Nightrage

Wikipedia:

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 Dragonland/Amaranthe guitar virtuoso Olof Mörck. The song "Scathing" was chosen for the band's 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 form the pop band Dead by April. 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.

"A Grim Struggle", "Collision of Fate", "Shed the Blood", and "Wearing a Martyr's Crown" were made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on Xbox. On June 30, 2011 "A Grim Struggle" was made available for download on the Playstation 3 console.

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 11 in North America.

Starting on October 9, 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".

In early February 2012, the band will further support the new album with a tour of Europe along side Demon Hunter and Deadlock. Starting April 26 in Athens, Greece.

On the 23rd of March the title track Insidious was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series on Xbox.

On May 21 the band released a new video for the track Delirium of the Fallen. the video was shot on April 28 at the Eightball Club in Thessaloniki, Greece. Directing of the clip was handled by Gabriel Psaltakis, who helmed the latest Psycho Choke video, "Get Down".