Perfect Man

This album blew me away when I first heard it - I bought it on the strength of the review in Kerrang - and I subsequently bought every RAGE album since!Every song on this is a gem - melodic, fast, furious, and fun.There are some real classics like "Don't fear the winter" and "Pilgrims Path"The review said it was like "pop thrash" - so I was a bit surprised - but it's an apt description. The band have become considerably heavier in the years since, but this was a landmark album by Rage; catchy choruses, strong melodies - some unbeliably adroit soloing, neoclassical fretboard wizardry, and some rather high pitched metal vocals.It's certainly of it's time, but hey - I like 80's metal.Well worth a few quid - I have it on vinyl and CD!

You know what to expect from the Rage guys, don't you? Certain amount of speed, savoury guitar solos, several slower moments and a lot of melody. This album is all that and it sure is of very equal quality - finding a track which gets seriously under the level of being 'good heavy metal stuff' would be a difficult task. All is good here. But there ARE some Rage-style-peaks to be found on 'Perfect Man' and I think it's just to mention them now. I promise I won't be long.You hear the first track, 'Wasteland' and you think 'Oh, cool, a nice and fast Rage song - give me more!' So they give you: 'In the Darkest Hour' (more melodic and slower than the first one, though), 'Animal Instinct' (getting wonderfully fast just before the chorus) and 'Perfect Man' (all is fast again: seems like taken out of an early Anthrax album, this one); then you arrive at 'Sinister Thinking' and you think: 'Damn! Here they are finally BITING!' - and, of course, you proceed to repeat this track's chorus for the next four months (you know: 'Reee-li-gious! This is si-nis-ter thin-king!). Consider this a warning.I promised not to be too long, let me just say then that the next track to be considered a mind twister is 'Death In the Afternoon' (a nice chorus again plus a cool guitar solo), then 'Round Trip' (a 'funny' side of Rage here - love it or hate it), 'Symbols of Our Fear' (get this chorus outta my head!) and 'Neurotic' (is it a joke? is it The Clash? is it Overkill? and how did they manage to marry all this with such a pompous heavy metal chorus?; to cut it short: genius!).The new version of this album has some bonus tracks and let me tell you: they rock, too! 'Shame On You' and 'Certain Days' belong to Rage's best songs and bonus-wise you get their perfect live versions here. 'Don't Fear the Winter' is also recorded live and 'Last Goodbye' and 'Not Forever' are put in their studio versions, but these tracks are more of a common Rage production line. Still very good, of course.