Nightrage - Kiss of a Sycophant

     OK, tough guy, riddle me this: what's your stance on Swedish melodeath? If your answer is anything approaching positive or affirmative, I've got a little morsel of goodness for your Sunday afternoon.

     As is the case with a number of bands I've written about in the last little bit, it's a pretty safe bet that Greco-Swedish melodeath band Nightrage aren't out to reinvent the wheel or redraw the metal map. Far from it, Gothenburg melodeath with an old-school feel is more or less Nightrage's bread and butter. Case in point: Nightrage's latest single and video "Kiss of a Sycophant" from their upcoming new record The Puritan, a song that sounds like it could have come out any time in the last twenty years or so.

     Sometimes that kind of new-old vibe can be a bad thing, but if anything with a bit of melodeath flavour tickles your fancy, Nightrage might well be an act worth your time to check out.

Song of the Day: Darkest Hour - The Sadist Nation

     OK, seriously, just one more example of my theory about first songs on albums and then we'll get back to new shit. I promise.

Song of the Day: At the Gates - Blinded by Fear

     I told you I'd be back with another song today, and here I am. This evening we're going back in time a bit to feature a song themed around the plans the girlfriend and I have for tomorrow morning.

     What plans, you ask? Why, every man's favourite: a trip to Ikea! But at least it's an excuse to revisit a classic album by an influential band. That's why your song this evening is the opening salvo "Blinded by Fear" from At the Gates' landmark Slaughter of the Soul. If the originators of the Gothenburg sound can't keep you going through a couple hours of shitty, put-it-together-yourself furniture, nothing will.