Ελληνικά
As I have wrote many times before artists have one big problem, and its neither the lack of inspiration nor the absence of motive, when they are not creative or uninspired very often, which are fear, not problems in their world. The elephant in the closet is the battle with their own selves. As the artists have a struggle with their own previous creations or the success they once had. But if we speak about Rage or more specific about Peavy Wagner this continuous fight has only one winner, Mr. Peavy himself!
And of course us, the aficionados of the Teutonic power-trio; the loyal fans of Rage. That we been witnessed a tremendous serial of great albums that only megatheriums of music can do. So we travel back to 1993 when things aren’t so easy for traditional Heavy Metal but in the other hand -and that was rather oxymoron- not so bad for power metal along with extreme sound that were living their glory days. Furthermore Rage not only recorded several perfect albums in a row but also these albums featuring a dozen of songs each one of them. Well this is definitely something more than extraordinary to find these days and even back in the 80’s -90’s. Rage are one of the longest running and most consistent German Metal bands out there. 1993 was only their 10th year into their career, but The Missing Link was already Rage’s 8th (!) album while Peavy wasn’t even 30 years old !
So how can you record an LP that will compete to one of the greatest moments in power metal, how can you beat “Trapped!”? So back then Rage were actually trying to compete their better self as “Trapped!” was and still is considered to be an excellent LP. The formula is still the same equal parts of power and thrash metal, a tons of riffs, full speed, heaviness, aggressiveness, grace, technique, poetic and some Lovecraftian lyrics that you can sing along though, sophisticated and layered sounds and catchy melodies. The Missing Link has also a plethora of Manni stuff: incredible riffs and brilliant solos, along with distorted thick bass lines from Peavy and Chris Efthimiadis’ natural sounding crispy and clean drumming that goes with the flow of each song in terms of atmosphere, velocity and feeling. But don’t take it as The Missing Link is the same old story as it is following a certain path; a kind of warmed over food. Because it is an honest, if not brave, album that has even progressive elements and structures. And it’s not only the perfect balance between power (no Helloween-isque power here) and thrash (with a crushing guitars) that makes Rage’s sound unique, but it is always the way Peavy sings that created this trademark sound of the Germans. It is the damn quality of the songs that works as hit singles, a dozen of hit singles that also work perfect both individual and as a whole album in its entirety as a solid unit. Great songs, a crescendo of song writing skill exhibition, 12 hymns of a power/speed that stigmatized a whole era 30 years ago…
After The Missing Link Rage became a quartet again as Manny Schmidt left the band to be replaced by Spiros Efthimiadis – the brother of Chris – while Sven Fischer joined them too. Rage also moved to GUN/BMG, since they became a quite bigger name after this release…
Personal favs: “Firestorm”, “Refuge”, Certain Days”, “Lost In The Ice” which is Rage’s first actual attempt to add orchestral instruments, in another great Lovecraft influenced anthem, “Raw Caress”, “Nevermore”, “Who Dares?” and “Her Diary’s Black Pages”.
