Denver, Colorado-based melodic death metal outfit NIGHTWRAITH today reveals their performance video for “Beguiler.” Now playing at No Clean Singing, the track comes off the band’s Offering full-length, released in March via Reaping Scythe Records!
A sonic experience that is at once aggressive and textural, the songwriting on Offering is deliberate, concise, and thoughtful, while remaining heavy enough to please the death metal audience for which it was intended. Pulling inspiration from a wide array of bands and genres, NIGHTWRAITH has been refined into something truly unique. “It’s like we took all the heavy parts from bands like Carcass and Enslaved and combined it with the warmth of classic bands like Thin Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult,” explains founding member Benjamin Pitts. “It has been really fun inserting rock guitar and organ tones into a genre that typically avoids these types of sounds.”
“I’m thrilled that we were able to make this video for ‘Beguiler’ because we love the song and wanted to capture a proper live presentation of it,” notes Pitts of today’s video release. “The footage was taken from the album release show for Offering, so there is great energy. ‘Beguiler’ has many components that flow together in an impactful way. It begins with harmonized clean guitars and shoots right into the chorus, which has been described as an ‘evil Beatles’ sounding progression. The verses are a bit heavier and are reminiscent of a Dethklok-esque gallop. The bridge contains one of our favorite sections to play, which is an ascending diminished riff that resolves with some neo-classical harmonies. Finally, the song closes with a heavy version of the intro which has a symphonic quality to it and is perfect headbanging material!
“I’m really glad we were able to present some live content because it contains a certain energy which can be difficult to capture on record,” he continues. “For example, our drummer used to play to a click during live shows but eventually realized that being locked to a tempo can be constraining. We began to trust our internal meters and noticed that our live sound improved because we could fluctuate the tempo, giving the songs a more natural feel. This footage was taken on March 18th of this year at the Hi-Dive in Denver by DunFurFun productions. We also have to give a shout-out to Kim Baxter for the live mix and James Freeman for capturing the room sound.”
Adds No Clean Singing, “The ringing guitar and keyboard instrumental that opens the song is magically inviting, but only one feature of a richly tapestried piece that moves through many moods and musical variations. As the song ebbs and flows, twists and turns, it crosses through shade and sun, traversing the gloom of sorrow, seething with tension, and spinning the mind with extended guitar jams that dart and dance, slither and swirl, and become trippy, bluesy, and occult. While all that happens, the rhythm section are putting on their own show. The bass hums and pulses, meanders and invigorates, and the drumming ranges from neck-snapping back-beats to open-handed blasts, with plenty of electrifying fills in the spaces between. Variations mark the vocals as well, which veer from rasping blackened snarls to guttural growls…”
Offering was tracked at The Shadow Temple, engineered, mixed, and produced by Jacob St. Amand and mastered (to 1/2” tape) by Pete deBoer at World Famous Studios. The record comes cloaked in the cover art of Jerianne Fulton.
Offering is available on CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital formats. Find orders at Reaping Scythe Records at
THIS LOCATION or the official NIGHTWRAITH Bandcamp page at
THIS LOCATION.
Forged in 2016, the members of NIGHTWRAITH have been musical companions for over a decade in the Denver scene, but this lineup achieves its own unique approach to aggressive music, inspired by but not limited to the past. After releasing a self-titled album in 2019, NIGHTWRAITH gained notoriety and played shows with heavy hitters like Khemmis and Green Druid, but they were still developing their sound and being called to a new musical frontier.
During 2020, a year filled with anxiety and isolation, the band would finally have the time and freedom to create the next chapter of their story. As NIGHTWRAITH continues to evolve, it’s clear that their ambitions are soon to pay off. Exploring the death metal genre with an eclectic and intuitive approach,
Offering is expressive, inventive, joyful, and sorrowful encompassing poignant themes like seeking the sublime in nature, being genuine in a deceptive world, and living with the idea of death — concepts that unite us all as people. Using haunting melodies and triumphant anthems, NIGHTWRAITH offers listeners a sonic pilgrimage into the heart of being human.
