Review by Ben for Rage - Black in Mind (1995)

Pretty decent power metal with some nice thrash riffs thrown in.

I guess the first thing to say is that I'm not a big fan of power metal. I prefer my metal to be aggressive and dark, and power metal often ventures into more upbeat and at times particularly syrupy territory. I only set about reviewing Rage's Black in Mind album due to the combined facts that it was listed on RYM as thrash metal and had a damn good rating. Yet while I've been listening to it over the last few days, the thrash metal genre has been voted off the album, leaving it (correctly in my opinion) listed as solely power metal. So here I am reviewing a power metal album, completely out of my comfort zone, but all the better for the experience.

Having never heard German band Rage before, I didn't know completely what to expect. I'm not completely surprised that the album has been getting a few thrash metal genre votes as there are numerous thrashy riffs popping up throughout. But the atmosphere and song structures are much more within the realms of power metal, with numerous softer "ballads" and slightly upbeat, almost happy tunes mixed in with the odd shredding. Some of the guitar work on the album is excellent indeed, with some great riffs and fantastic leads. The vocals are a bit of a mixed bag for me. Peter Wagner comes across as a mix between Dave Mustaine from Megadeth and the guy with the funny voice on Police Academy. At times he's really entertaining and then at others (mostly the softer sections) he's awful.

At 68 minutes in length, Black in Mind is certainly an endeavour to get through. But there are undoubtedly some entertaining tracks amongst the 14 on offer. The title track, The Crawling Chaos and In a Nameless Time are cool as are the riffs on A Spider's Web, but it must be said that there is a fair amount of filler alongside them. There just seems to be a section that disagrees with me within just about every track, but that's likely to be my personal preferences getting in the way. I'll give it 3 stars but if you're a fan of power metal, you'll want to add another 1 to that score. It's not something I'll listen to much, but I can see the appeal for sure.