'Secrets in a Weird World' follows on in a similar vein to 'Perfect Man', a little quirky in places but braced by plenty of powerful tracks. Regrettably though I think this release lacks the standout material of its predecessor, there's plenty of interesting cuts, but little manages to embody the catchiness of the tracks laid down on 'Perfect Man'. That said 'Secrets in a Weird World' is still a positive step for 'Rage' and another big improvement from 'Execution Guaranteed'.

The album starts off surprisingly with a melodic piano piece titled 'Intro (Opus 32 NR.3)', an unusual progressive number that's a little reminiscent of 'Savatage', but all said not one of their best openers. The first proper track is more inline with what you expect with 'Rage', a fast lively rocker, complete with plenty of choice 'Manni Schmidt' guitar licks and the usual relentless rhythm. Slightly cruder is the Thrashy 'Make my Day', a raw ripper, that fails to attain my interest, despite the quality 'Metallica' style rhythm work and decent instrumental break. Still in mediocre territory is the awkward sounding 'The Inner Search', 'Peavy's' vocals don't quite suit the lyrics and other than the usual exacting instrumentation, a pretty dull track. Improvements are quickly made with 'Invisible Horizons' which sounds like it could be straight off 'Perfect Man', the catchiness that was lacking on the previous two tracks is present here, the lyrics are strong and 'Manni Schmidt's' guitaring is fabulous. The simply titled 'She' follows and balances a strong chorus with less convincing, crudely sung verses, there's potential shown but ultimately too uneven. Back on winning ways is 'Light into the Darkness' a more free flowing track, backing vocals are used effectively to create some layering, while the lyrics are decent and it's all rounded off with some sweet guitar work. 'Talk to Grandpa' starts off with a superb instrumental intro, but quickly goes down hill with the diabolical lyrics, especially the trite and awful chorus- a real shame as the instrumentation is splendid throughout. Improvements are made with the more simplistic 'Distant Voices', a strong pulsating track, graced with some of 'Peavy's' best vocals on the powerful chorus and another strong instrumental break. Next up is the epic 'Without a Trace', which is split into three sections, first up is 'The Devil's Triangle' which commences fairly tamely, but builds into a moody rocker. The short intermediate piece titled 'Atlantis' is pretty melodic, while 'Uninvited Visitors' is the more vigorous and ultimately the best section, with it's strong melody and sharp vocals. The album bows out with 'Lost Side of the World' and despite some great guitar work, the overall song comes off a little dull, which is a shame as it's got the groundwork of a decent track.

Bonus tracks included with the 2002 remaster, include 'Law and Order' which was originally released as the 'B' side to 'Invisible Horizons', as a whole a fairly run-of-the-mill song, too rowdy for my liking and reminiscent of their cruder early material. The previously unreleased 'Mirror' is an improvement, despite the simplistic chorus, it ebbs and flows pretty well, while the live working of 'Invisible Horizons' is excellent and in my opinion even betters the version present on 2004's 'From the Cradle to the Grave'. Next up is 'Nothing to Lose' taken from the EP 'Beyond the Wall', a fairly ordinary cut by all accounts, the down tuned rhythm works pretty well, but nothing remarkable. Last up is an acoustic working of 'Shame on You' and as I've mentioned before 'Rages' acoustic version are surprisingly good and this is no exception, not all the vocals come off, but the melody is excellent.

It's obvious that 'Rage' put a lot of effort into 'Secrets in a Weird World', but on a whole, it just doesn't have the appeal of 'Perfect Man' or later material.