Interview with NightWraith

NightWraith from Denver (Colorado) released a new album called Divergence this year. It is their third full-length album. And we will not only talk a little about him.
*all questions answered by Benjamin Pitts*
Alan – Hello band. So what's new with your group besides the album?
Benjamin - Hi Alan, thanks for speaking with us about the band and new album! We actually have breaking news to share and you're the first to hear about it - our keyboard/synth wizard Caleb Jose Tardio is expecting a child with his beautiful wife and we couldn't be happier for the two! This means of course that he will have to take a step back in band endeavors, but we have some incredible talent lined up to take over keyboard duties in the meantime. We'll make an official band announcement for this in the coming weeks!

Alan – You as a band formed in 2017. You were taken as a black metal group, but that is not true at all on this Divergence album. Here you have gone with a lot of different musical influences. So great, it worked. Say a little more about that. That connection of heavy and black, hats off.
Benjamin - I appreciate this question because we did have some black metal motifs on our first record, but we never intended to be labeled as a black metal band. We also have equal parts doom on the first album but didn't think of ourselves as a doom band either. Our mission statement says that we formed the band without preconceived notions of genre, and we aimed to stay true to that. I think with 'Divergence', we have fully accomplished our intended sound of being 'unclassifiable'!

Alan – Who thought of going this far in experimentation? Or did the whole band agree on that?
Benjamin - It started with the first album because we added some electronic elements and keyboard melodies to most of the songs. This sparked the idea to recruit a full-time keyboard player, which we did for our 2nd album 'Offering'. When we wrote the new album, we were definitely more mindful of leaving room for keys/synth, and did more experimenting with the synth tones and patches. This is how we came up with the sounds that give the album its 80's horror movie vibe.

Alan – On to the album itself. How long did you record, where did you shoot, and who released the final album?
Benjamin - We engineered the album ourselves. Our bass player Jacob is very handy with Logic so we rented a drum room for the drum production, and recorded everything else DIY in our home studio. We started drums in December of 2023 and wrapped tracking/edits in mid-February of 2024. Then we sent the project to Zack Ohren (Immolation, Machine Head) for mix and master.

Alan – You also have a lot of guests on the album. How did you come to them, and who were they all?
Benjamin - We've all been in the Denver, CO music scene for a long time, and have a lot of talented friends. We wanted to step up the production of the album so we set aside sections to include some instruments that are typically not heard on heavy metal records. To anyone reading this, I highly recommend checking out the guest musicians' other bands:
Cole Rudy (Dragondeer) - pedal steel guitar on Perpetual Night
Andreas Wild (Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats) - baritone saxophone on One Flower
Kelly Schilling (Dreadnought) - concert flute on Whispers of Dragonflies
Joey Truscelli (Wayfarer) - guitar solo on Invocation
Dan Phelps & Chuck French (Planes Mistaken for Stars) - backup vocals on Fallen Kings and Queens
Jeremy Portz & Xander Galvin-Soto (Abhoria) - auxiliary percussion on Divergence

Alan – In the band, who does the music and who does the lyrics? Or is it the work of the whole group?
Benjamin - I (Benjamin) write and demo the framework for all NightWraith songs, which includes music and lyrics. Then we refine the arrangements together, and everyone writes their own respective solos. Our first record was written more in a group setting, but we found that having a singular songwriter kept the material more consistent, song to song.

