The debut album of supergroup
Nightrage is a catchy, aggressive and extremely well crafted outburst of melodic Death Metal, taking the listener on a journey into extremity, outlined with harmonic elements.
The band consist of talented and experienced musicians, on guitars we have the young talent, Gus G. (Firewind, Mystic Prophecy, ex-Dream Evil), the vocals are screamed out by a true pioneer of the Melodeath style, Tomas Lindberg (Ex-At The Gates, Great Deceiver, Lock Up, The Crown), bass duties are handled by Brice Leclerq, Per M. Jensen (The Haunted, Mercyful Fate) hammers along at the drums, and Tom S. Englund (Evergrey) are brought in to do some clean vocals on chosen tracks. Leader, founder, guitarist and main songwriter is a to me unknown Greek guy called Marios Iliopoulos.
From first note of the ultra brutal
The Tremor, the intensity of the music is clear. Tomas Lindberg shows his worth and screams with an aggressive power equal to that of his glory days in At The Gates. The message is clear from the start: this is the real deal of brutal, powerful Melodeath!
With
The Glow Of The Setting Sun the more melodic elements are introduced, and a very catchy approach make for a real earhanger, with the strong hookline and underlying guitar harmonies. This song just gets better with each listen, until it almost reaches perfection!
Hero has a great Thrash like drive and a good balance between the heavy-as-hell parts and the melodic ones, an important fact in this style. Tom S. Englund appears for the first time, and though his clean vocals make for a more melodic and easy accessible approach, I feel like it takes out some of the drive of the song. It's an aggressive song, and when he enters, the song changes completely, which doesn't really work here. Otherwise, great song, which also include a stunning solo from Gus G.
Elusive Emotion has something that reminds me of old In Flames, very melodic and catchy, it will spin in your head for days! A very well written song and probably the hit of the album!
In
Ethereal the split vocal works a lot better, Tom sings the chorus while Tomas screams out the verses, and everything melts together in a cool way, where the two guys complement each other, rather than appearing to be from two different galaxies. The melodic clean-vocal chorus adds another dimension to the song.
Circle Of Pain works the other way round, the song itself is sung in clean vocals and the chorus in growling Death Metal fashion. Very cool, and the song stands out from the rest, more melodic and harmonious. I admire the will to experiment with these sort of things, and though it isn't successful all the way, most of the outcome is surprisingly great!
The two real stars of this record, is Gus G., who continuously impress me with his creative and well timed solos, and Tomas Lindberg, a founder of the genre and still a king of extremely intense vocals!
Sweet
Vengeance is a super debut from a band that has the potential to make it big. The superb variations between the characteristic Gothenburg Melodeath guitar harmonies, the hyper aggressive vocals and the blistering and precise drumming make
Nightrage front runners of the classic melodic-but-mega-brutal Death Metal. Gus G. shines on this record, Per M. Jensen delivers a thunderous presentation on the drums and Tomas Lindberg delivers a stunning amount of intense screaming!
In other words, this record is close to flawless, and without any directly bad songs, though the rather generic
In My Heart could have been better written.
If you like the style, it is not possible to be disappointed, every Melodeath lover should check this out as soon as possible! Rather now than tomorrow!
Written by
Nina Sunday, March 6, 2005
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