Marios: Hey man glad that you liked the new album we are also pretty excited and we feel that this new album represents the history and the musical path that we started with our first 2 albums. The line up on the previous album unfortunately was just the wrong people to play with, either because we had a clash of personality issues, we didn’t get along that well anyway, they didn’t want to follow the band on tour and they wanted to change the sound of Nightrage making it something like a pop band, which is extremely weird and out of the question, so I had to show them where the door is. Henric had to take care of his family and his new baby so I am the only guy that’s left.

PW: Going into things further the group has during its history had more line up changes than most. Looking at Metal Archives I count somewhere in the region of 14. Is this due to the fact that most of the past members have on the whole been session players and involved in other well known bands? Or is the constant change perhaps intentional to have different players joining in and keeping ideas fresh and innovative?

Marios: Yeah it took us some time until we reached this point and now we feel that we have been something like a hotel hahahaha. Anyway yeah pretty much I had to start with session guys, especially on the first album, I didn’t have any choice at that time, and always wanted to find the band, but that was a difficult task for us. In fact that wasn’t intentional it’s just happened that way. Bad luck I guess or getting along with the wrong people sometimes, but the show must go on and Nightrage is still alive after all. Sometimes changing the line up was also the only way for this band to keep going. I feel happy with the new guys in ‘Wearing A Martyrs Crown,’ they love the band and nobody is going anywhere soon.

PW: It must be very frustrating trying to get an album together with a new team so often, intentional or not! For instance you have I believe had a different vocalist on every album. How do you manage to adapt to things and get the job done? Have you a set format for working and are you the main songwriter and lyricist? Do you perhaps work well under pressure and enjoy the chaos?

Antony: There was not actually a new singer on every album. Lindberg was on the first two. Marios is a very democratic guy when it comes to the song writing. He and Olof work together on the music and I work with Marios on the lyrics. When we have a new song Marios will choose one of the titles we have come up with previously that suits the song's feeling. Then he will write like prose or a poem on his ideas for what the song is about. Then I take those ideas and fit them in with my own lyrics and work them into the vocal melodies I have written for the song. It’s a very fast process actually.

PW: Looking at the new line up, the other groups that members are involved with on the whole are not so well known, perhaps with the exception of Dragonland who guitarist Olof Mörck is still involved with. Do you think that the band is more stable now and do you think you might be able to keep this line-up intact for the future?

Antony: Olof is more then capable of managing his time. I'm sure everything will be fine. I mean, do you think we really want to lose our line up? (Laughs).

PW: You have had some pretty big personalities within previous line ups and it must have been really interesting working with some of them; Tomas Lindberg, Gus G, Nick Barker, Tom S England are all very well known within the world of metal. Any interesting anecdotes and is there anyone else you would really love to work with in the future?

Antony: Chuck Billy to sing a song with me. Or to have Tomas come back and do a song with me on the next album maybe. That would be killer.

PW: What strengths have the new members brought to the band, were they all active in the composition of the album and how would you say things have progressed from the last release to this one?

Antony: Marios, Olof, and I "composed" the album but Johan and Anders did their parts as well, adding their ideas to their own respective instruments. We work as a real team and will continue to do so.

PW: Antony is in another band Burn Your Halo, who I am surprised to discover are from Arizona USA, although you are Finnish. Where are you all actually based and how did you end up joining the band?

Antony: BYH is more of a side project now. We had a record out in Japan and some nice attention in Europe before I joined Nightrage. I am the only one in the band not living in Europe at the moment. I am in the USA for my other job.

PW: Despite all the line-up changes you seem to be a band who has always managed to tour fairly extensively although not much since 2007. Have you plans to take the show on the road with the new album and who would your ideal touring partners be?

Marios: We want to go out there and play as much as possible and all the guys are up for it. You are right after the last album ‘A new Disease Is Born’ we couldn’t play as many shows as we wanted due to the line up changes, but still we have managed to play a European tour and some festivals. We would like to play with bigger bands that are drawing a lot of people, so it will be easier for us to show our songs to as many people as possible.

PW: I think it’s fair to say that musically your style should appeal to anyone into metal and even hardcore. If you fail to bang your head to your songs you must be pretty much brain dead in my opinion. I can imagine this should help you get on all sorts of tours and work with a variety of different bands?

Antony: Hardcore? really? I guess when I think of hardcore I think of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Sick Of It All, and Agnostic Front. Nightrage has nothing in common with these bands or this genre of music. But maybe you are thinking of metal core fans? If so then yes we might appeal because metal core is just Americans trying to play Scandinavian riffs (laughs). Only time will tell on the touring. Hope to be on the road soon.

PW: Ok if you played me some Nightrage, and I knew a bit about metal but had never heard you. I would instantly guess that you were a Swedish band. There is that Gothenburg crunch to your sound through and through but you are actually and always have been an international group. I love the bits of acoustic flamenco style on songs like ‘Collision Of Fate’, it’s almost placed as though to say “hey we are a band with a more diverse cultural identity.” Is this perhaps the case? Do others describe you as sounding Swedish and does this perhaps frustrate?

Antony: I feel the band is for 100% Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal. Three out of the five of us live there. All of the albums Marios' previous band Exhumation put out were produced in Sweden as well. So that sound and style is just kind of ingrained in the band. As for "Collision Of Fate" I remember tracking these acoustics in the studio and the big laugh Marios and I had over Olof playing this very "Greek" sounding part at the end.

PW: As I mentioned in the review of the album some of the songs on the new album are real barnstormers and every bit as good as anything from the likes of the hits of Arch Enemy, (old) In Flames or Dark Tranquillity. I guess you have never really got the notoriety you deserved. I take it this has been frustrating, are you hoping this could be the one that turns the tables?

Antony: I hope it is the one. I feel the same as you do from the review. It will take some time, record sales, and some good luck for us to get the right tours and the right support for this to happen.

PW: One thing I noticed from the album is that musically it is pretty upbeat but lyrically a downer, ‘goodbye cruel world!’ I assume this is entirely intentional? I kind of find myself really smiling to the music and then suddenly being thrown into the lyrical content and feeling a little bit guilty!

Antony: This is how Marios and I feel at times. I wrote this lyric because I have always felt the world is very cruel. And some of the people I deal with on a daily basis make me crazy inside. Sometimes I just want to fuck everyone up.

PW: Anyway, that’s about all I have for you and hope perhaps you may make it over to England at some point in the future. Feel free to leave any closing comments

Antony: Thanks so much for the nice words in the review and hope to see everyone in the UK very soon!

For more on the band check out http://www.nightrage.com
http://www.myspace.com/nightrage

Interviewed by Pete Woods

MTUK HOME