Alan – Can you describe the songs to us both musically and lyrically? And why a cover by Pink Floyd – is it a thank you for their work?
Fruitless: this might be one of our most musical songs because it has multiple key modulations and a proggy bridge section. We felt it was a good opener to the album because its not overly aggressive, has a chorus that’s easy to sing along with, but still has blast beats. It’s a good overall representation of the sound of ‘Divergence’ and foreshadows what can be expected in the rest of the songs. There is also a short clean vocal section in the bridge with one of my favorite lines on the record: “We’re better off, skeptical and Godless.” This ties into the lyrical theme of the album, that after years of spiritual searching, we have only found it through music and not any type of religion or deity. I’m sure plenty of people can relate to this feeling which is why I wanted to write about it. There is also a Rudolf Steiner quote during the bridge that helps button up the lyrical concepts around natural law and ancient wisdom.
Perpetual Night: this song could be the most ‘classic NightWraith’ song on the album, its got it all! It has a catchy black metal sound to it, a dynamic bridge section that brings the energy way down, and picks back up with back to back guitar/keyboard solos, plus the chorus is fun to sing along with. Lyrically, this song is about how our global society is kind of blindly going all-in on technology, and how we should maybe take a step back and re-establish a connection to nature. In my experience, I get much more meaning from life through the physical world around us, and not through the dopamine driven logic of tech. The lyrics also explore what our world might look like if we continue down this path, which is the overarching theme of the album: “Colorless dreams in perpetual night”.
One Flower: this song wins the award for most solos! During the bridge section it also has one of my favorite guitar riffs on the entire album, which captures a cool 80’s kind of vibe. There’s killer back to back guitar solos, and a really fitting saxophone solo performed by the talented Andreas Wild of The Night Sweats. Lyrically, this is probably the most pissed and anarcho-punk out of all the songs, as its mostly about the many failures of capitalism. Additionally, the lyrics were inspired by a publication titled ‘Expect Resistance’ where the forward highly encourages anyone to plagiarize or reproduce the contents with or without citing the sources, so I am definitely not the first person to use these analogies. But for all of the frustrations expressed in the lyrics, there is also an offering of hope: “Where one flower blooms, more will follow”. This theme of hope also ties into the album artwork, where you may notice a single flower growing in a pile of rubble.
Whispers of Dragonflies: this song really showcases our musical range, and has a cool ‘circular’ song structure which makes it really stand out on the album. The song kicks off with a John Carpenter style synth intro. The main riff for the beginning/end of the song are very intense, and then the song has a dynamic shift to clean guitars that help the synth chords really shine through. The vocals go clean for this section too, but have enough grit on them to sound haunting. There is also a clean guitar solo, a rock fusion section with a synth interlude that sends you to outer space, and a lovely flute solo performed by our friend Kelly Schilling from the band Dreadnought. Lyrically, this is a poem I wrote about about an area in Colorado called the Lost Creek Wilderness. My Dad took me there for a multi-day backpacking trip when I was a kid, and the area completely blew my mind. I still return every few years and hike the same 25 mile loop I did with my Dad when I was young. It’s an inspiring area in the Pike National Forest and I highly recommend visiting if you ever have the means.
Invocation: this is an instrumental track and picks up where the song ‘Offering’ (from our previous album) leaves off. It’s interesting because this song takes the two main riffs from Offering and stacks them on top of each other, creating somewhat of a ‘movement’ and putting a fresh twist on the original parts. This song also starts with a proggy ‘King Crimson-esque’ keyboard solo, and ends with an incredible guitar solo performed by our friend Joey Truscelli from the band Wayfarer.
Fallen Kings and Queens: this song starts with a bang and goes directly into one of three verses that have a driving ‘NWOBHM’ cadence to them. Between the bridge with harmonized guitars, the melodic chorus, and a 4 bar drum solo, this is definitely the ballad on the album. Lyrically, this is our most emotional song because its written for some friends of ours that are no longer with us. There are three verses in this song, each written for an inspirational Denver artist whose life was tragically cut short. The goal was to use this as way for us to personally heal from these losses, but non-specific enough that a listener could also apply the meaning to any fallen loved ones in their lives. Guest vocals were performed by our friends Dan Phelps and Chuck French, who were both closely connected to the fallen.
Nothing Left to Lose: every NightWraith album has one song that falls within the umbrella of punk/hardcore, and this is that song! It includes a combination of riffs from the toolshed that needed a home, but they all work together perfectly. The chorus riff is actually a play on the main riff from ‘The Sentinal’ by Judas Priest, one of my all-time favorite Priest songs. The verses have one of the coolest sounding drum sections on the record, and the bridge has an awesome half-time breakdown - but its also very melodic so it fits perfectly with the rest of album. Lyrically, this one is pretty cynical. It’s about how being in  bands for many years has been all consuming and caused issues in other aspects of my life, namely relationships and jobs. As pessimistic as the lyrics are they certainly ring true, and anyone in a band or in the music industry can probably relate. There’s a line in the song that reinforces an unhealthy stereotype about artists, but it’s fitting: “the best songs occur when we’re tortured”.
Divergence: musically, this song is our most cinematic sounding, which is why it is the title track of the album. It starts with a rhythmic verse that is followed by a huge blues guitar lick. This sets the stage for the second act of the song which is an arrangement of super melodic chords on top of some furious blasting. There is an awesome rhythmic section that we lovingly refer to as the ‘Deftones’ riff, then a break in the song that includes an auxiliary percussion section performed by our friend (and Abhoria bandmate) Jeremy Portz. Our drummer’s kiddo Xander also recorded some bongos on this percussion section, and it was really cool having a new generation involved! The end of the song has a super climactic synth section with blast beats underneath it, again lending to the cinematic quality of this track. Since this song is divided into two halves, the lyrics represent two possible paths that humanity could go down in regards to technology, and specifically AI. If this technology is left unchecked, it could have disastrous consequences for everyone. This also ties into the cover art which represents the destruction of humanity and civilization, and is even represented by the ½ and ½ color vinyl scheme. It’s not all doom and gloom though, there’s still time to unify as people and put some guardrails in place. This might also be a good time to mention that this album was 100% written and produced by humans, no AI whatsoever was used in the making this record!
Us and Them: we wanted to cover a song that would connect to our Classic Rock influences, and that we could easily transform into our own styling. 'Us and Them' is that song becuase it's pretty straight-forward - making it easy to transpose into a minor key. Of course, we had to harken back to the original so the middle section reverts back to the major key version, and includes an epic guitar solo which kind of mimics the saxophone solo from the original.

