Lead singer and guitarist Peavy Wagner formed the band Rage in the early ‘80s under the name Avenger. The name Rage was adopted in 1985 due to a British band already having the name Avenger, funnily enough there was also a band called Rage in Britain. They released their debut album Reign of Fear in 1986 and followed this with the album Extinction Guaranteed the following year. The band soon fell apart and Wagner was left to pick up the pieces, recruiting drummer Chris Efthimiadis and guitarist Manni Schmidt. Between 1988 and 1993 this line up recorded five albums from Perfect Man to The Missing Link.

Raging!

Joining a collection of German heavy metal bands in 1993 on the Melodic Metal Tour, they set out to prove that metal was not dead, but unfortunately they themselves would not be far from extinction, breaking up shortly after this performance. The headline band for this tour was Gamma Ray and they have also released their performance from this show at Hamburg’s Dock’s venue, the title of their release is Gamma Ray – Lust For Live.

The band is referred to as thrash metal with maturity and they certainly live up to that title with this performance. They pump out a great sound and the audience seem to enjoy every minute.

Track listing...

Fans of the band and this genre will enjoy this show. It is one of the last performances of this lineup as the band broke up a few months after this performance was recorded. They may never have reached the international stage of better known metal bands, but they really are worth seeing as they produce a great sound for lovers of thrash.

The transfer for this release is in full frame and therefore not 16:9 enhanced. Picture quality overall is very good with high sharpness levels during the concert footage. The behind the scenes footage is another matter, being riddled with grain, but I would suggest this is intentional. Colours are generally strong with good black levels. There is some over-saturation due to stage lighting, but this is expected and at acceptable levels. Aliasing is absent throughout and the only film artefacts are found during the behind the scenes footage. Subtitles are supplied for spoken words during the concert because the spoken words are in German, but sadly there are no song lyrics.

Audio is supplied in English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and this is of adequate quality. Sound is kept predominantly across the front channels with the rears used constantly to reasonable effect for crowd noise and ambience. The rears could have been utilised better though to give a fuller sound; still, the mix offered is adequate. The subwoofer gets a solid workout as you would expect and thankfully it never takes over. Audio synch is never a problem.

Only a couple of extras accompany this release. First up is an audio commentary from journalist Malcolm Dome. He gives a brief introduction before songs about that particular song and this doesn’t intrude on the viewer's listening pleasure at all. The only other extra is a review, again from journalist Malcolm Dome. He gives a brief rundown of the band and their history up to this concert performance.

Overall this release is strictly limited to fans of the band or the heavy metal genre as nobody else would really find much enjoyment here. Still, for fans of the genre that have not heard of this trio, they're worth giving a listen as they do produce a great sound. Video and audio quality are both adequate, but extras are minimal to say the least.