Rage's fourth album was out barely a year after the killer Perfect Man, and although it's a step down in quality it's still more than worth the time of any headbanger who knows their poison. Peavy moved away from the pure and catchy three-minute formula of before, returning to the slightly longer and experimental-touched songwriting of Execution Guaranteed, with mixed results. It's not particularly experimental, for one, lacking any genuinely odd moments and being generally a Rage album through and through. Although the same lineup as Perfect Man was kept here (Chris Efthimiadis on drums and Manni Schmidt on guitar) they're not quite as impressive as before - Efthimiadis' contribution especially sounds rather dull and uninspired. What saves the album from a low score is that when the trio get into the groove and pound out the thrashing power metal, they're as killer as ever, and being fair they do that often, the large majority of tracks here being simply great.

After a classical intro, Time Waits For No One pounds into view, a Thrashy build-up launching into helium-voiced speed metal glory as the pace slows and one of the album's true highlights gets going. At just under five minutes' length, there's copious lead guitar and headbanging riffage to enjoy, and Peavy is on fine form vocally. Make My Day follows its killer predecessor with catchy descending riffs and vocal lines backed up by rather boring drumming, all over rather quickly and not making much of an impact, whilst The Inner Search is more or less Rage by numbers, some odd vocal quirks making it stand out more than most. Invisible Horizons is a mid-album high point, crunchy riffs and an infectious chorus keeping your ears tuned, with the following She slowing the pace to almost Doom levels towards the end in one of the few genuinely experimental moments on the album.

Light Into The Darkness has a great solo, but quite what the band were thinking of with Talk To Grandpa is beyond me - a repetitive and annoying chorus and dull song structure fortunately soon overridden by the Megadeth-esque intro to Distant Voices. Finally, the nine-minute Without A Trace ends the album, the kind of lengthy track that's lengthy for lengthiness' sake and could easily have been cut down to shape. There's nothing here that's dreadful, but as an album it doesn't stack up well against other, better Rage albums like the ones surrounding it. As a side thought, you're probably wondering what on earth inspired that dreadful album cover - it looks like the sort of thing Edguy reject as single artwork for being too ridiculous and Bon Jovi-esque- and well, not every band is perfect all the time. Secrets In A Weird World is pretty much proof of that; it's a well above-average album with a couple of poorer tracks that drag it down slightly, and whilst fans will love it, newcomers may be best advised to start elsewhere.