Allow me to preface my review with the following disclaimer: I am an avid follower of Tomas Lindberg's projects; so, due to his being the band's original screaming vocalist, I have some exposure to Nightrage in their previous albums, 2005's Descent into Chaos and 2003's Sweet Vengeance. They play a variation on the melodic Swedish death metal style popularized by Lindberg's pioneering outfit, At the Gates. Nightrage's latest album, A New Disease is Born is their first with Lindberg's replacement, Jimmie Strimmel, and their first for Lifeforce Records.
The album begins (with the song "Spiral") with the usual heavy riffing and pounding drops that one might expect from such an album, the vocals (the big question mark for me) are suitably heavy and the clean vocals are a bit stronger and sure sounding, maybe because it is all handled by one vocalist as opposed to guest vocalists handling the clean vocal sections. "Death-Like Sentence" has a decent upbeat feel to the music, almost in a "rock" manner; and the vocals are arranged to enhance this sound (although, I could have done without the clean vocals in the song). There are sections of "A Condemned Club" that showcase a classical guitar sound, which kind of expands the sound that Nightrage offers. Look out for brutal breakdown, china cymbal hits and all, on the aptly named "Scathing."
Maybe it is because there are so many bands aping this style, but I just cannot be moved by this Nightrage album. Technically, the guitar playing is very clean, the production is very crisp, the vocals are well performed, and the drumming is very tight; but, it just starts blurring together in a mass of generally middle of the road almost metalcore songwriting. The mix of clean and growled, screamed, or yelled vocals just does not appeal to me at all, particularly when it is utilized in just about every song on the album; it also brings the band dangerously close to sounding like any other terrible metalcore band. A New Disease is Born reminds why I could never really get into Nightrage in the first place; it does not seem to have any real viciousness or passion to it. The musicians in Nightrage are obviously talented people, but at times A New Disease is Born sounds like the band is overplaying. It might be an unfair comparison; but, sorry, I would much rather listen to At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul than this any day of the week.
