Hätten andere Bands eine derart oft wechselnde Besetzung in Kauf nehmen müssen, würde es sie aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach längst schon nicht mehr geben. Im Falle der schwedischen als auch griechischen Death Metal-Zusammenkunft Nightrage jedoch durfte man dies stets als Bereicherung und Grund zu einer erneuten musikalischen Feinjustierung begreifen. Unter anderem Tomas Lindberg (ex-At The Gates, Disfear), Nicholas Barker (Dimmu Borgir, Cradle Of Filth) und auch Per Möller Jensen (The Haunted) gaben hier ein beeindruckendes Stelldichein und verpassten dieser Band, die nach zwei Platten für Century Media ihr letztes Werk "A New Disease Is Born" via Lifeforce Records veröffentlichten, ihre so ganz eigene musikalische Note.

Zusammen an der Seite von Sänger Antony Hämäläinen (Burn Your Halo, ex-Slaves For Scores), Gitarrist Olof Morck (Dragonland), Schlagzeuger Jo Nunez (Suicide Of Demons) und schließlich Bassist Anders Hammer (ex-Disdain) hat Nightrage-Mastermind Marios Iliopoulos (ex-Exhumation) mit "Wearing A Martyr's Crown" heuer einmal mehr ein modernes Death Metal-Werk eingezimmert, das wohl zweifelsfrei als das härteste Nightage-Werk der bisherigen Bandgeschichte gelten dürfte. Bereits im Vorfeld der Veröffentlichung von "Wearing A Martyr's Crown" sprachen wir mit Marios und Antony von Nightrage über deren neues Werk:


SJM: I think I am not that wrong claiming that the music of Nightrage can be easily filed under 'modern Deathmetal'. I've got a quite unusual question at first: How would you explain that Swedish Metal is so popular? What do Swedish people have in their veins that they play such great hard rocking music?

Marios: Hey Dennis and thanks for the chance having an Interview with you. Nightrage music is something that coming from the heart and the style that we are playing has a lot of different elements of pure melodic death metal, classic metal and Thrash and acoustic guitar vibes. Sweden is a country with amazing structure for arts and is a reason why there are so many bands out there.

Antony: I always looked towards the weather in Scandinavia for this answer. It is so cold and dark in certain areas that all you can do is hang out in your room and practice music! At least thats how it was for me.

SJM: Your new album "Wearing A Martyr's Crown" once again features new members. I'd like to know if all the members do always know they get "fired" once a new record is being released? Or are they aware of the fact that Nightrage is a constantly changing project?

Marios: Let me just say that the line up we have now is people that love the band and the music that we are doing, and they are proud to be in a band like Nightrage.
Nightrage is not project and I understand your question about the line-up but this is something out of my hands. I was just unlucky to work with the wrong people sometimes. I have a great vision for this band and sometimes its hard for some people to follow that vision because it doesn`t serve personal interests or because they want to change the sound of the band and following trends, and I’m not going to change the sound of the band for any trend, Nightrage is a metal band and it will stay that way.
The new guys are awesome and they are not going anywhere soon, we are going to prove that with the next album which will not be that far away.

Antony: Marios said it all here. This is a BAND now. And I think this is what Marios was always searching for. Just people who share the same vision for the music. And I can tell you from Olof's and my point of view this really is a team effort and a true brotherhood. Just look under each song title in the lyric section of our album and you'll see what a true team is supposed to look like.

SJM: That leads me to my next question. Would you consider Nightrage to be a project that constantly changes while all the members change from one record to another or would you like to be a band with a solid line-up?

Marios: Like I said before I would love to have the new guys forever and Nightrage is a band not a project and I had to do these changes in order that the band will survive, if it was for those people this band will be dead now and I don’t want that to happen. I don’t like to change never again a line-up. Antony Hämäläinen is an awesome singer from Finland that loves the band and we are sharing the writing on the lyrics, and I’m lucky and proud to have a guy like him in the band. Olof Mörck he is a close friend an amazing guitar player from DRAGONLAND that have helped the band along the way the past 3 years, and now he is in the band for good and he makes amazing effort writing songs together. Jo Nunez is a fantastic drummer from Belgium that I was so blown away when I first saw him playing the Nightrage songs and he loves the band, and finally Anders Hammer is the best bassist that Nightrage ever had and he is a friend and amazing guy that complete the Nightrage dream having a line-up like that.

