THE BEAST

The concept and misanthropic message of Nightrage’s seventh album might appear simple and straight forward. However, The Venomous is anything but simple.

This relentless tale of extinction is told with equal parts brutal aggression and strong melodies. Memorable hooks and some of the catchiest choruses that metal has seen in decades, does nothing to compromise the brutality and honesty that NIGHTRAGE is known for. "For us it's a no brainer and we always try to find the right balance between the brutality that we are expressing as a band, and the ethereal melodies that we love to blend in," says mainman Marios Iliopoulos. “And that's what we are delivering on The Venomous - strong hooky melodies with aggressive riffs and screaming vocals on top. It can be challenging, but this is our strongest point and that's what we are known for as a band, to be able to find ways to travel between two totally different styles and make them sound good together. This unique approach is the base of the Nightrage sound, and that's what makes the band sound a bit more different than everyone else."

Starting life in 2000 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Nightrage was founded by guitarists, Marios Iliopoulos and Gus G, who would depart in 2006 after the band’s first two releases, ‘Sweet Vengeance’ and ‘Descent into Chaos.’ "It was awesome to meet Gus when he was just a kid and a fan of my old band Exhumation,” recalls Iliopoulos. “And then we hooked up, became blood brothers and started Nightrage together. We started writing a few songs and the chemistry we had was really great, even though he is coming from another genre of metal. Our styles and composing skills worked really well together to make a great start for Nightrage."

Over the next decade the band continued due to Marios’ unstoppable passion to carry on and released top of the line albums such as 'A New Disease Is Born' that had a bit more of a modern edge, then 'Wearing A Martyr's Crown' and 'Insidious,' where Nightrage expressed a more old school melodic death metal sound. Touring highlights throughout the period included the Forum in London, where the band appeared alongside The Haunted and Arch Enemy as well as tours with Firewind and Arsis, the Summer Breeze and Aalborg Festivals and, perhaps the cherry on the cake, two sold out shows in Tokyo.

In 2015 Nightrage released their debut album for Despotz, ‘The Puritan,’ which was met with critical praise and fan appraisal across the globe. Marios says, "'The Puritan” welcomed a true blood brother, new singer Ronnie Nyman, that made an amazing match with my passion and vision for Nightrage. An album full of strong hooks and songs that bring the best of what is we are all about. We did a headline trek through Europe and also played some really cool festivals to promote the album, which would prove to be the testing ground for Ronnie Nyman. And he proved to be the best singer that Nightrage has had so far, both as a person and a great frontman. He claimed his position and brought a fresh and powerful energy that helped the Nightrage foundation to become stronger."

Nightrage has always been honest and true to their craft and with The Venomous they have made their best album to date. With the addition of Magnus So¨derman on guitars and Lawrence Dinamarca on drums, Marios Iliopoulos, Ronnie Nyman and Anders Hammer have reinforced their foundation to create a true masterpiece of pure melodic death metal. The title track connects all of the other songs in a compelling concept. “We are hungry for war and destruction and we have proven that for centuries,” relates Marios. “We are under the spell of our own self destruction. It's a shout out for the freedom that we have lost and the realization that there still great things that we need to fight for in this life.” “In Abhorrence” deals with what we, as a human race, are and what we’ve become. “We’re living in a miserable world and we’re at the end of the line, hating our own lives, waiting to die in disgust. We’re also living with the consequences of what we’ve done to each other over time.” With “Desolation and Dismay” the lyrics touch on the feeling one gets after we’ve degraded our lives and soul believing the lies told to us while becoming our own worst enemy. “This is a hymn for defending your dreams as well and not letting anyone stand in your way; not letting your dreams die in vain and desperation,” Marios says. “Bemoan” relates to the exact moment that we realized the chaos we have brought into the world. “With all the hatred, bad blood, misunderstanding, bad politics and wars through our history we have lost the meaning of life and also the most critical point is the realization that our worst enemy its ourselves. The blood of our kind is on our own hands.”

Marios sums The Venomous up: “The lyrics for The Venomous depicts the demon Marchosias as the true goddess of our demise. And how we blindly follow here. In plain words Marchosias = vanity, envy, hate and all the other shit that we as a cancer to this world bring along. Or it can mean exactly what you want, as long as it touches something in you!”