(NCS writer DGR dives deep into the newest album by the Nightrage melodic death metal band, which was released in late May by Despotz Records.)
If you’ll indulge us for a few, there were a lot of releases that came out towards the tail end of May/beginning of June. Right about the time when we were all just returning home from floating around at fests across the country, and now I’m playing the desperate game of catch-up to write about all the stuff I was listening to while traveling from place to place.
Nightrage‘s new album Remains Of A Dead World is a genuinely interesting beast. If you’ve been following the band for its multi-decade existence then you’ll likely know that one of the unfortunate constants within the group is an ever-changing vocalist position. In fact, it wasn’t until the run of vocalist Ronnie Nyman‘s recorded works between 2015 and 2022 that Nightrage had actually had someone in the vocalist slot for more than two albums. Save for founder Marios Iliopoulos, the whole of Nightrage‘s lineup has always been on the fluid side – it just always seemed like the vocalist spot was changing out more than most.
Remains Of A Dead World, otherwise, is interesting because it was recorded with what was probably the most stable lineup of Nightrage in some time (and since the band has seen the exit of drummer George “Dino” Stamoglou, replaced by journeyman drummer Fotis Benardo), except for the vocalist slot, now occupied by newcomer Konstantinos Togas after having spent some time in that role helping the band on the live front.
Which brings us to one of the other patterns that has been noticeable over Nightrage‘s career: that the album post-vocalist-switch always seems to be scrappier and more hard-hitting than you would otherwise expect. As if being dragged out of the comfort zone of stability and having to prove yourself again lights a fire under Nightrage like no other.
It’s just that Nightrage have spent their whole career proving themselves, which is why you would expect that maybe this time that pattern would be broken and Nightrage would move forward just by pure intertia. Remains Of A Dead World thinks otherwise though, as Nightrage once again come out of the gates sounding livelier and more ready to fight than you might expect, carrying over some of the aggression they were showcasing on 2022’s Abyss Rising and handing out a surprising and solid slab of melodeath.
Nightrage are one of the last of the ‘classic’ sort of early-aughts melodeath groups. Many of the forebears of this style have seen many a genre-change over the years, bouncing around on the boundaries of a well-blueprinted and formulated style, one that many sought to and did replicate, leading to a glut of groups taking their shot at the catchier aesthetic on offer.
At this point it is a style that has cemented itself as being a gateway into much heavier forms of metal, yet it’s one worth going back to as it has evolved over the years, and you may not be seeking the constant challenge or ever-immersive abyss. Sometimes, a good gathering of solid riffs to hum along to, catchy lead guitar lines, and the occasional clean-sung vocal may be all you need.
Nightrage, somehow existing by sheer force over the past two decades, have become masters in trafficking that style. The whole discography is a pleasant headbanging experience; not the most mentally taxing thing in the world, but the group couldn’t exist as long as they have if they weren’t criminally good at getting three or so earworms per disc stuck in your brain.
In a much welcome change, Remains Of A Dead World lands a few more punches than that. It does carry the hallmark of a lot of releases being on the front-loaded side, but there’s still a pairing in the back few songs – the titular “Remains Of A Dead World” song being one of them – that makes a full listening journey worthy of your time.
Remains Of A Dead World does have the sense of being a collection of singular experiences but it’s hard not to expect that; it’s not meant to be a prog-rock epic, and though a unifying throughline would’ve made things interesting, somehow Nightrage turning ten individual songs at ballpark four minutes each into something enjoyable without it getting boring is equally laudable. Granted, you can also pick up the album at almost any point and have a good time. We could easily schedule a reminder to check back in on this one just to see who had what as a favorite song and see how it lines up with our own tastes.
Cynically or ingeniously, the band themselves have noted quite a few of the harder-hitting ones and turned them into singles or music videos in the lead-up to Remains Of A Dead World‘s release. “Euphoria Within Chaos” is a very strong starter and one that sets the tone for many of the faster numbers across this release as a whole. You’ll hear echoes of it again in “A Throne Of Melancholy”, the death-metal chugging of “Dark Light”, “Pierce The Soul”, and the melodically driven “Echoes Of Broken Words”.
It’s rarer, actually, for Nightrage to settle into the mid-tempo melodeath that you might expect from a lot of seasoned bands’ latter releases on Remains Of A Dead World. For the most part, things remain pretty up-tempo with little in the way of the more ponderous and straightforward stomp that tends to bring albums like this to a screeching halt.
“Obey The Hand” and “Remains Of A Dead World” at the end of the album are some of the better tracks in the lineup, which is surprising given that Nightage do lay a lot of their cards on the table early with this release. They save some memorable guitar leads for the end of the album and stuff quite a few of them into “Obey The Hand”, then turn around and close the album out on the heaviest and most biting song of the album.
Nightrage exist on Remains Of A Dead World in a fairly memorable, sing-along mode with hooks enough throughout to keep them among the higher ranks of melodeath’s old guard. Then you reach the title song of Remains Of A Dead World at the end of the album and instead of petering out or sailing off on a quieter moment, Nightage pull out some of the quickest-moving stuff on this album, moving from battering riffs to blastbeat-driven sections for over four and a half minutes.
Remains Of A Dead World marks Nightrage‘s tenth album, yet there are flashes throughout this release that have the band sounding as lively as ever. Somehow, in the face of an ever-shifting lineup over the course of their career, Nightrage have managed to muscle their way into having a tenth album. It’s a career that has remained remarkably consistent quality-wise, and Remains Of A Dead World fits in well alongside its other musical siblings.
Nightrage have never strayed too far from the creative line that has defined them – hence the musing early on about how the band have become a ‘classic’ stalwart by simply never changing – and the influences, light dalliances, and experiments they’ve had throughout the years are all absorbed into Remains Of A Dead World. They modernize a little bit but still remain recognizably Nightrage. While it seems like it’s a constantly uttered phrase for the band, Remains Of A Dead World is a good launching point for this new era of the band.
https://linktr.ee/nightrage
https://nightrage.com/product/remains-of-a-dead-world-cd/
https://nightrage.com/product/remains-of-a-dead-world-lp/
https://nightrage.bandcamp.com/album/remains-of-a-dead-world
https://www.facebook.com/nightrageofficial/