Alan – As we mentioned before, you took a different approach to the last album. How was it received by your rock fans?
Benjamin - I think anyone currently aware of NightWraith kind of expected something like this. So we wanted to meet the expectations of current fans, but not be so experimental that it would turn away new listeners. I suppose that was kind of the main challenge with this album, to strike a good balance with that. Now that the release is all said and done, I think it's has been received better than we could have hoped for. I think metal fans are truly ready for more music that is outside of the norm.

Alan - Where will you appear with the album? Where will you be at the concert? US only, or will you be heading elsewhere? Like Europe?
Benjamin - Touring has become difficult for a small band like us to afford. That said, we play as often as we can within our region (CO, NM, UT, WY), and are booking a US West Coast tour for Spring of 2025 - so be on the lookout for show announcements in that area. Obviously, the dream for us would be to tour in Europe, and we'll do everything we can to make that a reality someday.

Alan – For relief. Did you experience any funny moments while recording the album? Or when shooting a clip? Or during concerts?
Benjamin - I remember thinking it was funny when we were getting multiple takes of chimes for a section in the Pink Floyd cover. We had our friend Rick Blundo do this section, and he's one of the most death metal dude we know. It was just funny getting serious takes of chimes for a heavy metal record, we were also drinking some nice whiskey in the studio during all of this, so that probably made it a bit funnier.

Alan – Our zine is for Czechs and Slovaks. Do you know these two landscapes? Do you know a group from the Czech Republic or Slovakia?
Benjamin - Our guitarist Igor was just out in the Czech Republic for Brutal Assault fest, because he was filling in on bass for Cephalic Carnage. He had very positive things to say about the festival, the attendees, and the venue/staff!

Alan – What are you preparing for the Divergence album? Tour, another clip? Perpetual Night well done.
Benjamin - As I mentioned earlier, we will be doing a US West Coast tour in April of 2025. Aside from that, we have a single and another cover on deck, but we're not in a rush to release new material so it might take a little time before those projects get rolling. We've also talked about doing another video for one of the songs, we're open to fan suggestions for this too if anyone wants to reach out and let us know your thoughts!

Alan – Will we meet in 2025 at least in Europe?
Benjamin - I truly hope so, let us know if there are any open festival spots we could hop on - we would love to play shows anywhere in EU!

Alan – Thanks for the interview. Good luck, I'm glad Jon Asher introduced us together.
Benjamin - Really appreciate your questions Alan, and please accept the best wishes from myself and the rest of NightWraith - na zdraví!
https://www.nightwraithband.com
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