{"id":1369,"date":"1986-10-01T00:00:43","date_gmt":"1986-10-01T00:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2015-02-27T15:08:17","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T15:08:17","slug":"feature-rage-mf20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-rage-mf20\/","title":{"rendered":"RAGE – Machinery Of Fear (MF20, 1986) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAGE – Machinery Of Fear<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nMike Exley<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 20 (1986)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Rage (l-r): Jochen Schr\u00f6der, J\u00f6rg Michael, Rudy Graf
and Peter “Peavy” Wagner<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
Pic: Fred Baumgart<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

When man took that first step into space the world could never have guessed where it might lead. People speculated, but it was only in the minds of the chosen few that the real truth really dawned. It was just so in the minds of the people that now sit in front of me backstage at the Hannover leg of the Hell Comes To Your Town tour: Peter “Peavy” Wagner (vocals \/ bass) and J\u00f6rg Michael (drums) had a dream, and now that dream is on its way to becoming reality. This duo, plus guitarists Jochen Schr\u00f6der and Thomas Gr\u00fcning, took their first metal steps under the name Avenger, but found this early work unrewarding. Now, however, sporting the name Rage, there are very wide avenues opening up for the band. The first Rage album, Reign Of Fear<\/em>, has received wide acclaim from the press and the band are enjoying a new life in the spotlight. People are beginning to look at the talent locked up in this band as though they have never seen anything like it before. Rage are a strange combination of thrash and melody which is sadly lacking in some of today\u2019s metal scene, and this has attracted praise from areas previously only known to the band in myth. To find out the reaction, we got together on the said night. Unfortunately, Rage were unable to take to the stage because of a very nasty cold wedging itself firmly in Pete\u2019s throat, but he managed a few words on the progress of the Rage dream.<\/p>\n

Peter: \u201cRage was basically only a change of name for the band. We were getting confused with the English band Avenger and we tried to make the band more individual. People heavily into the European metal scene got used to the change very quickly, but we also picked up a lot of new fans as well. We didn\u2019t think Avenger had had its fair share of attention, but as Rage we are beginning to see a lot of new people getting interested in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did that help you find the deal with Noise? J\u00f6rg: \u201cI think so. We were thinking about approaching Noise, so I telephoned them. They were very interested after the release of the Prayers Of Steel<\/em> album which we released as Avenger. At the time we had just released the Depraved To Black<\/em> EP, but they had not heard it so I sent them a copy and that lead to the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you say that Reign Of Fear<\/em> is a debut album for Rage, or a culmination of what Avenger was trying to do? Peter: \u201cNo, not really. We\u2019re not a new band in that sense. We still remember the old Avenger material. When we play live we still include tracks from those early releases \u2013 on this tour we\u2019ve been including three tracks from the old material and the fans really like them. They make our set more varied because they\u2019re very heavy but slower. Basically, the faster style of Reign Of Fear<\/em> just came as a natural development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Noise advise you on the contents of the album in any way? J\u00f6rg: \u201cNot really. We wrote the songs and then we played them to Noise. Sure, they made some suggestions as to what songs were best for that time, and they left us with two that were not on the album, but there was no dictating from Noise. They let us get on with it, so we brought in Ralf Hubert (producer) and went straight into the studio and made the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned the variety in the songs earlier \u2013 I especially liked the slower songs like \u2018Chaste Flesh\u2019 \u2013 but were you pleased with the album as a whole? J\u00f6rg: \u201cYes, I think so. We don\u2019t want to fall into a rut and play total death metal all the time, because I think we can be more varied than that. We want to play very heavy metal, but I think the feeling of the riff is more important than the speed. The album is still wild, even though it\u2019s not all fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

I would agree there, but I had the feeling that the album was a little under-produced in that songs like \u2018Raw Energy\u2019 could have had more the feel of, say, a Judas Priest anthem. Would you agree? J\u00f6rg: \u201cIt\u2019s a good question! We are certainly influenced by Judas Priest, but it\u2019s all a case of time and money I\u2019m afraid. If we had had more time and money in the studio I guess we could have made it better. As it was, we did our best with what we had and I hope in the future we will be able to improve much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter, your singing stands out as one of the band\u2019s most individual qualities. Do you think you\u2019re still maturing as a vocalist? Peter: \u201cIt\u2019s not easy playing bass as well, but I think I could develop a bit more. One thing I do need to do though is to stay sane on tour. I made a mistake on this tour \u2013 we were out in town and I didn\u2019t have a jacket on. Next morning I couldn\u2019t talk, now I can\u2019t sing either. I just have to be more disciplined I suppose, because I have a greater range than most metal vocalists I think it\u2019s more of a psychological problem for me \u2013 I think I can\u2019t sing and sure enough it stops me from singing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What bands influenced you in your writing and playing? Peter: \u201cWell for a long time I was influenced by John Gallagher of Raven, but I listen to a lot of the metal scene. Nowadays, I like Geddy Lee and Rush, Judas Priest, Metallica\u2026 once I was even influenced by Venom!.\u201d J\u00f6rg: \u201cI was influenced by John Bonham and Ian Paice, but at the moment I like Tommy Aldridge \u2013 I think he is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell us about the reaction to your type of music so far on this tour? \u201cWell, so far it\u2019s been really good for us. Kreator and Destruction<\/a> have a very similar style and a very similar following, and most people come to see them, but I think they get a nice surprise when they see our slightly unusual style. Berlin was not so good, I hear there was some trouble there, but in the other places the reaction has been fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s next for you? I heard that new material was being planned for the New Year. J\u00f6rg: \u201cThere was the idea of us doing a maxi, but we have had second thoughts about that because that would put back the release of our next LP until September, which is a bit late. So we\u2019re hoping to get an advance tape done quite soon to learn about the choice of songs for the LP, then we should be ready to record by January. Hopefully, we can come back out on tour as well. We really want to do our best over the next few months to make Rage greater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Rage was silent that night, it was nice to see their varied collection of songs make their live attack on the Bochum crowd the following evening. Peter had battled with the cold all day and it finally let him loose \u2013 for that I must thank it, for it was indeed a pleasure to hear Reign Of Fear<\/em> in all its glory.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the tour had finished, Thomas Gr\u00fcning \u2013 who apparently had been unhappy for some time \u2013 left Rage and has since been replaced by ex-Warlock guitarist Rudy Graf. So now the band seem to have their future plans well laid out, and I wish them luck and look forward to hearing the new songs when they see the light of day. Long may the reign continue \u2013 God save the Rage!<\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 20 (1986)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAGE – Machinery Of Fear Mike Exley Metal Forces, Issue 20 (1986) Rage (l-r): Jochen Schr\u00f6der, J\u00f6rg Michael, Rudy Graf and Peter “Peavy” Wagner Pic: Fred Baumgart When man took that first step into space the world could never have guessed where it might lead. People speculated, but it was only in the minds of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24364,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/24364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}