Meliah Rage come from Boston of Massachusetts and begun their journey in music back in 1987 with Anthony Nichols as their main guitarist and composer. Their still in the market and in fact keep releasing records (with quite a few changes in their lineup). Their last album “Dead To The World” (2011) is truly good. The band’s name is inspired by the Native American tribe Meliah, the members of which used to drink opium right before their battles. In 1988 the debut “Kill To Survive” was released; an album that presents the band full of rage and hungry for creating a legacy.
During that era though, not enough people paid attention to this release, especially the European crowd, something that’s unfair to the record’s quality, even though the album was released via CBS/Epic – who kicked the band out of its roster after the next two releases. Musically speaking, with their one foot they’re based on American Thrash and with the other on classic Heavy Metal. Mike Munro’s vocals are both aggressive and melodic, merging perfectly with the stable guitar work, where aggressive riffs come after more melodious ones. The double guitars y Jim Koury and Anthony Nickols are amazing, especially during the rhythmic parts, during which they remind us of Metal Church. The weird thing with the album is that the track that named the album wasn’t actually included in the album due to violent lyrical themes, as the band’s label proclaimed, so the record consists of 7 tracks lasting for about only 35 minutes. The album’s opening track “Beginning of the End” reveals the band’s intentions right away, “Bates Motel” is themed by Norman Bates, the fictional character of the novel and protagonist of Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho” in an at least original themed song. Instrumental ‘Meliah Rage’ is full of energy and keeps the audience’s interest with ease, ‘Deadly Existence’ is a Thrash anthem and perhaps the best track of the album, ‘Enter the Darkness’ features an Accept-esque riff and a Teutonic breeze, while the two tracks that impressively seal the album, ‘Impaling Doom’ and ‘The Pack’ are the fastest and closest to the speed genre that was flourishing at that time. The band believed in the material of ‘Kill Survive’ (or CBS/Epic, or both), which is also apparent from their next release, a live recording of the EP called ‘Live Kill’. This particular EP includes ‘Beginning of the End’, finally ‘Kill Survive’, ‘Bates Motel’, ‘Deadly Existence’ and ‘The Pack’ from a concert of Meliah Rage held on 15.04.1989 in Detroit.
This EP is also a diamond that deserves a place in your collection. In general, these two releases are typical of the era for those who appreciate it, especially fans of Jag Panzer, Xentrix, Flotsam And Jetsam, Metal Church, Laaz Rockit, Metallica and Vicious Rumors. The unnecessary information trivia is that Godsmack’s Sully Erna’s frontman played drums in their album’ called “Unfinished Business” in 1999 (actually it’s a collection of unreleased tracks recorded in 1992-1996).