On vocals, the until now unknown, Jimmie Strimell has taken over duties, whose sound is very much in line with that of Lindberg. At first I almost couldn’t tell the difference between the screaming of the two guys, but Strimell succeeds to give the music more melodic depth. In the chorus of opening song ‘Spiral’ this is done wonderfully; the combination of screams and clean vocals give the music a much more dramatic feel. Strimell definitely shows to be a worthy acquisition, because he made Nightrage’s sound more versatile.

 

So, Strimell seems to be a good addition to the team…but wait a minute! What are those horrible Ill Nino-like, boring, uninspiring clean vocals in ‘Scars of Tomorrow’!? This definitely gets a high score at the ‘puke-scale’. It really detracts the rough feeling of the band, but this singing style is fortunately only used sporadically and most of the time Strimell uses his sincere clean voice.

 

Overall the sound of Nightrage has become more melodic. More than ever they sound very much like In Flames at the time of the Reroute to Remain record, which is a positive comparison but also says much about the level of originality of Nightrage. The melodic themes of the songs are very strong; the beautiful solos and some clean guitars add a real sincere feeling of drama to the whole while there are enough aggressive riffs to prevent it from becoming gay. A New Disease is Born really has the same great sensitive touch of Reroute to Remain, but as said: concerning originality this is also a weak point.

 

When this album reached its end I enjoyed a fine piece of melodic death metal, forgiving some of the horrible clean vocals, but due to the high copy grade it hasn’t got a long life expectancy.