Reviews
2007-05-18
The dispute album. This is Nightrage's third full-length so far, and already a battle catalyst between oldschool and newschool. The demilitarized territory between what's European and what's American in terms of metal is having both sides gather and munition with lines like "you probably enjoy As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage, so this would fit your 'quality' musical taste well", "go listen to Anal Cunt, and choke on a Dick", "whiny vocals for whiny people", "clean the Shit that piled been piling since 1992 out of your ears, maybe then you'll actually listen to the album" and these are just some of the narrow-minded talkbacks and forum-posts you'll find regarding "A New Disease Is Born" if you google it. A new disease is indeed born, and its main symptom is having bovine feces come out of individuals' mouths, and it is highly contagious.
How many words from the start of this review did you think it'd take the word Metalcore to appear? Not many, if you know Lifeforce's roster; you know you can't be expecting a standard death metal album, or at least can't expect the "core" not to be here. It takes about 45 second into the album ("Spiral") for the first clean break to appear and put the entire album under the contemporary wave, and it's not that I'm saying I dislike clean vocals or metalcore in general, on the contrary, the addition of clean parts into the mix enriches Nightrage's tight package, and on several songs ("Reconcile", "Surge Of Pity") it manages to appear stuffed full with goodies. The greatest tiff here is that the album doesn't quite meet the band's previous audience's expectations.
Nightrage have carved "Death Metal" on their banner (and the album's cover), and manage to keep it their founding base throughout the entire album. Mostly they take references from the popular Swedish quartet of Soilwork ("Death-like Silence"), In Flames ("Spiritual Impulse"), The Haunted ("Drone") and Dark Tranquillity ("A Condemned Club"); on just about every track you'd find some mixture of the four, and as unoriginal as it may be it still has its way of keeping interest. Among the better tracks you'd find "Scars Of The Past" with it awesome energetic leads, "Reconcile" blending acoustic and distorted guitars (the way Dark Tranquillity and perhaps November's Doom do), great vocal work by newcomer vocalist Jimmie Strimell on all scales – high pitched growls from the bottom of his bowels and a neat clean voice contrasting well – and a great emphasis on melody. In fact, there's a great emphasis on melody throughout the album, with the greatest evidence being the instrumental title track and the fact that even in their most brutal tracks, and there are quite a few here, these guys took the definition "Melodic Death Metal" literally.
The crossover between the old and the new is bound to put-off oldschool fans, and attract the more open minded who enjoy the aforementioned Swedish acts as well as newer acts such as Mors Principium Est, Mygrain and Scar Symmetry. "A New Disease Is Born" marks a new beginning for Nightrage, and all they need to do now is keep their current lineup long enough for it to produce an undisputed album.
Ofer Vayner
