I remember the first Melodic Death Metal that I bought. It was “Colony”, yes the one from IN FLAMES. It slowly but surely made me into a fan of that band. I kept following them all through the years and feel that they finally are back at that level. The reason I had to mention this fact is that “Remains Of A Dead World” gives me the same kind of feel. NIGHTRAGE have put down one hell of a record. On what actually is their ninth album since their start in 2000. In average you will find that since their debut album “Sweet Vengheance” from 2003, they have given us an album every 2 years. The only time it took longer is from 2011 (“Insidious”) to 2015 (“The Puritan”) and from 2019 (“Wolf To Man”) to 2022 (“Abyss Rising”). So, you could say that they are almost as regular as clockwork.

But even though the band has been around for such a long time, they don't show any sign of complacency or slowing down. On the contrary. What is very clear is that you wouldn't notice that they have made a lot of albums when you try to measure the amount of enthusiasm that is apparent on “Remains Of A Dead World”. NIGHTRAGE sound like a pack of very hungry wolves going out for their very first hunt of the season. The result of this feeling is that the songs are fast, furious, but also very forthright and straight forward. The fact that there are a lot of breaks and Melodic pieces added to the mix only enhance the very positive vibe that is radiating off this album.

NIGHTRAGE having been around for such a long time must mean that they have a steady population of fans and admirers. And to be fair, I can't fault those people at all. The way the songs are created, played recorded and finally put out to us as the public is very reminiscent of the IN FLAMES era mentioned before, and I therefore am very much willing to add myself as one of the people who is being drawn into this circle of followers. I do have a small bone of contention though; I don't know whether I'll be adding to my NIGHTRAGE collection or if I will result be clawing myself back to the other band at the end of the nineties and the early noughties. But until I decide that, I will enjoy listening to “Remains Of A Dead World”, as NIGHTRAGE deserves nothing less.