Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

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Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

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The second true album from Germany’s Rage, “Execution Guaranteed,” is their final days in the speed metal territory they started but strangely is also one of their weaker overall efforts which is somewhat below the quality the band usually delivers in.

The first half of the album, and really the album as a whole, doesn’t stray too far in general from their true debut, with a power metal-laced speed metal assault that features stellar riffing overlaid with thunderous drumming and a high-pitched wail with the vocals screaming over the top of the songs. The speed makes the songs up-tempo pace quite infectious and enthusiastic at times, yet with the production giving them an atmosphere and vibe more reminiscent of traditional heavy metal at that time where it’s a lot more massive-sounding than it really is allows the songs to have a life to them. Propelled by the drumming that it allowed to show-off with more complex patterns and fills than before, as well as utilizing a more traditional thrash tactic of near-continuous double-bass throughout the song’s length, gives the songs another dynamic area of attack that’s carried over nicely from the previous album. It all seems pretty much the same overall, but the main difference with this release is that nearly all the good songs on the album are placed here in the first half, which is a rather curious matter in that it’s so front-loaded with the better songs the back-end is barely worthwhile as a whole despite stylistically not being all that different in terms of presentation and effort.

The second half, as mentioned before, doesn’t have too many elements displayed that really signal itself as all that removed from the first grouping of songs, and yet the difference in quality is quite apparent. Stylistically it’s not too different, as they contain the same bombastic mixture of power and speed metal that at times gets a little thrashy, overlaid with the wailing vocals and fantastic drumming that seems to be a continuation of the songs on the first half when just looking at them on the surface. That said, there’s a few instances of an obvious dip in quality here, and that’s to be found with the songwriting rather than the performances, as the second half of this album begins to showcase the band’s increasing desire to drop the speed metal tag and experiment and explore what’s possible within their eclectic metal influences. While leaving out the instrumental to be found in this section, the band’s dropping of the speed and replacing it with a mid-tempo chug is ominous of their later stylistic change a few albums to come where the wailing shrieks disappear, the 80s-ish heavy metal vibe disappears to be replaced more with an up-tempo series of heavy riffs and overall the complete abandoning of thrash and speed metal to adapt to a power metal-like heavy metal group that happens to play pretty fast. Those changes are to be found in this section of the album, and when those songs appear it’s obvious that’s the direction the band intends to explore in the future yet is nowhere near as adept at writing that material yet and leaves those particular songs as lacking overall. The punch is gone, which was apparent in the upper half where that was a near-constant offering, so while the songs as a whole may not be as bad as they seem the lack in quality stems from the songwriting end rather than the performance side of the spectrum.

When the band is capable and firing on all cylinders, the songs here aren’t that bad at all. Opener ‘Down by Law’ is a catchy mid-paced thrasher with superb drumming that overcomes a laid-back pace along it’s middle segments to become a fine effort. The impressive title track marks the beginning stages of their exploratory future with some technical riffing and progressive touches in the drumming without adding a lot of thrash, but still displays enough of their atmospheric power/thrash days to create a really entertaining track. The chugging thrasher ‘Before the Storm (The Secret Affair)’ contains some decent mid-tempo riffing with superb drumming to make for a standout track along with the album’s better solo-work and a gnarly bass riff thrown into the mix. A decent effort is found with ‘Deadly Error,’ a mid-tempo thrasher with simplistic riffing, odd cartoon-ish effects that surprisingly don’t distract from the song at all and bursts of energy in the solos to make for a pretty enjoyable track. The same can be said for closer ‘When You're Dead-attempts to return to the thrash/power sound and mostly succeeds with a few lame riffs holding it back.

The other songs here are the band’s real exploratory efforts that show hints of their future to come. The chugging ‘Hatred’ is a mostly decent track but the fact that the atmosphere of the power metal the song is played in manages to off-set the more laid-back heavy metal aspects of the riffing that creates a clashing aspect to the overall sound as power metal isn’t meant to be played at that speed, leaving it an effort that feels more at home on later albums. The same can be said for ‘Mental Decay,’ which barely features any thrash or speed metal influences and remains steadfast with power metal vocals over the chugging-paced riff-work, again a feature that feels more at home on later releases. These songs are fine overall, and don’t really have any real negative backlash to them beyond feeling out-of-place on this effort, while the one out-and-out bad track is ‘Streetwolf,’ a slowly-paced epic that’s too dreary early on and picks up speed much too late to matter despite some surprisingly good vocals throughout.

So, here we have a minor conundrum in that the album as a whole is impeccably performed and everyone gets a chance to shine for moments of real stand-out nature with a solo section or a lead-part in the song, a series of strong tracks and a few that aren’t necessarily all that bad but seemingly placed at the wrong part of the band’s career to really make as big of an impact as they should’ve since this signals the transition period for the band. This is the part where they drop the speed and power metal influences and concentrate mostly on charging heavy metal with up-tempo pacing from here on out, and that’s not a knock on this album to say that it’s weak in comparison to the rest of their catalog, but more so due the lack of consistent, quality material here which just falls short of what the band is capable of. There’s not a whole lot here that won’t like this one if you enjoyed the previous album, so this is mightily recommended to them as well as to those looking for the period of their career that saw them adopt their current style.

by slayrrr666, metal-archives.com

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Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

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Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

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Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

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Rage - Execution Guaranteed (1987) [2017, 2CD, Remastered]

Close