Rage

Originally named Avenger under the line-up of Peter "Peavey" Wagner (vocals/bass) Jochen Schroeder (guitar), Alf Meyerratken (a.k.a. The Reaper; guitar) and Jorg Michael (drums) and releasing Prayer Of Steel (1985) and Depraved To Black EP (1986; with Thomas Gruning replacing "The Reaper") they changed their name to Rage due to conflict with the UK band having the same name; little did they know that another UK act had only recently made their new name vacant.

Rage re-opened shop to assume a speed metal attack with their debut Reign Of Fear (1986), followed quickly with Execution Guaranteed (1987) featuring Rudy Graf replacing Gruning.The albums, however, were slapped by critics as having expressed little imagination. But by the time the third effort, Perfect Man, was released in 1988, Wagner was the only remaining member, forcing him to recruit Manni Schmidt (guitar) and Chris Efthimiadis on drums. This release was finally getting the act some acclaim by featuring much more intricate playing and better lyrics, but the subsequent releases of Secrets In A Weird World (1989), Invisible Horizons EP (1989), Reflections Of A Shadow (1990), Trapped (1992), The Missing Link (1993), and their 10 year anniversary "best of..." Ten Years In Rage (1994) failed to get them notice outside of their more tolerant homeland. Now leaving the 'Noise' label in favor of 'Gun', Black In Mind (1995) featured the first line-up change in many years, with Spiros Ephthimiades and Sven Fischer taking over both guitar positions. The follow-up, End Of All Days (1996) followed lock step in line with the rest, as did Live From The Vault (1997).

The final album might have been the last except for a renaming of sorts to continue the bloodline as Rage & Lingua Mortis Orchestra with the addition of Victor Smolski on guitars to release XIII (1998). But a change of label was planned, for a series of "best of..." compilations followed, titled The Best From The Noise Years (1998), an acoustic attempt with In Vain Rage in Acoustic (1998), before returning to the stuDio for Ghosts (1999) and Welcome To The Other Side (2001).

Another "best of..." Best Of - All G.U.N. Years would follow in 2001 with a further stuDio effort, Unity (2002) and another, Soundchaser (2003) appearing on the 'Steamhammer' label, a long with several live and compilation/box set offerings, featuring only Peter "Peavey" Wagner Victor Smolski and drummer Mike Terrana (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen/ex-Artension/ex-Metalium/ex-Axel Rudi Pell).

Speak of the Dead (2006), Carved in Stone (2008), Strings to a Web (2010) and 21 (2012) followed; the latter three featuring André Hilgers on drums.

For The Devil Strikes Again (2016) 2/3rds of the band were replaced with Vassilios "Lucky" Maniatopoulos (drums/vocals (additional)) and Marcos Rodríguez (guitars/vocals (additional)). That same membership would hold for Seasons of the Black (2017) and Wings of Rage (2020). For Resurrection Day (2021) and the Spreading the Plague EP (2022), Jean Bormann had stepped in on guitars and backing vocals (backing), and Stefan Weber took the other guitar slot.