On February 2015, guitarist Victor Smolski together with drummer Andre Hilgers, announced that they parted ways with Peter “Peavy” Wagner and RAGE. News came as a surprise to their fans. Smolski and Hilgers had been members of the band for 16 and 8 years respectively, while nothing indicated something like that, until their announcement.
Peavy, however, would one more time prove, RAGE, is a die-hard band. He quickly recruited Venezuelan guitarist Marcos Rodriguez, leader of SOUNDCHASER and Greek drummer Vassilios “Lucky” Maniatopoulos, vocalist of TRI STATE CORNER and also former drum technician and apprentice of Chris Efthimiadis, RAGE’s drummer form 1987 up to 1999.
On January 2016, RAGE released “My Way” EP, to give us a taste of the new album, that will be released later this year. Sadly, the taste is less than we expected, as the title track and its Spanish version, are the only new material that we heard. Two re-recorded versions of “Black In Mind” and “Sent By The Devil”, also included here, are quite similar to the original ones, although slightly faster and revealing Peavy’ s will, for the band, to return to its early, mid 90’s sound. The new song, though, hardly sounds that way. The only references to that era, are heard in the intro and the part before the solo, which are filled with groovy and heavy riffs. The rest of it, contains typical post-“Soundchaser” work: mid-tempo verses with blasting double bass drums, dramatic bridge and catchy chorus featuring Peavy’s distinctive, raspy voice.
Even so, the result is not disappointing at all. Both, Rodriguez and Maniatopoulos, have managed to adapt quickly and prove themselves worthy of their jobs. Peavy, performs as if time doesn’t affect him at all, and the whole result makes us even more eager for the new album.
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This review is kindly offered by More Nowhere Reviews team.