RAGE

In 1984, RAGE was formed under the name Avenger. After the release of their debut album “Prayers Of Steel” and their EP “Depraved To Black” in 1985, the band changed their name to RAGE because there was already another band in England that also carried the same moniker. Originally the new name was supposed to be “Furious Rage” but it was eventually shortened to RAGE. The first album which was released under the new name was “Reign of Fear” in 1986.

RAGE have released their following albums in regular, continuous intervals and the band began touring with Running Wild, U.D.O., Motörhead and Saxon in the early 1990s.

Their 1992 album “Trapped!” marked their international breakthrough, with a tour in Japan being a short first highlight. Their success was repeated again in 1993 with the release of “The Missing Link”. After a lineup change,  RAGE went on to record “Lingua Mortis”, the first classical album by a German metal act ever, in 1996. Their material was performed live for the first time in late summer 1996 in Kufstein, Austria. Subsequently, together with a hired orchestra, RAGE embarked on a celebrated Christmas tour and played several European festivals.

In March 1998 RAGE released their thirteenth album “XIII” including the Lingua Mortis Orchestra which became a huge success on the charts. “XIII” was ranked at number 272 in the German Rock Hard magazine’s Book Of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums Of All Time.

After the album “XIII”, RAGE continued working for he next album “Ghosts” with the Lingua Mortis Orchestra in 1999. This album was followed by a major line-up change, featuring Peavy Wagner, Victor Smolski and Mike Terrana.

The trio performed at Wacken Open Air in August 2001, revealing their newest album “Welcome to the Other Side”.

Also in 2001 the song “Straight To Hell” was featured in the German movie “Der Schuh des Manitu”, which is even until today one of the biggest box-office successes in the history of German movies.

The following releases “Unity” and “Soundchaser” were met with enthusiastic response from critics as well as from fans . RAGE toured with Primal Fear in 2002 and with Helloween in 2003.

In 2006, RAGE brought the Lingua Mortis Orchestra back to life again to release the album “Speak Of The Dead”, which was the last album featuring Mike Terrana on drums. On January 1st, 2007, the new drummer André Hilgers, formerly of Axxis, was announced.

In 2007, the band toured in Europe with a show featuring a symphonic orchestra from Minsk, Belarus under the name “Lingua Mortis Orchestra”. Their concert at Wacken Open Air in August the same year in front of 80,000 fans was recorded for a DVD to be included as bonus to their new album called “Carved in Stone”, which was released in February 2008.

In 2009 the band played at Bundesvision Song Contest 2009 (BUVISOCO), a nationwide TV song contest featuring Germany’s best artists from different genres. This show was hosted by the most famous German TV host Stefan Raab (TV Total). Of course. RAGE’s participation in this show, where the band reached the third place, enhanced their popularity even more.

Also in 2009, RAGE celebrated their 25th anniversary with the release of the EP “Gib Dich nie auf / Never Give Up”.

In early 2012, RAGE’s 21st album, simply called 21, was released.

In 2014 RAGE released the special box edition “The Soundchaser Archives, 30th Anniversary” with rarities and demo songs from the last 30 years of the RAGE history.

In February 2015 Peavy Wagner announced the split of the lineup with Victor Smolski and André Hilgers.

In December 2015, RAGE put out a huge 10 CD Limited Edition Box Set called “The Refuge Years” as well as the re-release of the band’s milestone album “Black In Mind” as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of its original release, followed by an extended tour that featured the brand new band line up, consisting of the Venezuelan/Spanish guitarist Marcos Rodriguez, the German/Greek drummer Vassilios “Lucky” Maniatopoulos and, of course, Peavy Wagner on bass/vocals. In early 2016 RAGE toured again as special guests of their longtime companions Helloween.

The first RAGE album in the new line up “The Devil Strikes Again” was released on June 10th, 2016, presenting a stronger-than-ever band that has managed to recollect their musical roots with a contemporary approach. “The Devil Strikes Again” was highly acclaimed by the international music press and by the fans from all over the world.

With looking at multiple festival shows throughout Europe and a headlining tour in fall, 2016 marks one of the busiest and most successful years ever in the history of RAGE.

On July 28th, 2017, only 13 months after the highly acclaimed album “The Devil Strikes Again”, the successor “Seasons Of The Black” was released with a bang, reaching worldwide chart-entries!

The “Seasons Of The Black”-World Tour in 2018 was a major success! Later in 2019, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Lingua Mortis Trilogy, Rage decided to pay tribute to perhaps the more successful album of their career: “XIII”, bringing the entire album live on stage for the first time ever, performing at major festivals all over Europe. including the spot as the closing band for the mighty Wacken Open Air 30th anniversary edition.

In January 2020 Rage released their 25th studio-album “Wings Of Rage” which entered the album charts in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France, Japan and the USA.

In May 2020 guitarist Marcos Rodriguez left the band due to personal reasons and in June two new stringsmen Stefan Weber (ex-Axxis) and Jean Bormann (formerly Angelinc, Rage & Ruins) were introduced with the release of a new version of “The Price Of War” (originally on the album “Black In Mind”). The new line-up is already working on new material and on new tour dates…

RAGE 2020 – „THE NEW ERA“

Rage are back from the Corona crisis with a double bang: as had already been rumoured behind the scenes, guitarist Marcos Rodriguez has left the band. To replace him, vocalist/bassist Peavy Wagner has welcomed two new stringsmen to the Rage fold. New addition Stefan Weber (ex-Axxis) was introduced to the public at the METAL HAMMER online show in early May, now the band has presented its second new member, Jean Bormann (Angelinc, Rage & Ruins). Alongside Peavy, drummer Vassilios “Lucky” Maniatopoulos continues to be part of the group’s permanent line-up. Peavy: “We’ve wanted for some time for Rage to be a quartet again, with two guitarists the way we operated back in the days of Black In Mind and End Of All Days. After Marcos had returned to Tenerife and consequently was no longer available, I used this opportunity to enlist two young guitarists.”