Prayers of Steel

Avenger, the forgotten past of Rage for most of their listeners... Is this a good thing? Well, yes and no because a lot of fans are more into their newer stuff, and the early stuff of Rage is a total different musical approach. One thing for sure, the adepts of early Rage stuff will like this one, and maybe even more. I obviously discovered Rage in the first place, and I didn't know that they had another band before. As a person who liked albums like "Reign of Fear" and "Execution Guaranteed", I was quite surprised to find out that the guys from Rage did another album before those ones, and this was early in the development of the German metal scene. The "Prayers of Steel" album was recorded back in 1984 and released in 1985, when most German bands were starting out, making it one of the first release of that scene. This doesn't mean that the album is unique though, let's see why...

The main reason why this album doesn't seem to be remembered by people, is because of its unoriginality and unknown status. Useless to mention how many bands were doing this kind of stuff back in 1985. You can tell that the album doesn't bring much on the table, this is largely true in some way, but the music featured on this album is pretty nice I may say. We have also a good amount of songs, especially with the 1995 re-release on CD, which features the "Depraved to Black" EP. The album contains 10 songs and 4 bonus tracks, in which two of these are from a live recording of '85, totaling nearly an hour of material. If you want a general overview of their musical style, this is much like in the veins of other German speed metal bands early stuff. We are citing acts like Running Wild, Atlain or Grave Digger, but despite being an not so memorable record, "Prayers of Steel" have quite a lot of enjoyable musical variety.

Having said that, the album kick-off in a pretty good mood with "Battlefield", which is a classic speed metal song with great riffs and a catchy chorus. This kind of intro to an album gives more motivation to keep on listening to it and hear the following tracks. "Southcross Union", the second song, isn't as good and doesn't add and bring something valuable to the album. I mean, the song is cool at casual listen, but easily skippable. Other tracks such as the self-titled and "Sword Made of Steel" are more oriented with melodic passages, but at the cost of having less interesting riffs if you ask me. However, it's pretty easy to assume that the best songs on the album are those with the speed metal feeling, mainly because the problem with the longer tracks is that they have a lack of riffs, and the structures fail to make them memorable. Although the band showed some promising talent out there, songs like "Adoration", "Assorted by Satan", or "Faster than Hell" are exactly what you are looking for on such album. They contain every aspect needed to bang your head, fast-paced riffs, "speedy" drum beats, guitar solos and catchy words sang by the band's leader, Peavy. His vocals are basically the kind of voice you would like on this sort of record, he got a pretty good and unique tone of voice with the ability of high screams, which fits perfectly for the album.

The production work for "Prayers of Steel" is really good, especially for a record made in the first half of the 80's. I really like the sound of the drum snare, it feels so clean and well-arranged. All instruments are greatly mixed, which is a special and impressive point for a low budget made 80's German speed metal album. I can't tell the same thing for the songs from the EP "Depraved to Black" though. These ones sounds less polished and raw, but they are also the most heaviest ones of the whole record, which is a good thing, in my opinion. The sound quality is usually not much of an issue when you are used to 80's speed metal. The lyrical content is probably the worst thing on this album. Despite having some catchy songs and words, there's nothing valuable on this side. Even the band didn't took them serious, and it's pretty obvious to notice that aswell. It's basically joking while singing Satan's sort of stuff... At least the guys will write stuff that will make more sense for Rage albums.

Well, this is not an incredible release of the German metal scene, but it's still worth a listen. Fans of heavy and speed metal will surely find something of good value on this record. If you already listened to the early stuff of Rage, then you must give this one a shot. I personally come back from time to time to listen to it again, and it's still really enjoyable for me. Put yourself in the right mood and give this album a go, it's a well worthy time spent.

Best tracks :

Adoration
Assorted by Satan
Battlefield
Bloodlust
Depraved to Black
Faster than Hell