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Rage

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German trio orbiting bassist-vocalist Peavy Wagner since the mid-eighties, welding speed-metal drive to orchestral ambition across a famously relentless run of records.

Rage began in Herne, Germany, in 1984, when Peavy Wagner formed a band called Avenger with drummer Jörg Michael and guitarist Jochen Schroeder. After a debut album and an EP, the group renamed itself Rage in 1986 to avoid a clash with an English band of the same name, joining the wave of German speed and power metal acts often grouped with Grave Digger, Helloween and Running Wild.

Wagner has remained the one constant across seventeen credited members. The lineup fans remember most fondly, from what is called the Refuge years, paired him with guitarist Manni Schmidt and drummer Chris Efthimiadis; a later lineup added drummer Mike Terrana and guitarist Victor Smolski. Rage's sound fuses speed and heavy metal with power-metal melody, anchored by Wagner's rough, unpolished vocal delivery.

In 1996 the band recorded Lingua Mortis with a full symphonic orchestra, one of the earliest metal albums to do so, folding classical arrangement into an otherwise riff-driven attack. Earlier albums such as Reign of Fear, Execution Guaranteed and Perfect Man, the last carrying the single 'Don't Fear the Winter,' built the band's reputation on tours alongside Running Wild, U.D.O., Motörhead and Saxon.

Secrets in a Weird World and its single 'Invisible Horizons' extended that momentum in 1989, and Trapped! became Rage's international breakthrough in 1992, taking the band to Japan for the first time. The Missing Link followed in 1993 as one of the era's most influential releases within the scene.

Over forty years, Rage have released 27 studio albums, more than 50 releases in total once EPs, DVDs and Japanese editions are counted, selling upward of five million records and logging over 40 chart entries. They remain a fixture of German metal.

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