Nightrage Sweet Vengeance (Century Media, 2003)
Sometimes my friends and I like to sit around and dream up scenarios of different virtuoso metal talents getting together and playing. Our own hypothetical supergroups, if you will. Like what if Steve Harris and Mike Portnoy got together to make the best rhythm section of all time? Or what if Peter Tagtren and Ronnie James Dio had teamed up to make the best clean/growled vocal duo ever? Well one of those musical wet dreams came true in 2003 when Nightrage released their debut album Sweet Vengeance.
Tomas Lindberg had established his place on the Mount Rushmore of death metal vocalist during his time with At The Gates in the 1990s. Simply put, Lindberg's insanity-tinged growl/shrieks are equal parts unique and unbelievable intense. So who could he possibly partner with? Who could possibly equal on their instrument what Lindberg produces with his voice? How about none other than arguably the most respected guitar virtuoso to emerge in the last decade─Kostas Karamitroudis, better known as Gus G.
Most people these days probably know Gus G as the most recent guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne's band. But Gus has been shredding his way through the metal universe since the early 2000s, making his mark as a member of Mystic Prophecy and Dream Evil, touring with Arch Enemy, as well as starting his own band Firewind. Everywhere he goes, Gus leaves a trail of blown heads and guitar-induced carnage with his abilities on the six-string. Needless to say, when Tomas and Gus team up, the expectations are high. Really high. And Sweet Vengeance does not disappoint.
There may seem to be a clash of styles here, as Gus normally plays melodic power metal, while Lindberg is a melodeath vocalist. But Gus proves his versatility by adopting the Swedish melodeath guitar style throughout this album. In fact, the tremolo picking patterns and buzzsaw guitar riffs are so naturally played that it's often hard to believe that Gus learned to play in his native Greece and not Scandinavia. And power metal you will not find here. Sorry, Firewind fans. This is real heavy metal with real balls, and Gus takes to it like he's been playing it all his life.
Of course the main area in which Gus shines is his soloing. Every chance he gets, the young Greek guitarist reminds us why he is considered one of the best of the genre, shredding his way through these sections with both a fluidity and sense of melody rarely matched in today's scene.
But before I get too carried away talking about the two main attractions to this band, let's not forget the songs themselves. These are songs that At The Gates would have been proud to call their own in their heydey. Each one exudes a blistering intensity that was the hallmark of early Swedish death metal. But that intensity is tempered by the incredibly delicious melodies contained in mostly every song.
Also in good Swedish melodeath fashion, there are tempo changes that are so powerful they may cause your heart to skip a beat with their ability to surprise and delight you. But another delightful surprise is revealed in a few songs like “Etheral” and “At the Ends of the Earth,” when we get a treat of clean vocals. They are rare, appearing in only a few songs, but that is what makes them such a delicacy here. The best part? The clean vocals are delivered by none other than Tom S. Englund of Evergrey─yet another beast of talent. Englund's ability to inject immensely powerful levels of emotion into his voice makes him a more than suitable counterpoint to Lindberg, and makes the clean vocals all that much more scintillating.
As if this album needed another big name, the production is handled by the great Fredrik Nordstrom. His production style is renowned for the crystal clarity given to each instrument, and he lives up to that on this album. As previously mentioned, the signature Sunlight Studio “buzzsaw” guitar sound is utilized fully, and the vocals sound as crisp as if there was a direct link from the vocalists' lips to your eardrums. All-in-all, it would be impossible to have better production for a melodeath album.
It probably goes without saying, then, that this is an album worth adding to your collection─especially if you like Slaughter of the Soul-era At The Gates or anything involving amazing guitar solos. But this album has so much more to offer than even what Gus G and Tomas Lindberg bring to the album. Simply put, this is an essential album for any fan of heavy metal, no matter what your particular preferences are.
Overall rating: 9.2/10
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