Nightrage is back once again, with their third single “Persevere Through Adversity”, taken from one of their best albums in their 23 years of existence.
“Remains Of A Dead World” is the 10th album of the band and this time the band returned to where everything had started, since Nightrage was born in Greece in 2000.
With the great help of their past bandmate and now producer, sound engineer, Fotis Benardo (Rotting Christ, Septicflesh, Sakis Tolis, Nightfall, On Thorns I lay, Suicidal Angels) at his Devasoundz studio in Athens Greece, and with his great producing skills, “Remains Of A Dead World” is a mixture of all the things that makes Nightrage a beast of integrity, they prove to be one of the last remaining true masters of the melodic death metal genre, fully unstoppable riffing, and great hooks with bigger than life guitar melodies with brutal vocals that represents the honesty and pure musical delivery, that comes straight from the heart.
The album has been mastered by a great friend of the band George Nerantzis (Abbath, Dark Funeral, Pain Of Salvation, Sakis Tolis) and his great skills gave the album a huge sound with clarity, power and analog flavor.
Songs like “Euphoria Within Chaos” and the title track “Remains Of A Dead World” showcase and deliver massive riffs and ethereal melodies, the new singer Konstantinos Togas really fits with the new material and proves to be one of the best singers to front Nightrage with his intense performance, combining brutality and melodicism on his amazing vocals.
“A Throne Of Melancholy” and “Persevere Through Adversity” it’s big arena rock type of songs with huge choruses, that gives you great hooks and melodies, feelings that can stay forever in your mind, where “Nocturnal Thorns” and “Dark Light” it’s definitely a journey into more mystical and eerie musical stories, that are interesting and showcase a more progressive and dark side of the band.
Marios Iiopoulos and Magnus Soderman, have once again managed to create such great songs, working together for the fourth time as a sweet songwriting team, their chemistry is unparalleled and this album is proof of great songwriting and team effort.
George Stamoglou and Francisco Escalona bring the low-end section of the band with dynamic precision, and a heavy dose of energy to headbang till whiplash.
The album concept once again talks about the tragedy of our actions against the world and ourselves, now we can clearly see the consequences of our actions, and what’s left is only the remains of a sad and miserable cosmos, a dead world that we’ve blindly created for ourselves.
Are we able to learn from our past mistakes and tragedies? The various songs on the album also touch other subjects thematically. Like we should never stop learning and become better, learning from our life experiences. The fact that we are part of a dystopian world system under a technologically developed world we have seen the birth of a new kind of global ruler. About the inner struggle for personal and spiritual freedom that many people face without even knowing it most of the time. How people are nowadays, fighting their own ego all the time, and doing the worst things possible to each other under the name of fake friendship. Also the fact that no matter how many times we are down, we need always to find the inner power to stand up and face our fears and live our life for what it is, with courage and patience, with no darker corners and no agendas. Fight the loneliness of the soul, find the light at the end of the tunnel!
About the new single they had this to say:
Magnus; “When we write songs for an album, we want to have variation in tempo and dynamics but also in keys so that it is not only songs that go in E, or in our case C that we tune down to. Persevere is in Bb, so we dropped two steps down from C, which means that the song has a slightly different feel to how Nightrage usually sounds. I think it turned out very well. Heavy as hell!”
George; “Persevere Through Adversity’ is one of my favorite songs in the album. It’s a really diverse song with many dark, brutal, aggressive, and at the same time melodic elements. It’s new and fresh, but always with the Nightrage signature sound. This is not one of our typical songs, and I am sure that it will be a great surprise. The song talks about the fact that we never stop learning and becoming better. Learning from our life experiences, fixing mistakes that we have done in the past and have harmed us. This life is a great journey to always improving, and never ever letting down yourself. Being always an eternal student, having your eyes open and listening. Enjoy!”
Persevere Through Adversity is out now, via Despotz Records.
(photo by Iro Kalligeri)
