Nightrage always had a special place in my preferences. It’s the band of the Greek guitarist Marios Iliopoulos, who founded them after the disbandment of Exhumation and shortly after moved to Sweden to start over, managing to establish a very strong presence in the melodic death metal sound. Unfortunately, they had numerous line-up changes but the impressive part is that many great musicians played with them as full members or guests. For example, Tomas Lindberg, Gus G, Tom Englund, Fotis Benardo, Snowy Shaw, Nicholas Barker and Jesper Strömblad among many others.
Within these almost twenty years in the scene, the band has to show albums that range from very good to excellent. A tradition like that remains in their eight full-length effort. With a sound that is easily recognizable, mostly because the melodies and riffs of their chief Marios are their trademark in a style that is not easy to stand out from the mass. Melodic death metal as it was once established from the holy trinity At The Gates/In Flames/Dark Tranquillity and Nightrage still remain true to it with a quality that many bands would pay for.
As for the songs, it’s not easy to spot one that isn’t interesting. The album has only great compositions. The opener “Starless Night” with the terrific refrain, the awesome melody of “Desensitized” or dynamite tracks like “By Darkness Drawn”, “The Damned” and “Disconnecting The Dots” are only some examples in a killer release.
Also, the production is perfect and the cover art the best one they’ve ever had. “Wolf To Man” doesn’t need much time to win your attention, if you listen to it once it will be enough. If you are a fan of this sound (and of course the bands mentioned before) and for some bizarre reason you haven’t heard of them yet, you know what you next move should be.
