Nightrage - Descent Into Chaos

*=Staff's pick	Being Nothing* Phantasma Poems Descent Into Chaos Frozen* Drug Silent Solitude* Omen* Release Solus* Jubilant Cry Reality Vs. Truth

Genre	Melodic Death Metal	Tompa Lindberg	Vocals
Tracks	12	Gus G.	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Marios Iliopoulos	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Henric Carlsson	Bass
Release	21 Feb. 2005	Fotis Bernado	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates, Arch Enemy

Ah, how sweet the sound of well played death metal is, and what a year we have ahead of us: first comes Dark Tranquillity with an amazing album and now Nightrage follows in the same footsteps with an aggressive and melodic death metal album of highest calibre. Where will this end? We're only at the beginning of the new year, and already two great albums that have their roots in the Gothenburg sound, for fans of melodic death it is hard to see how 2005 could have started any better.

Heavy and melodic is when death metal is as its best, and following the great tradition of many bands before from the same area, Nightrage stands in the frontline of today's band line-up together with Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and Arch Enemy. And the fact that Nightrage has a great deal of the Gothenburg sound in them might not be strange when Tompa on vocals can be found to earlier have growled in At The Gates, which was one of the bands involved in forming the sound in the early days.

The growls from Tompa are one of the better ones in the scene, and even though the band is fairly aggressive, it sometimes becomes so melodic so that you due to the instrumental parts forget that it actually is a death metal band you are listening to, until the growls return as a kind reminder. You can also find traces of more traditional heavy metal with guitar leads and solos that the Greek guitarists handle brilliant, ex-Dream Evil / Firewind guitarrist Gus G. gets some good company from Marios here and together they produce some splendid riffing, harmonies and solos, and the typical style of Gus is not to be mistaken here either. Even though it's more of riffing and tougher playing here, his style shines through at many places as we have learned to know how his guitar sounds from his other bands, and it feels as it is more inspiring playing here than with Firewind for instance.

There are many good tracks to choose from on the second album from Nightrage, but Frozen with guest vocals from Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity) is the one that sticks hardest with me. And with the opening track Being Nothing, or the track Omen where they are pounding out the aggression blended with the explicit guitar playing, Nightrage creates energy filled metal with high intensity that really gets you going. Fotis Bernado (ex-Septic Flesh), newcomer to the band, is pounding out the rhythms in a great manor and could perhaps best be described as determined drumming. And the other newcomer Henric Carlsson (Cipher System) on bass, completes the line-up and with these two new guys in the band Nightrage now has a proper line-up and can perform live as band without session musicians.

And as for the production there is absolutely nothing to complain about. As always when recorded in Studio Fredman, located in Gothenburg, the outcome is shaped with a brilliant sound. With full force and going head on without losing the melodic side, Nightrage have created an album that does not contain a dull moment. Descent Into Chaos ought to be getting the band some attention and placing them alongside with the other great melodic death metal bands coming out of Sweden.

See also review of: A New Disease Is Born

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	8	8,5

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas