Released by: Lifeforce Records
Release Date: September 23rd, 2011
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Links: http://www.nightrage.com/index.asp
Line Up:
Antony Hämäläinen – Vocals
Marios Iliopoulos – Guitar
Olof Mörck – Guitar
Anders Hammer – Bass
Johan Nunez – Drums
Tracklist:
01. So Far Away (intro)
02. Delirium Of The Fallen (w/ Apollo Papathanasio)
03. Insidious (w/ Tomas Lindberg)
04. Wrapped In Deceitful Dreams (w/ Gus G. and Tom S. Englund)
05. Hate Turns Black
06. Sham Piety (w/ Tomas Lindberg)
07. Cloaked In Wolf Skin
08. This World Is Coming To An End (w/ Tomas Lindberg, Apollo Papathanasio)
09. Utmost Ends Of Pain
10. Poignant Memories
11. Hush Of Night
12. Poisoned Pawn
13. Solar Eclipse (Prelude) (w/ John K)
14. Solar Corona (w/ Gus G. and Tom S. Englund)
15. Emblem Of Light (outro) (w/ John K)
I have never claimed to be an expert in the Melodic Death Metal genre, nor do I want to be. Is an acquired and celestial taste that I have come across in certain bands, for instance always loved Dark Tranquility I think they have been a revolutionary band in the genre and they always managed to add something new to they’re sound with each release. Same goes for old school and new school Soilwork and some older stuff from In Flames before they completely changed and went over to clean vocals. But Nightrage have been one of these bands that have pretty much stayed in the Gothenburg style and managed to release some solid material through the years.
Mastermind of the band is Marios Iliopoulos and with help from former member Gus G, I took some interesting from a far with this band and wondered what they might eventually evolve to. This time around the guys lend some more guest help form people like Tom S Englund of Evergrey and John K from Biomechanical, and yes Gus G still guest shreds as well.
The band wastes no time to get things turned up side down like a roller coaster of inner thrash pain, after the nice guitar solo intro of “So Far Away”, they launched into a blistering rip curl of shred on the title track “Insidious’, sounding similar to some typical Finnish style melo-death courtesy of Children of Bodom. The guest clean vocals of Englund elevate the song “Wrapped In Deceitful Dreams’ to a new level, yes I wish this band had more of this style of clean and death metal vocals no doubt is the layering that works so well.
The guest return of former Nightrage vocalist Tomas Lindberg works well on the guitar driven charge of “Sham Piety”. The redundancy factor does show up at times especially given the album features 15 songs. If you’re a fan of melo-death then this is where the fine line between repetition, boredom and excitement clings to a stale frailty. I for once can’t sit there and listen to the same type of rhythm over and over again, I want something more challenging, a change of pace and this is why I think the band should consider giving more clean vocals a shot. It it wasn’t for the versatility of the guest vocals here I probably would feel differently about the record.
I have to give some mad props for hearing the man Jon K back on the vocals here as guesting in the tracks “Solar Eclipse” and “Emblem of Light”, it had been a long time since I heard him in singing back in the scene, anybody remember Balance of Power and Biomechanical? Been a while. The production is tight as ever and the lead riffs are all as trashy and potent as what you expect from Nightrage. This is what you expect from a band like this, not steering to far away from the home court, but at the same time trying to evolve. I just wish they implement more change in the style at times.
Written by Denys
Ratings Denys 7/10
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