uses same theme ("Opus 32 Nr. 3" by Sergej Prokofiew) as the intro of Secrets in a Weird World.
  • Chained by Fashion: Band's old logo.
  • Chronological Album Title: If you count the Avenger album Prayers of Steel as their debut:
    • XIII is their 13th album.
    • 21 is their 21st album.
  • Concept Album: Ghosts, based on death the afterlife, and Soundchaser, based on their mascot.
  • Concept Video: The music videos for "Refuge", "Alive but Dead", "Down", "Lord of the Flies" and "Twenty One".
  • Corrupt Church: "Echoes of Evil" from Reign of Fear and "Sinister Thinking" from Perfect Man.
  • Cover Version: They have covered "Fast as a Shark", "The Trooper", "Jawbreaker", "Paranoid", "Paint it Black", "Tom Sawyer", "Yesterday", "Truth Hits Everybody" by The Police, "I Can't Control Myself" by The Troggs and "Beyond the Pale" by The Mission.
  • Darker and Edgier: Their sound got heavier and thrashier during the mid-90's, specially noted in Black in Mind.
  • Dead Person Conversation: "Talk to Grandpa" from Secrets in a Weird World and "Talking to the Dead" from End of All Days.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: When they changed their name from Avenger, their first choice for a new name was Furious Rage.
  • Drinking Contest: "Bottlefield" from Extended Power, a remake of "Battlefield" from the first Avenger release.
  • Driven to Suicide: "Suicide" from Reign of Fear.
  • Epic Instrumental Opener:
    • "Overture" from XIII.
    • "Morituri te Salutant" and "Prelude of Souls" from Speak of the Dead.
  • Epic Rocking: "The Scaffold", "Execution Guaranteed", "Without a Trace", "Flowers That Fade in My Hand", "Enough is Enough", "Lost in the Ice", "No Sign of Life", "The Blow in a Row", "In a Nameless Time", "Tomorrow's Yesterday", "Unity", "Death is on It's Way (Falling from Grace Pt. 2)", "Suite Lingua Mortis", "Lord of the Flies", "Empty Hollow", "Cleansed by Fire" and "The Dark Side of the Sun".
  • Epiphanic Prison: "Not Forever" from Trapped.
  • Evil Hand: "Hand of Glory" from Reign of Fear.
  • Fading into the Next Song:
    • Most songs from XIII and Ghosts fade into each other.
    • The "Tribute to Dishonour" songs from Welcome to the Other Side.
    • The two-part epic "Falling from Grace" from Soundchaser.
    • The "Suite Lingua Mortis" songs from Speak of the Dead
    • The "Empty Hollow" songs from Strings to a Web.
    • The four-part epic "The Tragedy of Man" from Seasons of the Black.
  • Filk Song:
  • Flying Saucer: Handled in "Without a Trace" , along with Atlantis and The Bermuda Triangle.
  • Foreign Language Theme: The song "Full Moon" from Speak of the Dead have four alternate versions, translated and adapted to different languages: La Luna Reine (Spanish), Vollmond (German), Полнолуние (Russian) and Michi-Shi Tsuki (Japanese).
  • Greatest Hits Album: The Best of the Noise Years (only released in Japan), Best of - All G.U.N. Years and The Sounchaser Archives.
  • Harsh Vocals: Prominently on albums such as 10 Years in Rage and Black in Mind. On later albums 21 and LMO, Peavy even uses Death Metal syled vocals in some songs.
  • I Am the Band: Rage is basically Peavy plus 2 or 3 other guys.
  • In the Style of: Lingua Mortis features symphonic compositions from Black in Mind.
  • Infomercial: "Supersonic Hydromatic" is a critique of these and consumerism.
  • Instrumentals: "Grapes of Wrath", "What's Up?" and "Unity".
  • Intercourse with You: "Chaste Flesh" from Reign of Fear.
  • Jerkass: Mike Terrana. It's what got him thrown out.
  • Kids Are Cruel: One of the verses in "Neurotic", from Perfect Man.
  • Lead Bassist: Peavy is a type B (lead singer) and C (he is the only member to appear on all releases and Rage is basically his band).
  • Live Album: Rage has released a few over the years, including The Video Link, Metal Meets Classic Live, From the Cradle to the Stage and Full Moon in St. Petersburg.
  • Longest Song Goes Last: "The Scaffold" from Reign of Fear, "Without a Trace" from Secrets in a Weird World, "Fading Hours" from End of All Days, "Tomorrow's Yesterday" from Ghosts, "Unity" from it's namesake album, "Death is on It's Way (Falling from Grace Pt. 2)" from Soundchaser, "The Dark Side of the Sun" from The Devil Strikes Again, "Farewell" from Seasons of the Black and "Extinction Overkill" from Resurrection Day.
  • Made of Explodium: "Ashes" from Extended Power, which is about spontaneous combustion.
  • Mascot: Soundchaser, a robotic creature.
  • Meaningful Name: XIII and 21 are their 13th and 21st full-length albums respectively, if you include their first album as Avenger.
  • Medley:
    • "The Blow in a Row", from 10 Years in Rage. It starts with the intro of "Execution Guaranteed" and continues with parts of "Suicide", "Down by Law", "Don't Fear the Winter", "Invisible Horizons", "Waiting for the Moon", "Enough is Enough" and "Solitary Man", finishing with "Nevermore".
    • The "Lingua Mortis Medley", from Lingua Mortis, consisting of orchestral rearrangement of "Don't Fear the Winter", "Black in Mind", "Firestorm", "Sent by the Devil" and "Lost in the Ice".
  • My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: "Back in Time" from Ghosts
  • Nightmare Dreams: "Reign of Fear" from it's namesake album.
  • Non-Appearing Title: Secrets in a Weird World. Some time later it appeared on Soundchaser.
