Nightrage

Nightrage
Origin	Thessaloniki (birthplace) Gothenburg, Sweden (Current)
Genres	Melodic death metal
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Century Media, Lifeforce
Associated acts	Exhumation At the Gates Firewind Ozzy Osbourne Dead by April The Haunted Dark Tranquillity Evergrey Septic Flesh Dragonland Amaranthe Nervosia Burn Your Halo Suicide of Demons
Website	www.nightrage.com/index.asp
Members
Antony Hämäläinen Marios Iliopoulos Olof Mörck Anders Hammer Johan Nunez
Past members
See: former members section

Nightrage is a Greek/Swedish melodic death metal band formed by guitarist Marios Iliopoulos and his close friend Gus G. who later re-located to Gothenburg, Sweden.

History

Sweet Vengeance

Their first release, Sweet Vengeance, was released in 2003 and featured drummer Per Möller Jensen (The Haunted), and bassist Brice Leclercq. They also managed to acquire the services of vocalist Tomas Lindberg (ex-At the Gates). Sweet Vengeance also featured guest clean vocals on a few tracks by Tom S. Englund of Evergrey fame. The album is proceeded by their first ever video for the track "Gloomy Daydreams" on an earlier edit, with Gus G. on Vocals.

Descent into Chaos and end of the Lindberg & Gus G era

Their second release, Descent into Chaos, was released in 2005 and had a change of line up, with the addition of a more permanent rhythm section. Fotis Benardo (Septic Flesh, ex-Innerwish) took over on drums and Henric Carlsson, who also plays in the band Cipher System, on bass. Mikael Stanne, of Dark Tranquillity, provided a clean vocal section on the track "Frozen." Tomas Lindberg left the band so that a more full-time vocalist could accompany them on tours and studio albums. Jimmie Strimell (Deathdestruction) was chosen.

When Gus G. was performing with Arch Enemy at Ozzfest 2005, he was replaced by Pierre Lysell for Nightrage's touring activities. For some of Nightrage's tour in support of Bolt Thrower, Gus G. was again unavailable and his place was taken by Christian Muenzer, of Necrophagist. In March 2006, Gus G. permanently left Nightrage to focus completely on Firewind (later in 2009 becoming the guitarist for heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne). At this time Fotis Benardo decided also to leave Nightrage and focus on the reunited Septic Flesh. He was replaced by Alex Svenningson.

A New Disease Is Born

Their third release, A New Disease Is Born, was released in 2007. Gus G was replaced by Olof Mörck. The song "Scathing" was chosen for the bands second video, and was directed by Bob Katsionis.

After the release of A New Disease Is Born Alex Svenningson and Jimmie Strimell left the band to pursue a career in pop music. Long time bassist Henric Karlsson also left the band due to his family obligations.

Wearing a Martyr's Crown

Vocalist Antony Hämäläinen, bassist Anders Hammer, and drummer Johan Nunez joined the band in the summer of 2007. Their fourth album, Wearing a Martyr's Crown, was recorded, produced, and mixed by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman for a 2009 release date.

On February 18, 2010, Nightrage released their third music video for the song "Wearing a Martyr's Crown." The video was again directed by Bob Katsionis.

Insidious

It was announced via Blabbermouth.net that former At the Gates and Nightrage vocalist Tomas Lindberg will be performing guest vocals for the new album. A short video clip of the session was added to YouTube. Other guests set to appear on the new album are Gus G, Tom Englund, Apollo Papathanasio and John K. Making this album the first since Sweet Vengeance to feature the original line up.

Antony Hämäläinen spoke briefly about the albums direction in a recent interview with Deathmetalbaboon.com "It sounds really heavy. Stripped down and in your face. The songs are a bit shorter and with fewer acoustic guitars than Wearing a Martyr’s Crown. It’s a very pissed of sound, so it’s going to be a really heavy record. Lots of guitar solos and melodies there too of course."

The new album will be called "Insidious" and is set to be released 2011, September 26 in Europe and October 11th in North America.

Starting on October 9th 2011, the band will be supporting the new album on a tour of North America with Firewind and Arsis. The tour is titled "Frets Of Fury".

Band members

Current members

• Antony Hämäläinen (2007–Present) – vocals
• Marios Iliopoulos (2000–Present) – guitar
• Olof Mörck (2006–Present) – guitar (bass on 2007 European Tour)
• Anders Hammer (2007–Present) – bass guitar
• Johan Nunez (2007–Present) – drums

Former members

• Tomas Lindberg – vocals (2003–2005)
• Gus G. – guitar, vocals (on demos) (2000–2006)
• Henric Karlsson – bass guitar (2004–2007)
• Brice LeClercq – bass guitar (2003–2004)
• Fotis Benardo – drums (2004–2006)
• Alex Svenningson – drums (2006–2007)
• Jimmie Strimell – vocals (2005–2007)

Session members

• Per Möller Jensen – drums on Sweet Vengeance

Guest musicians

• Fredrik Nordström - keyboards on Sweet Vengeance, Descent into Chaos, Wearing A Martyr's Crown
• Tom S. Englund – clean vocals on Sweet Vengeance, Insidious
• Mikael Stanne – clean vocals Descent into Chaos
• Jacob Hansen - guitar solo on A New Disease Is Born
• Gus G - guitar solo on Wearing A Martyr's Crown, Insidious
• Sakis Tolis - backing vocals on Wearing A Martyr's Crown
• Elias Holmlid - keyboards on Wearing A Martyr's Crown, Insidious
• Tomas Lindberg - guest vocals on Insidious
• Apollo Papathanasio - clean vocals on Insidious

Touring members

• Nicholas Barker – drums (2004)
• Pierre Lysell – guitar (2006)
• Christian Münzner – guitar (2006)
• Constantine – guitar (2007)
• Morten Løwe - drums (2007)
• Johnny Haven - vocals (2007)
• Bill Hudson – guitars (2011 Frets Of Fury Tour)

Discography

Demo albums

• Demo (2001)
• Demo 2 (2002)
• Demo 3 (2002)

Studio albums

• Sweet Vengeance (2003)
• Descent into Chaos (2005)
• A New Disease Is Born (2007)
• Wearing a Martyr's Crown (2009)
• Insidious (2011)

Compilation albums

• Vengeance Descending (2010)

References

External links

• Interview with Deathmetalbaboon.com
• Official website
• Lifeforce Records
• Nightrage on Myspace