Nightrage: Insidious – new album

Already out in Europe as of yesterday, pan-European melodic death metal supergroup's, NIGHTRAGE, fifth album entitled ‘Insidious’ is being unleashed upon North Americans today, September 27th, 2011 via German label Lifeforce Records. Featuring many prominent guests such as Apollo Papathanasio (FIREWIND), Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg (AT THE GATES, LOCK UP, DISFEAR, and once NIGHTRAGE), Gus G. (FIREWIND, Ozzy Osbourne… and once NIGHTRAGE), Tom S. Englund (EVERGREY) and John K (BIOMECHANICAL), the new album is said to “celebrate complex metal, aggressive and direct as well as melodic and forward thinking” or, as the group puts it: “Scandinavian metal can be so beautiful if it is based on fresh ideas and is being presented by experienced musicians”. Album's artwork was created by Gustavo Sazes. Two new NIGHTRAGE songs, ‘Insidious’ and ‘Hate Turns Black’, are available for listening below, both explained by singer Antony Hämäläinen. Buy the ‘Insidious’ here (Lifeforce Records).

“ ‘Insidious’ is, for me, the best song I’ve ever done. Not only is it heavy as hell, but Tomas Lindberg recorded and sang vocal melodies and lyrics I wrote. A true honor and a great friend to the band. The song as a whole never stops destroying everything in its path.”

“ ‘Hate Turns Black’ is one of the first songs we wrote for this record. To me this song takes you on a great ride. Very old school Gothenburg feel in the pre-chorus and a traditional metal feel on the rest. This is NIGHTRAGE to the bone.” [Read the rest of track-by-track explaining by Antony Hämäläinen and by guitarist and mastermind Marios Iliopoulos here and here respectively]

NIGHTRAGE was formed in 2000 by Swedish vocalist Tomas Lindberg, Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G. and rhythm guitarist Marios Iliopoulos, French bassist Brice Leclercq, and Danish drummer Per M. Jensen. The group's debut album, 2003's ‘Sweet Vengeance’, featuring guest appearances by Tom S. Englund and Fredrik Nordström, was released by Century Media Records. 2005's ‘Descend Into Chaos’ featured SEPTICFLESH's Fotis Benardo on drums and Henric Carlsson (CIPHER SYSTEM) on bass:

“The sum of all these sonic components, not to mention these veteran musicians' various contributions from their respective areas of expertise, is a stellar and eclectic death metal album, one that might have come off as unfocused were it not for NIGHTRAGE's side-project status and overriding songwriting prowess. This is, of course, reason enough to give ‘Descent Into Chaos’ a spin, but Lindberg loyalists should also be curious to hear him tackling some of the most commercially conscious material of his career,” [commented Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic]

By the time Jacob Hansen-produced ‘A New Disease Is Born’ came out in 2007, Jimmie Strimmell was the band's new vocalist, Olof Mörck replaced Gus G. on guitar and Alex Svenningsson took over drumming duties. This album was NIGHTRAGE's fist for Lifeforce Records. Yet almost completely new line-up would assemble for the release of the group's fourth album, 2009's ‘Wearing A Martyr's Crown’: Finnish musician Antony Hämäläinen became the new singer, Anders Hammer took over four strings and Belgium's Johan Nunez replaced Svenningsson on drums. The album was produced by Fredrik Nordström and featured appearances by Gus G. and ROTTING CHRIST's Sakis Tolis.

NIGHTRAGE: Insidious – courtesy of Lifeforce Records

NIGHTRAGE: Hate Turns Black – courtesy of Lifeforce Records