Antony: And here we also have Marios Iliopoulos. The father of Nightrage who has never given up no matter what the circumstance. We all love being in a band with this guy. It's never a dull moment and for me its a dream to write vocal lines/lyrics/melodies over his guitar riffs. Just a true dream come true.

SJM: If you compare the visions you had of "Wearing A Martyr's Crown" before the record was recorded in Studio Fredman and compare it to your own impressions listening to the songs right now – what´s the difference? What do you as a band think about 'the finished product' called "Wearing A Martyr's Crown"?

Marios: We are very happy with how the album turned out, it’s so much better and improved from the demos that we had. Fredrik Nordström gave us a massive sound and we pay so much attention to make this as heavy and melodic as possible. We wanted to be as much original as we could and of course we wanted to pay homage to the true sound of the Swedish melodic death metal that used to be so passionate and powerful in 94/98 period. With the addition of a lot of acoustic and 12 string guitars we wanted to give a special feeling in the album that combined with the brutality of the riffs and the harsh vocals painting a canvas of true metal mayhem. We are proud to release an album like that and we can’t wait to see the reaction from our fans and the press.

Antony: From the pre-production stage this album for me was basically recorded twice! And that was a good thing. In the demos we played everything like it was going to be the album, then we had a couple months to listen to the tracks over and over. This way we were able to add and change the things that we felt could be better. So the album to me is VERY fresh and I have no regrets about any of it so far.

SJM: Well, the age of the different members of your band varies, e.g. Marios, you are the oldest one with 39 years whereas the other members are at a fairly young age. Is it an advantage to have an experienced member like you in the band? I know you're the founder – did you make experience the whole band can profit from right now?

Marios: Definitely and I know that the other guys in the band share that feeling, I’m so lucky to have guys like that in the band that they are so skilled and they make Nightrage even better. Of course I’m the oldest guy and the one that was here from the start, but I guess it happened that way and for sure its really cool and helpful to have a great experience and share it with my friends in the band, I love them all like brothers and try always to listen and collaborate with them for the best interest of Nightrage.

Antony: Basing things on age really isn't an issue for us. All of the guys in this band are very down to earth and hang with a wide variety of people outside of music as well. We are all five (in my opinion) old souls. We can be some pretty boring guys!

SJM: Is there a special concept behind "Wearing A Martyr's Crown" or does every song stand for itself and tells us a different story?

Marios: I can tell u it’s pretty much a concept album and the lyrics theme it’s written by me and Antony and we are sharing the same kind of stories, he really is my right hand in writing and I love writing together. Our lyrical themes they have to do about the human emotions and how they can affect your life in ways that sometimes it’s difficult for us to deal with. I write very personal lyrics that they are inspired from the things that I’m going through my life and sometimes writing is the only way to tell a story.

SJM: Nightrage has seen many member changes within the last years. Isn't it really hard to improve the style of a band whilst all of the members are new to it? How did you cope with all the member changes?

Marios:Not at all, on the contrary the style of the band is always improving and getting better. I have a certain plan for the writing and since I write most of the riffs the sound of the band stays the same and with the awesome ideas that I get from Olof and Antony, plus Anders and Jo we have the best writing team, Olof he is a lover of the Nightrage sound and ideas and he also knows what kind of riffs and melodies the band needs. Antony is like the small brother of Tomas Lindberg and he brought back those amazing harsh vocals that we were so known on the first 2 albums “Sweet Vengeance” and “Descent into Chaos”.
Nightrage it’s a an idea and a way of life for me and I know what kind of style and drive we need to keep going on and I’m very happy to share that way of thinking with my band mates because together we made this album one of the best Nightrage albums ever.

Antony: Well I'm now looking at Nightrage like Megadeth sometimes. Megadeth had their first two albums with a core line up like Nightrage had (Marios, Lindberg, and Gus). Then on the third Megadeth album they pretty much changed everyone (just like on A New Disease Is Born). Then comes "Rust In Peace" where they changed the entire line up again! And it lasted a long time with those guys. Well "Wearing a martyr's crown" is our "Rust In Peace" lineup. We plan on making albums and touring together for a long time.

SJM: What things would you mention if you were asked which aspects you like most on "Wearing A Martyr's Crown"? Why especially these ones?

