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If there is one word that could characterize the life of Angelrage's Raphael, it's "irony." Take for example his new project, a Progressive Rock band called Angelrage, something the guitarist never thought would see the light of day. In 1997, he began recording an album called Fight The Devil, an album that was never finished due to the tragic 1997 car accident which left him unable to perform for nearly 2 years. Doctors said it wasn't clear if he ever would. Raphael says he was very bitter about the whole experience, and swore he would never finish the album. The recordings sat collecting dust until August of this year, when, after years of fan requests to hear the material, he quietly put 5 of the finished tracks on MP3.com under the name Angelrage. What happened next, he says, was totally unexpected. "The thing just exploded!" he says. "The song came out of nowhere and within about 2 weeks was #4 on the International MP3.com Christian Metal Charts." Fight The Devil has stayed in the top 20 for over 2 months, above such venerable heavyweights as Bride, King's X, and Michael Sweet (Stryper), and the band's website, www.geocities.com/a_n_g_e_l_r_a_g_e , has recieved visitors from countries all around the globe, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The site, available in 9 languages and featuring state-of-the-art webdesign, is expected to go "dot com" shortly. The title track, once described by one of Raphael's former students as "Ozzy Osbourne meets Jesus Christ", has been downloaded from the band's mp3 site, www.mp3.com/angelrage, over 1500 times. |
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"People are intrigued," he says. "They don't know who we really are. Are we really a Christian Metal band? That's for us to know and you to find out. We prefer to let the music speak for itself." The bandmembers use the names of the 4 Archangels, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Michael, and Raphael's intense music and controversial artwork has brought the band to the attention of several unlikely sources, including a German Radio Station, Radio Quer 104,6, which will be featuring the band in an upcoming episode of their Melodic Metal show "Overdrive". "Things are happening so fast it's hard to take it all in," says the guitarist. "In just 2 months we have had 3 distribution offers, 2 in the US and one in Germany." The band recently added a new singer after a nationwide search, finally finding their man in Miami, Florida. The vocalist, known in the group as "Michael", flew in to Los Angeles to audition for the band, and after hearing him perform several of the group's songs and an Italian Opera piece acapella, Raphael was so impressed he offered him the job on the spot. The singer, who's soaring 4 octave range and waist-length blonde hair have already made him a fan favorite, will be heading into the Studio with the group after the Holidays to record their first full-length CD. For Raphael, the band represents coming to terms with his past, and a bold step into an unexpected future: "I never thought in a million years that it would get this kind of reaction. In 2 months it's turned into the most successful thing I have ever done. It's a testament to the old saying, God works in mysterious ways, at least with Angelrage." |
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