Hello!
We had a great opportunity to talk privat with Marios Iliopoulos, guitarist from the band NIGHTRAGE, one of the best melodeath-metal band in the world. As you might know, Marios was involved in recording of DISSECTOR’s last studio album, and has recorded solo in our track
“The Hate Inside”. So we, as advanced fans of Nightrage has got some interesting answers about current situation in the band and especially about it’s rare stuff. Enjoy!
First of all, I want to congratulate You with the imminent release of the new album "The Venomous". New music is always exciting. What expectations do you have associated with future release? Any differences with previous one?
Thanks for the interest in the band, we are very excited with the new album, as we think this is one of the best material that we have ever written for a while. It´s a team effort and we have worked really hard to finish all songs, this time we introduce to the song writing our new guitarist Magnus Söderman, and together we use the same team me and Ronnie Nyman to write all the music and lyrics for “The Venomous” Our expectations is to try to promote this album the best we can, and also the differences with the last album is that the songs are more matured now and they have more exciting melodies. Also the new ideas that we worked together make the whole thing very fresh, and it sounds like an amalgam of great ideas coming together. Without we have to force anythng, all ideas coming very naturally to us and we always see the band as fans and we try to play what we would like to hear.
To my regret, Nightrage regularly have to deal with the line-up changes. In this regard, I guess that each new record - it is a certain stress for you. It’s true?
Well yeah that been a thing for us to have to deal with in the past, but I think that these 2 new members that been added to the Nightrage family, Magnus and Lawrence they are good musicians and most probably awesome people to be with, so the future looks bright for Nightrage. I had always to carry on with the band no matter what, and I´m happy that we are still here and making albums that we are happy with, and also we kept the Nightrage identity all over the years, evolving the music and the lyrics, in a place that we want to be, without sacrificing quality, and not taking hasty decisions like taking the band to do something that we dont believe in.
After nearly two years and having the new album - how are you satisfied with the previous album «The Puritan». What would you like to improve on it?
I love the album and for me and Ronnie Nyman was the best we could do under the situations we have to face, we have learn in this band to be survivors and we have proven that a lot of times, so I´m proud of the album and I think its definetely a Nightrage, in your face, and well written album. I wish only that we could play more shows and tours to promote properly, but we have the chance now with the new album “The Venomous”
Your current label has released five digital singles from the previous album «The Puritan». How far is this promo-option paid off?
Yeah that was a really awesome thing from Despotz Records, and I think that they are new to this buisness, but they have great knowledge and they are doing the best they can to achieve their goals. So I think that, the most quality stuff you put out there the best it can be, to try to make your album exposed to the metal fans. We never had the chance to release any single on the previous albums, but ”The Puritan” was the beggining and from what I heard that will happen also with ”The Venomous”
How many songs do you compose usually for every album? How many ideas are left unreleased after studio-sessions?
We usually put out all the stuff that we have composed on the demo stages, but this time we have 3 songs that been left out from the album, as we thought that the album will be long and take away people attention, also its better to put the songs that all of the guys are happy with, So we are all on the same page.
I think the sophisticated fans of Nightrage, me included, will be interested in your comments about some bonus tracks of the group.
• Black Skies - Why this song became a bonus-track?
That probably was a mistake, as I think its one of the best songs on the album, but of course we needed to have a bonus song for Japan, so we had to sacrifice it for the Japanese fans.
• Gallant Deeds (Feat. Mikael Stanne) – Why this collaboration is to find only on re-release of “Descent Into Chaos”? Wasn’t the song enough well for the original album at that moment?
That song was a a bit different from the rest of the album, and we thought that takes away all the energy and atmosphere that we wanted to portray with Descent Into Chaos album, so we decided to take it away from the album and never release it, but when the time came for the re-releases, some years later then we changed our minds and we decided to add it on this release, its a great song in the end, and sometimes you realise that with the passing of time, you start to listen and see things that you didnt like in the past, we just stoped being too hard on ourselves I guess.
• Ostentatious - Why this super energetic song became a bonus-track for Japan?
That was the other guys in the band at the time that they were really against that song, and it was only me keep saying what you just described before, its one of the best Nightrage songs for me, and it finally see the light of day on the Japanese release of the album.
• Holier than thou (Metallica cover) - Why exactly this cover-version?
We love Metallica and we wanted to make a cover of a song that its kind of obscure and I dont think that metallica play a lot of times live either. I think it turns out really well and tried to keep the essense of the song and add the Nightrage style in there.
• Photograph (Def Leppard cover) – Why the band decided to do the song digital only?
I think we also use it as a bonus track for Japan, and its one of these bands that you dont expect to be covered by a band like us, but we tried it and it turns out to be pretty good, I love the chorus and the clean guitars and the vocal hook there, always make me feel inspired.
• Lone Lake (Instrumental) Alternate version – Why alternative version of album version and not a new song, for example? Wasn’t enough recorded?
It was a last minute thing that we have been asked while we were recording the album, and we thought that this might be the best solution having a bonus song for South Korea market, and also at the same time, dont sacrifice any other song from the album, we wanted to make everybody happy I guess.
Do we have a chance to find all these songs on a hypothetical CD-compilation with rare and (maybe) unreleased songs by Nightrage?
Not at the moment but Im sure if you look on youtube, you can find all of them. Cool idea for a future release maybe.
Has your previous label Lifeforce the idea to re-release all your Lifeforce’s albums in expanded version like Century Media did in the past?
I havent heard anything like that so far, but I dont think its something so hard to be happen, will be cool to have that period of the band on a re-release package, all depends of how “The Venomous” will go, and that might trigger a re-release of the Lifeforce years.
A year ago you participated in the recording of the song "The Hate Inside" from the album "Planetary Cancer" by the Russian band Dissector. As far as I know, you take part regularly in different metal-music projects. What do You like mostly while doing collaborations?
I like to play some guest leads, or helping bands writing songs and lyrics, and if these bands find me good enough to make something for their new album, its really fun for me to do so, to make them happy and also contribute the best I can on their beloved music, its like sharing your love to metal in a way, spreading metal and happines, thats what I love to do.
Does Nightrage have any plans for touring in 2017? Maybe Russia again?
Yeah we have a great team of people that we are working with now, Infrasound management, and they are working hard now to put the band on the best shows and tours, Russia would be so awesome to come back, as we had the best of times on the last time when we visiting there, so many passionate people loving the music, amazing places and great people all around.
Thank You for this interview, Marios! Hope we will hear a lot of new music from Nightrage camp and much other collaboration!
Thanks for the great chance to talk to you bro, and hope to see you and all our great fans on our next shows in Russia, happy new year and stay metal.
And don’t forget - The 7th studio album "The Venomous" will be released worldwide March 31st 2017 on Despotz Records. To pre-order your copy of The Venomous today visit the
Despotz Records web-store.
FIRST SINGLE "VENOMOUS" - listen
here
