J-Man If the previous Nightrage albums didn't put them on the map for every melodic death metal fan out there, Insidious will hopefully do exactly that. The band's fifth full-length and third for Lifeforce Records is a winner in nearly every sense of the term, and easily one of the year's most recommendable melodeath albums. Nightrage's strong sense of melody and powerful songwriting, matched with their crushingly heavy riffs and tremendous talent as musicians, makes Insidious an absolutely irresistible effort that's among the best in melodic death metal. The band never relies too heavily on keyboards or other gimmicks, but instead just plays straight melodic death metal as it was originally intended... and they do it pretty damn well! Insidious is highly recommendable to established Nightrage fans and newcomers alike - it's really hard to go wrong with an album this good!

The music on Insidious is melodic death metal with a large influence from the dual-lead guitar work of NWoBHM bands like Iron Maiden. In that sense, Nightrage is very much like Arch Enemy, but I'd say that Insidious is slightly more melodic than these Swedish veterans. Not in the "flashy keyboards and tons of clean singing" sense of the word "melodic", but instead featuring melodic riffs paired with tasteful guitar solos and a not-too-heavy vibe. A few clean vocal passages also give the album some nice variation. The guest vocals courtesy of Tom Englund (Evergrey), Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates), Apollo Papathanasio (Firewind), and John K. (Biomechanical) add plenty of color to the vocal palette, and the clean singing is especially noteworthy. It compliments a few melodic sections perfectly and keeps any of the material from ever becoming stale. If you don't like clean vocals in your death metal, I wouldn't fear too much - they are sparingly used, and it's only for an occasional effect. If I were forced at gunpoint to pick a few highlights from the album, the heavy "Delirium of the Fallen", the melodic "Wrapped In Deceitful Dreams", and the progressive "Solar Corona" would probably be my favorites. The whole album is really excellent, though, and deserves to be heard in full.

The musicianship is spectacular across the board, with the tremendous axework from Marios Iliopoulos and Olof Mörck especially standing out. These guys are just such fantastic guitarists and make all of Insidious an absolute blast to experience. The production (courtesy of the legendary Fredrik Nordström) is, as expected, terrific and suits the music perfectly. It's clean, crisp, and powerful, just as it should be.

Insidious was an anticipated album of mine, and I can confidently say that most (if not all) of my expectations were exceeded. This truly is a remarkable effort that grabs you at first listen and refuses to ever let go. Nightrage have really struck gold this time around, and have created one of the year's best melodic death metal albums for sure! 4 stars are very well deserved here. If you have even a passing interest in melodic death metal, you owe it to yourself to check out this gem. Highly recommended!

aiylyn Melodic death gets refueled !

There's something that makes me feel odd about giving Sweet Vengeance 5 stars - a higher rating than I gave any of At the Gates old work, since clearly At the Gates is superior to most, if not all, of the bands they influenced. Yet Sweet Vengeance has the added boost of not just being an unexpectedly well-crafted album of tight, no-nonsense melodic death metal - it has arrived at a time when the genre has unquestionably begun to show internal decay and stagnation. While At the Gates entered into a vacuum, Nightrage steps into a very heavily populated world, thus making it twice the challenge to really deliver something memorable and valuable. Perhaps it's the fact that, likely due to Tomas Lindberg's inclusion, Nightrage seems like the most logical step forward that the Gothenburg scene can take, that warrants 5 stars. Sweet Vengeance is the true son of Slaughter of the Soul.

A difficult question: how does one "mature," "broaden" one's "horizons" by adding clean vocals without also going soft in the process or morphing into something resembling a numetal band? The answer may not be able to be written, but it can be heard here: Tom S Englund is perfect for the part, and his striking clean contributions are sprinkled sparsely enough throughout this music that when they do appear, they matter. They have meaning and value, and are clearly not there just for radio-friendliness. Thus Nightrage proves that you can add new influences to the melodic death mix and come out stronger than ever.

Gus G, of Dream Evil, brings to the table a seasoned skill at a common ground between melodic death metal and power metal: melodic guitar lines, at once harmonic and tonally thick and meaty. It is his name that was the biggest draw for me to the band (with Lindberg being icing on an already sweet cake). He is as adept at rhythm as he is at soloing, never showing off, always playing directly for the song's demands. His parts are more felt than heard. You won't so much say "That's a great guitar line!" because you'll be too busy headbanging to the crunchy riffs and rhythms; but you will notice them.

The somewhat simplistic lyrics might at first be a potential detractor, but I think they work perfectly in this context. Lindberg presents himself free of any pretention that might have come from being a major player in the melodic death metal scene, instead showing that his visceral scream is still with us. You can't understand most of what he's screaming anyway.

Conclusion: if you feel like melodic death metal has been going downhill lately, this is just what the doctor ordered. Melodic death metal needed this album, and fortunately, it got it.