Artist description Imperial Rage is a Chicago based Neoclassical band. The band's debut CD "Fire in the Sky" was released early in 99. Currently IR is working on their second disk with a new band lineup.

Music Style Neoclassical \ Power \ Progressive Metal

Musical Influences Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Roth, Al DiMeola, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Yes, J.S. Bach

Similar Artists Stratovarious, Yngwie Malmsteen, Symphony X, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Hamerfall

Group Members Guitar: Orest "Hawk" Dziatyk / Keyboards: Ed "Shreddy" B / Bass: Marc "Machine" Malitz / Drums: Joe Babiak / Vocals: TBA

Instruments Classical & Electric Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Drums

Albums Fire In the Sky

Press Reviews FIRE IN THE SKYWritten by Bjørnar Bevoldenhttp://home.swipnet.se/tde/lb/imperial_rage/fire_in_the_sky.htmlImperial Rage is a four- piece from USA who has justreleased their debut on Pulse Records. The cd has 13tracks, nicely balanced between shredding instrumentals, inyour face rockers and two ballads. Just to set thingsstraight, this is not prog metal, but basically it`sneoclassical melodic metal with a few progressive elements.The cd starts off with two instrumentals/intros. Track threeis when the action begins. This is the title track, and whenthey hit the first note you already know this guitarist is ashredder. The songs starts with fast guitar attack and fastdrumming. The song maintain the speedy tempo throughthe whole track, and has some cool classical guitar solosand a good chorus. Next track "Can`t get away" doesn`t have the same tempo, but nevertheless it is a good uptempo rocker alaearly Axel Rudi Pell, with a good melodyline and chorus.Guitarist Hawk is of course pulling off one sweeping soloafter the other. The following track is an instrumental and now the guitarist have full freedom to show what he`s good for. This is avery good uptempo neoclassical melody with monstrous guitar playing. This guy is all over the place. It`s obvious guitarist and songwriter Hawk is influenced bythe great classical composers as well as snapping up athing or two by the major leading neoclassical guitarists ofthe 80`s and 90`s, as most of the material has aneoclassical feeling to it. There are a few more instrumentals offered on the cd andthey are all of high quality. The guitarist prove that he isable not just to shred, but is in command of varioustechniques as well as creating good melodies. The last uptempo song with vocals is "King`s Plight", a nice melodicrocker in the tradition of Impellitteri. Featuring an excellent chorus and blistering fretwork. Besides the instrumentals and the rockier tracks there aretwo ballads on this disc. First out "Never wanna stay" is agood standard ballad while the acoustic "Miles away"features a good acoustic solo and a nice chorus. Neither of these tracks are great, but good, standard ballads. Itseems to me that the vocalist, who does a good job on theuptempo tracks, exert himself too much on the ballads andis at times a bit annoying. His voice clearly suits the rockiertracks better. Soundwise the production is ok . It couldhave been better, but is still above average. The drumsound is a bit flat and there could have been more depthand power added to the instruments. This is without doubt a very competent band with goodmusicians, and for a debut cd, this is very good. Fans ofvarious guitarheroes will love this stuff as well as fans ofbands like Impellitteri, Malmsteen and Axel Rudi Pell. Thedebut cd is filled with great instrumentals and good melodicrockers to entertain the listener. The cd needs a couple of spins before the songs really come to its right, but oncethey do, they rock ! I`m very excited to see what Imperial Rage can come upwith in the future, because it still seems like they havemore up their sleeves. I give this cd 7,5 points out of 10.This debut cd is well worth checking out and if you`re a fanof the above mentioned and related bands, this cd deserves a place in your collection. The next one could be killer !

Location Chicago, IL - USA

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