  • The Nothing After Death: "Just Alone" from XIII.
  • Number of the Beast: Mentioned in "Beginning of the End", from Ghosts.
  • The Old Gods: "Great Old Ones" from Soundchaser.
  • Performance Video: The music videos for "Down by Law", "Don't Fear the Winter", "From the Cradle to the Grave" and "Straight to Hell".
  • Power Ballad: "All This Time" from Black in Mind, "Fading Hours" from End of All Days, "Eternally" from 21, "Shinge a Light" from Wings of Rage and "Black Room" from Resurrection Day.
  • Power Trio: Rage has been a power trio with three main lineups over the years, all of them with Peavy as the frontman: the "Refuge years" with Manni Schmidt and Chris Efthimiadis, the "millenium years" with Victor Smolski and Mike Terrana/André Hilgers, and their recent years lineup with Marcos Rodriguez and Vassilios Maniatopoulos.
  • Professional Killer: "Execution Guaranteed" from it's namesake album.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Before becoming band members of Rage in 2015, Marcos Rodriguez and Vassilios Maniatopoulos were already die-hard fans of the band.
  • Revenge Ballad: "Eye for an Eye" from LMO.
  • Revisiting the Roots:
    • The Devil Strikes Again is considered a return to their 90's sound, specially the Black in Mind and End of All Days era.
    • The side project Refuge, which is composed of Peavy, Manni Schmidt and Chris Efthimiadis, the same Rage line-up from 1988 to 1993. The name Refuge comes from the song "Refuge" from The Missing Link, which was recorded by this same line-up.
  • Sequel Song: "The Devil Strikes Again", from it's namesake album, is a sequel to "Sent by the Devil", from Black in Mind.
  • Serial Killer: "Serial Killer" from 21.
  • Soprano and Gravel: In the LMO album, this effect is achieved with Peavy and Henning Basse's vocals contrasting with female vocalists Jeannette Marchewka and Dana Harnge.
  • Special Guest:
    • 10 Years in Rage features guest appearances from all the musicians that had played in Rage at the time.
    • Andi Deris of Helloween performed vocals on "Wake the Nightmares (Falling from Grace Pt. 1)", from Soundchaser.
    • Thomas Hackmann and Jen Majura performed additional vocals on "Lord of the Flies", from Carved in Stone.
  • Speed Metal: Rage's primary music genre on earlier albums. A Power Metal approach was first introduced in Secrets in a Weird World, and evolved over the years to a heavier sound.
  • Start My Own: Former guitarist Victor Smolski has released a couple of solo albums and started his own band Almanac after leaving Rage. So has their ex-drummer Mike Terrana.
  • Step Up to the Microphone: Despite being the guitarrist at the time, Marcos Rodriguez was already a professional vocalist before joining Rage. In live concerts, Marcos takes the microphones to sing either "Heaven and Hell" or "Holy Diver" (both compositions of Ronnie James Dio), between the interlude of "Higher Than the Sky".
  • Stern Chase: Execution Guaranteed's opening number "Down by Law" is about a man running away from law.
  • Symphonic Metal: Rage is actually one of the pioneers of Symphonic Metal music with their 1996 release, Lingua Mortis (although being mostly renditions of Black in Mind songs). At the time, Rage toured with the Lingua Mortis Orchestra and released some their finest symphonic metal albums, XIII and Ghosts. With Victor Smolski, Rage would release the Speak of the Dead album, featuring the epic "Suite Lingua Mortis", ten years after the first Lingua Mortis album. In 2013, Lingua Mortis Orchestra releases their own album LMO with Rage and toured together again. In 2019, Rage toured once more with Lingua Mortis Orchestra, performing the XIII album in its entirety.
  • Take That!: "Make My Day" from Secrets In A Weird World is hinted at being this towards Jochen Schröder, Rudy Graf, and Jörg Michael, who all left the band following the release of Execution Guaranteed. Similarly, "No Lies" from Welcome To The Other Side is also hinted to be a Take That! towards Chris and Spiros Efthimiadis and Sven Fischer, who did the same thing just before the release of Ghosts
  • The End of the World as We Know It: "Extinction Overkill" from Resurrection Day.
  • Title of the Dead: Speak of the Dead.
  • Title-Only Chorus: "Execution Guaranteed" from it's namesake album, "Death in the Afternoon" and "A Pilgrim's Path" from Perfect Man, "Talk to Grandpa" from Secrets in Weird World and "Higher Than the Sky" from End of All Days
  • Title Track: All Rage albums have one, except for Secrets in a Weird World, Trapped, 10 Years in Rage, Lingua Mortis, XIII and LMO.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: "Perfect Man" from it's namesake album. A plot point in Soundchaser.
  • Video Full of Film Clips: The video for "No Fear" uses clips from an underground movie Speak of the Dead.
  • Villain Song: "Straight to Hell" from Welcome to the Other Side. One of the most popular Rage songs, thanks to it's inclusion in the 2001 German film Der Schuh des Manitu, as Santa Maria's entrance theme.
  • Vocal Evolution: Peavy's vocals certainly evolved over the years, specially in the 90's.
  • Vocal Tag Team:
    • Peavy and Henning Basse in the LMO album, on "Scapegoat" and "Witches' Judge".
    • Marcos Rodriguez's backing vocals with Peavy's vocals, notably seen in The Devil Strikes Again.
  • Walking the Earth: "A Pilgrim's Path" from Perfect Man.
  • What You Are in the Dark: "Animal Instinct" from Perfect Man.
  • The X of Y: Used in various songs and in album titles such as Prayers of Steel, Reign of Fear, Reflections of a Shadow, End of All Days, Speak of the Dead, Seasons of the Black and Wings of Rage.

Alternative Title(s): Rage

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