Review Summary: And finally, we come to the authentic debut of the germans Rage after leaving behind the stage of Avenger!
Well, it turns out that in the United Kingdom there was already a band called of Avenger at the time, so Peavy Wagner and company decided to change their name to avoid legal problems. They first chose the epithet Furious Rage, but ultimately (and rightly) dropped it at Rage.
To record this album, their second full-length after "Prayers of Steel", the band signed with the Noise label (with which they would remain for 8 years and 8 albums) and they recorded it with the young producer Ralph Hubert, who later would be known for his work with bands like Mekong Delta, Kreator and Psychotic Waltz.
The sound of the album is concise, direct and limpid, specially highlighting Jörg Michael's excellent drumming (as always) and some sharp and restless guitars can sometimes be reminiscent of the fastest songs of Judas Priest and Accept. It is an album much more focused on speed and aggressiveness than "Prayers of Steel", which even bordered on hard rock at times. Here there is almost no rest, and the half-times are only represented in songs like the groovier Raw Energy or the more experimental The Scaffold.
The main problem that this "Reign of Fear" presents to my taste is, unfortunately, the voice of Peavy Wagner, who tries to imitate Rob Halford without much success, overusing his falsetto. It sounds unnatural, and in songs like Echoes of Evil it even borders on the ridiculous. The record hasn't aged well in this respect!
However, fans of speed-thrash metal from the 80s will find enough incentive to enjoy this album, which despite its irregularities and filler tracks (Chaste Flesh, Machinery…) has enough songs to be worth listening to.
Best Tracks: Deceiver (fast and sharp, with a stimulating guitar fight in the solo), Hand of Glory (straightforward and uncomplicated), Suicide (maybe the only true memorable track of the album) and The Scaffold (the band's first experiment in progressive terrain, uneven but interesting)
