{"id":72177,"date":"2018-06-08T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T00:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=72177"},"modified":"2018-08-28T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T14:30:13","slug":"album-review-refuge-solitary-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-refuge-solitary-men\/","title":{"rendered":"REFUGE – Solitary Men (2018) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

REFUGE
Solitary Men<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2018)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Featuring the original line-up of veteran German metallers Rage, Solitary Men<\/em> is the debut release from Refuge. Peavy Wagner (vocals and bass), Manni Schmidt (guitar) and Chris Efthimiadis (drums) will certainly be familiar names if you were a fan of Rage from 1988 to 1993, and so this 12-track piece of work was a much anticipated release \u2013 even if it has come four years after the band\u2019s birth in 2014.<\/p>\n

Of the cuts on offer, two are reworkings of Rage numbers, those being \u2018Waterfalls\u2019 and \u2018Another Kind Of Madness\u2019 which are injected with extra vim, but for me the major talking points should be the new material.<\/p>\n

\u2018Summer\u2019s Winter\u2019 opens up the record and it\u2019s an absolutely killer cut; from the frantic drumming to the dark, melodic yet galloping guitars and bass, Peavy and company remind us just why early Rage were so infectious and yet criminally underrated. This track brings together a very melodious sprint fused with a thrashy-cum-power metal barrage; \u2018Summer\u2019s Winter\u2019 is good stuff with a catchy-as-hell chorus, and it\u2019s a track that pretty much sums up the rest of the album.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Man In The Ivory Tower\u2019 begins with a flailing lead and a brooding chug; Peavy\u2019s vocal has an almost cracked yet powerful style before the onslaught of the potent chorus. And yes, it is better than what modern Rage has offered, the members clearly displaying their chemistry and yet taking the original Rage sound further instead of aping the past.<\/p>\n

\u2018From The Ashes\u2019 features a devilish riff and thudding drum before embarking on a sudden Teutonic bolt. The track also offers some of Peavy\u2019s angriest vocals, and yet Refuge bring so much mood in spite of the opus offering a rather polished production. In a sense though, the production showcases the individual instruments.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mind Over Matter\u2019 is probably the heaviest track on the opus; a menacing rattle unfolds with this one, but again the killer melody can only be admired as Peavy barks \u201cThis is a challenge I\u2019ve never faced before\u201d<\/em> to a sturdy drum backbone. All the ingredients are there throughout, that rumbling guitar sound cavorting with thrash tendencies and a bass and percussion tag team that creates enormous claps of thunder, all as \u2018We Owe A Life To Death\u2019 comes with threatening aplomb on another fizzing riff and that pulverising drum nod.<\/p>\n

This time around Peavy\u2019s vocal becomes more of a snarl until that hooky chorus kicks in, and in a sense it\u2019s almost typically German by design \u2013 clean and clinical with its execution as those thrash streaks are woven into those power metal gallops. All Refuge has done is create a classic Rage-styled assault; it\u2019s nothing overtly fancy but always heavy and drenched in that dark, thrashy cloak, especially with a track such as \u2018Bleeding From Inside\u2019.<\/p>\n

Naturally this will appeal to Rage fans, but hopefully will also attract the attention of a new audience too. The formula throughout is clear and consistent and enables this to become a solid and meaty debut.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REFUGESolitary Men Frontiers (2018)Rating: 7.5\/10 Featuring the original line-up of veteran German metallers Rage, Solitary Men is the debut release from Refuge. Peavy Wagner (vocals and bass), Manni Schmidt (guitar) and Chris Efthimiadis (drums) will certainly be familiar names if you were a fan of Rage from 1988 to 1993, and so this 12-track piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-refuge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72177","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=72177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72178,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72177\/revisions\/72178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}