RAGE is one of the busiest and most productive Power Metal bands:
Since 1986, the German group has written and released about 170
songs
(intros or cover versions not included) which came out on 13
full length studio albums
( Lingua Mortis not included) and some EPs.
And all this in just 15 years!

Peter Wagner, called Peavy, is RAGE's creative head. He writes all the
lyrics and most of the music. As lead vocalist and bass player he
held up RAGE's flag through the years. Although Peavy's the only
remaining founding member, RAGE is a band with a very constant
and stable line-up
(check out Band ). All band members participate
in the songwriting.

Chapter I: from Avenger to RAGE
Although Peavy had learned gardener and worked later as a
pathology assistant
(!), his real passion was rock music. In 1985,
he played in a band called Avenger . They were very young and
their sound was quite raw. Inspired by their favorite bands -
Motörhead for example - and with the enthusiasm of their youth,
they recorded their first album Prayers Of Steel for a very small
label
(Wishbone). Their songs at that time weren't too worked out
in detail, but they showed the band's energy and their early potential.
After their next release, the EP Depraved To Black , Noise
Records became aware of the band and offered them a bigger
record deal. Under their new name RAGE
(there was already
another band called Avenger), they recorded the album
Reign Of Fear , which combined quite thrashy metal with catchy
melodies. RAGE's debut became an insider tip in the scene and
drew the attention of the metal press. In the important German metal
mag Rock Hard , Reign Of Fear went on number 12 in the
reader's charts.


Although RAGE had a good start, Guitarist Thomas Guiness
Grüning retired from music business. He was replaced by Rudi
Graf who had been kicked out of his band Warlock
(remember
them? The band with Doro on vocals). The new line-up wrote
and recorded the second album Execution Guaranteed .
1987, however, became a difficult year for RAGE, or should I
say for Peavy: Drummer Jörg Michael and Guitarist Jochen S
chröder decided to leave the band, and finally the whole line-up
fell apart, and the band needed a renewal. While Jochen got back
to private live, Rudi tried to form a new band to play more America
oriented Hard Rock, but unfortunately he never found the right
musicians and didn't get a record contract. Today, Graf owns the
name of his old band Warlock and he's working on a comeback.
Jörg Michael went on with his career as a metal drummer. Later,
he joined the German trio Headhunter, played on Grave Digger's
comeback album The Reaper and the following tour, joined
Running Wild for four albums, and today, he's a constant member
of Stratovarius. In addition, he played for the German true metal
guitar hero Axel Rudi Pell.
Peavy, however, instead of giving RAGE up, invited Chris Efthimiadis -
a drummer with Greek roots - and guitarist Manni Schmidt to join the
band. Peavy actually wanted to complete the four men line-up again,
but a second guitar player was hard to find, and so he didn't want to
waste any more time as he saw that Manni was very talented and could
handle it. That was the beginning of RAGE's famous trio era.
The first album with the new line-up came out in 1988 and was called
Perfect Man . The band could really show an improvement. On one
side, it was a step forward in musical technique, because Manni and
Chris were excellent instrumentalists, and in addition, their level of
songwriting increased. Manni brought in his influences as songwriter
and wrote six songs together with Peavy, and Peavy's songs had
become even more melodic without losing any heaviness. A very
good example is one of the first RAGE hits : Don't Fear The Winter
is a perfect combination of excellent hymn-like melodies and amazingly
fast doublebass heaviness.

With the following album Secrets In A Weird World , RAGE improved
the new gained qualities, as you can hear in songs like the speed hymn
Invisible Horizons or the complex 9 minute track Without A Trace

(check them out in the sounds section). You will also hear Peavy
experimenting with some really high vocals at that time. In 1990, the
Reflections Of A Shadow record brought quite a few changes.
It was even more melodic and a little less heavy. The album was quite
progressive
(Rush is one of Peavy's favorite bands), and had some
really beautiful moments, but all in all, a bit of the typical RAGE power
was missing. Reflections Of A Shadow featured a guest musician on
keyboards, and Peavy recognized that RAGE could hardly put all their
ideas into reality as a trio. That was the moment when he first thought
about inviting Chris' brother Spiros to join the band as second guitarist.
Manni, however, was strictly against this idea and wanted to keep the
three men line-up. At the same time, problems with Noise records
came up, because they had always tried to sell RAGE as a thrash band
and didn't like the new, more melodic direction. That's why they started
to lose their interest in RAGE.