Rage
Trapped!

I have always believed that the history of Teutonic power metal can ideally be divided into two major periods, taking 1995 as a hypothetical dividing line, the year of the release of "Land Of The Free" by Gamma Ray and "Imaginations From The Other Side" by Blind Guardian.

On the one hand, these albums can (I would say peacefully) still be counted among the absolute peaks of the genre, on the other hand, it is precisely thanks to their release that power metal exponentially increased its audience, eventually embarking on that regressive process that reduced it to being one of the worst ways to waste one's time.

However, I believe that many of the criticisms directed at the genre (and its listeners) today lose their validity when applied to many older productions. First, because until the early '90s at least, Teutonic power metal was a genre not yet bogged down in the repeated rehashing of its own standards. Nor should it be forgotten that the entire scene consisted of a relatively small number of bands and was not yet crowded with dozens of photocopy groups, useless collaborations, and musical projects verging on the ridiculous. The average listener could then enjoy a song from start to finish without the fear of getting stuck in yet another concept in fourteen parts inspired by Tolkien's son's first-grade essays, or another endless neoclassical run in "tapping for bunion & orchestra". But above all, it should be noted that, at least in Italy, power metal certainly did not have a large following. Also due to the grunge invasion from overseas, defense of the metal frontiers was entrusted to groups now distant from the '80s tradition, such as Machine Head or Pantera, or to the much more extreme black and death scenes. To top it all off, there was also the fact that even albums from the most well-known bands (take, for example, Running Wild) were difficult to find.

"Trapped!" ('92), the sixth studio album by the band led by the histrionic bassist-singer Peavy Wagner, fits perfectly into this picture of a power not yet "corrupted" and, indeed, represents one of its best exemplars.

Already two years earlier, with the good "Reflections Of A Shadow," the trio had demonstrated they had left behind the compositional uncertainties of their early work, to embark on an evolutionary path that would find a partial halt only eight years later with the release of the nevertheless more than respectable "XIII." Strong not only because of a technically capable and well-experienced lineup but also and above all due to Peavy Wagner's growing awareness of his compositional abilities, the band manages to produce an extremely dynamic, multifaceted album in which all the representative elements of the genre find their fullest expression.

A good part of the credit must undoubtedly be attributed to Manni Schmidt’s guitar work which, with "Trapped!" precisely develops his typical blend of thrash reminiscences, excessive use of artificial harmonics, and innate taste for melody, synthesizing an aggressive, nervous riffing, yet always very "musical" and catchy. In the guitarist's hands, for instance, the "typical" power scraper is literally disassembled and reassembled without an instruction manual into tense, seemingly "limping" rhythms that almost seem to forcibly fit into the 4/4 beat of the double bass drum (listen, for instance, to the very tight "Solitary Man", but also the thrashy "Medicine" or the neurotic attack of "Power & Greed").

The result is an album that almost doesn’t care about sounding "metal" at all costs. An album in which Peavy's voice, now partially skimmed of those excessive raspiness that detracted from his early performances, seems to have a lot of fun in a flurry of choruses that seem written specifically to be sung at the top of one’s lungs in the shower, danceable melodies, and catchy vocal lines. And it’s no coincidence that, to rise above all else, are precisely the two tracks in which the melodic-anthemic component is predominant: "Enough Is Enough" (somewhat the anthem of this first phase of the band’s career, where the nice round of legato supporting the verses stands out) and, above all, "Take Me To The Water" (a little melodic metal gem for both young and old).

I believe it’s wrong to consider German power metal as a single cauldron of boiling brown matter where it’s impossible to separate the excrement from the chocolate.
Because I am convinced that some bands and some albums deserve a different and better treatment, at least considering the period in which they appeared and the audience they were intended for.

Rage is one of those bands. "Trapped!" is one of those albums.