INTERVIEWS

Interview mit Marios von NIGHTRAGE
 

TL2IN: Hello guys! How are you and what´s going on in the upper north?
NIGHTRAGE: Hi there and thanx for your interest in Nightrage, everything going really well here we just released
the second album “Descent into chaos” and we are very satisfied by it and the reaction by the press and the fans
so far is fantastic.

TL2IN: Can you please tell us in a few sentences what all happened to Nightrage since the beginning of the band?
NIGHTRAGE: We formed the band in Greece/Thessaloniki with Gus G. and it was after my old band Exhumation split up and I needed to do something new and more powerful. After I moved permanently to Sweded to find the right line up for the band and it took me a while until I found the right musicians. We recorded 2 albums with NR and I´m very pleased by them. After the hardship I´ve been through to realise this band I feel finally that I fulfiled the dream that I had from the beginning with Nightrage to have a stable line up and have the band alive and well.

TL2IN: Your new record "Descent Into Chaos" is out for a few weeks. Can you tell us something about the work in the studio and the new songs? What was all different from the recording of "Sweet Vengeance" to" Descent Into Chaos"?
NIGHTRAGE: The new songs are more mature and we wanted to have a simplistic approach when we were writing them, we try to make them very straight and that help us to have a tighter and powerful sound on the actual outcome. This time we worked with Patrik J. Sten being our producer and he did everything producing/Mixing/editing the whole record he worked really hard with us until we were satisfied, and his work is awesome he gave us a phenomenal and really intense sound that we all loved. Also this time I had more time to work with our new drummer Fotis Benardo the drum arrangements and Tomas worked more on his vocal arrangements and he helped me with some song titles and some lyrics.

TL2IN: Are you satisfied with the result?
NIGHTRAGE: I´m very satisfied with the outcome and I think that we kept the brutality and the melodic approaches of the NR sound plus with more mature song-writing and better performances from every member in the band.

TL2IN: Can you please give us an insight into the lyrics and tell us something about the shouted words?
NIGHTRAGE: I’m dealing with subjects of how our lives became so chaotic and the fact that we are descending to our own self destruction, we human beings we are descent to our own chaos and misery, people getting only worst and they don’t even try to change their lives, it’s so difficult to find a trustworthy human that you can really relate to. In some other songs I’m talking of how at the end of the day, after a lot of hardship, we have the ability to fulfil the dreams of a lifetime, the fact that we have to stay true to ourselves. I get inspiration also from my personal experiences and things that I faced in the past in order to make my dreams come true. In a way there’s always something that connecting the lyrics because the topics that I’m dealing with, they have to do with the psychology of the human beings, they are inspired from the way I view the world we living in, and I’m always trying to find answers on the subjects I’m talking about, but most of the times on those topics I found it very difficult to answer, our lyrics are based on real matters and what can we do to change our behaviour as human beings, towards our responsibilities we have for our lives and our fellow humans.

TL2IN: What does the cover artwork symbolize and what is its association to the title?
NIGHTRAGE: The cover is done by Seth ”Spyros Antoniou” the bass player/singer of ex-Septic Flesh” “The Devilworx” an awesome and talented new Greek artist that he is responsible for the new Paradise lost, Rotting Christ, Septic Flesh, Caliban, Heaven shall burn, and The Duskfall covers. He is a friend of mine and after his approach I gave him the chance to work on the new cover. I was amazed by the results and he worked with such professionalism and dedication to finalize the album cover. The image that portraits on the cover is very strong and powerful and symbolises the negative feelings that we have against our fellow humans and ourselves living in a such cruel world we all living in, the cover has a lot of different elements and very detailed work. You just have to see it and listen to the first song and you are in the mood.

TL2IN: Do you have any favourite song on the new record which you like to play, e.g. in connection to the lyrics, a special background or something like that?
NIGHTRAGE: I like pretty much all the songs in the album and I feel that all the songs have the same potential. But if you asked me which ones I adore the most, songs like “Being Nothing” “Phantasma” “Descent into Chaos” and “Frozen” are exceptional tracks and they are the main core of our sound. I like most of all the songs we have: Phantasma is a really eerie and powerful song that has all the elements I love about metal, great riffing, cool metal break hooks, great lyrics and awesome enormous sound what else we need?

TL2IN: I read that there are some guest musicians involved on the new album. We can hear Dark Tranquillity's Mikael Stanne on "Frozen" and Fredrik Nordström of Dream Evil plays casual keyboards. How came it to this cooperation and how were they involved in the recording process?
NIGHTRAGE: I know Mikael personally and it wasn´t so difficult to ask him to help us it was a kind of experiment that worked at the end, and as about Fredrik he was there and we needed some keys so he just helped us with that.

TL2IN: Will you hit the road and play some shows in Germany to promote "Descent Into Chaos"?
NIGHTRAGE: We are planning right our European tour that probably will take place in September 2005 and Germany will be of course included on that tour since it´s always a priority. More news to come soon.

TL2IN: What can we expect from you in the upcoming month?
NIGHTRAGE: I´m going to make tons of Interviews promoting the new album and stay focus all the time, I did many until now and more to come.

TL2IN: Now, can you tell us something that you always wanted to say:
NIGHTRAGE: Thanx to all of you that you are supporting the band and like what we do we wish that we are going to see you all in our European tour, since then stay metal.

TL2IN: Thanks for your time and the interview! I wish you all the best for the future!
NIGHTRAGE: Thanx to you the credit it´s yours that you gave us the chance to have an Interview with your mag, see you soon on the NR tour.

Mehr über NIGHTRAGE
Review - Descent Into Chaos
Website - Band
Website - Label