Marios: I like the fact that the album stays true to the Nightrage vibe and it doesn’t follow any specific trend also this is the first time that I feel that we reach a point where we discover the sound of the band, something that takes some time until u find it. Also the return to Fredman gave us that extra kick that the banded needed since we have worked with Fredman in the past and he is of the best metal engineers and producers in the metal world. Everything just happened so naturally we didn’t force anything and everybody did its best to have the best possible performances and sound in the album.

Antony: For me it is the sheer brutality of some of these songs. I just love to hear this heavy shit! Thats how I want the next album to go, just nothing but blast beats and black metal riffs!!!! Another aspect is just listening to my band mates. These four guys are so fucking good I can't believe I'm playing with them sometimes.

SJM: Let's shortly talk about the record as a whole - What is Wearing A Martyr's Crown" all about? Is there a concept, an underlying idea behind the whole album as such?

Marios: As I said before “Wearing a Martyr’s Crown” is a concept idea lyrically exploring the deepest feelings of human beings. A trip into the unwritten and scary thoughts that we all have and we are afraid to talk with. The lyrics are truthful and aggressive, hopeful and dark, personal and very deep. I will let also the listeners to explore them and get their own meanings and ideas behind them.

Antony: When you look at the art work I guess it pretty much sums up the album title and even the title track lyrics. So the concept is being crucified for what you believe in. Whatever that may be.

SJM: Interviewing a lot of “newcomers” in Death Metal – lots of them say that Sweden has got so many progressive Death Metal bands to offer that will float the planet quite soon. When you – who “opened the door” for a lot of Scandinavian acts – have a look at the scene as such – how would you describe it? From your point of view – in how far did this scene as such change between the days when Nightrage started and now?

Marios: Sweden has a lot of bands and a very important metal scene so many new bands coming every day and I find the whole thing positive. The scene has of course changed a lot and many bands evolve and added different ideas in their music. I would like to see more bands playing what they really feel along the metal prisma and not following any stupid trends, we at least stayed true to our root metal sound that we had from the beginning and we want to still continue that because its something that we really feel doing.

Antony: I agree with Marios here 100%. There aren't enough bands (young bands I should say) from sweden or Scandinavia digging deep into their roots. They are looking toward the Americans or something. And not the good American music either (i.e. Slayer, Morbid Angel, Testament etc etc). No trends, no compromise.

SJM: Let's shortly talk about the aims and ideas you had with your LifeForce-debut "A New Disease Is Born"? Did you achive everything you wanted with that record? What can you tell us about the job LifeForce Records did? Do you think you found a record label that is able to support you guys the way you want them to?

Marios: I still love this album and it was a kind of different direction with a more modern metal sound for the band, but I still think it’s really good for what it is. Lifeforce made an awesome work with the promotion of this album and stood behind the Nightrage back believing and supporting us. Lifeforce is one of the upcoming metal labels and they always try to put everything they can for each and every band that they have on their rooster, and I find their ways very healthy and friendly.

Antony: LifeForce have a good chance with some of the bands they sign and work with to be as big as a Century Media or Nuclear Blast. They are good for a band like ours mostly because of how "hands-on" they are. If we need something we speak to Drew or Stefan. These guys own the label and run it! So we'd rather be on a label like this where they care about us rather.

SJM: For a band with the format and history like Nightrage – are you interested in the listeners' expectations or don´t you think about that when writing songs for a new record?

Marios: Honestly we don’t really think like that when we are writing new songs, pretty much we are trying to please ourselves and make some killer songs that we will be proud of. The only time that I personally think about the listeners is when we are releasing the album and I tend to remember again that we are doing something that is global and “what the hell” lets see what the whole world will think about it. As long as the band and label likes it that’s all I care, and I only hope that our fans will love it and of course we will win new metal fans with every release.

Antony: I'm kind of the same way he is. I don't fucking care about what anyone thinks. If you like that is great and you see how hard we worked for it, if you dont like... well I just don't give a flying fuck! If the band is happy that is all that matters.

SJM: I always leave the last statement to the band. Is there anything you´d like to say or just add what has not been mentioned yet? Please feel free to be my guest:

Marios: Let me just say a big thanks that u let us talk about our new album, hope that our fans will embrace it and love it. See u soon in our metal shows and keep up the good work.

Antony: Hails to all our supporters out there. See you guys on the road then!

(Dennis Grenzel)