"Chaos Exordium" arrives seven years after "Sonnets Of Ruin". Looking back at that period, what changed the most in Nights Of Malice as songwriters and musicians, and where do you hear that growth on the new album?
I think we’ve just naturally been pushing ourselves and enjoy the challenge of playing more technical stuff. I think we’re all much better at writing and playing now and the whole albums vibe definitely reflects that. I’m not saying things have to be technical or crazy-hard to be good, it’s just nice to have that level of technicality in our arsenal now when the music calls for it.
You have described "Ex-Mortis" as the song that shaped the direction of the album. At what point did you realize you had found the blueprint for the rest of the material, and did you end up rewriting older songs to match that vision?
“Ex-Mortis” was one of the first songs we wrote. We had a ton of ideas come and go and it was so difficult finally landing on the final 9 but we knew from the start that “Ex-Mortis” was going on the album. We never revisited other songs to match the feel or vibe of that one specifically, but we did go through some re-writing and constant small tweaks to all the songs to make sure they fit perfectly on the album and they flowed well. Side note, once we heard “Ex-Mortis” in the studio, we all immediately agreed that’s going to be the lead single. Fastest decision we’ve ever come to.
Your writing has always revolved around riffs first. In a deathcore scene where many bands rely on breakdowns as the main attraction, how do you balance technical guitar work with memorable songwriting without letting one overshadow the other?
I’m a fan of older deathcore and am heavily inspired by the bands that seemed to care more about memorable riffs than the genre seems to now. Nowadays it seems more about the production itself and, like you said, the big breakdown in almost every song. That’s fine by the way; it obviously works for many bands I just personally get tired of it fast. I’ve always been about riffs that are fun to play, have interesting harmonies, and are really engaging to listen to. I’ve never subscribed to the whole “mandatory breakdown” thing. We absolutely love breakdowns but we all agree that we don’t need to write one unless the song really calls for it and it makes sense.
Lyrically, horror has always had a strong connection with extreme metal. Beyond the obvious influence of The Evil Dead on "Ex-Mortis", what themes tie the whole album together, and what were you aiming to express across "Chaos Exordium"?
There are a couple more songs that match the horror theme lyrically, or at least match a violent theme that can go hand in hand with horror and metal. Brendan wrote “Gore Nest” about Doom, a franchise we all love. I wrote the lyrics to “Riches To The Conjurer” which is based on the movie Hereditary. “Hand of Death” is about a prison executioner who loves his job and gets immense joy from ending inmates’ lives. I don’t think we intentionally tried to shoot for a specific theme musically, we just all love horror, video games, hyper violence, and crazy premises. Sometimes it’s as simple as “dude we should write a song about Mortal Kombat” and then it happens.
"Again, modern deathcore is cool and works for many bands, I just wanna see it be less predictable and derivative."
Carson Slovak and Grant McFarlandhave worked with you since the beginning. After nearly a decade of collaboration, how has that relationship evolved in the studio, and what did they bring to this album that would have been difficult to achieve with someone new?
We can’t say enough good things about Carson and Grant. We absolutely love those dudes and we truly have a hard time imagining working with anybody else. It seems like every time we work together the process gets easier and easier. As far as what they bring to the album, Grant and Brendan always work well together ironing out vocals and flows. I’m sure plenty of Grant’s suggestions made their way onto the album. I mainly work with Carson and by the time we get there, the guitars are pretty much 99% done and ready to go, but he still throws in random ideas or effects that I would’ve never thought to do. Same goes for Joe’s drums, they’ll always give input on what take sounds best.
The production puts the guitars front and center, which is becoming less common in modern deathcore, where vocals and low-end often dominate. Was that a conscious reaction to current production trends, or simply the best way to present these songs?
Definitely just the best way to present these songs. We tried to keep a lot of melody in these songs and keep them memorable. We don’t have any parts with traditional singing hooks, and only a few real big choruses, so the guitars carry a lot of what you can hum in your head. There’s also a lot going on at times and we really wanted to make sure every note, harmony, and lick was crystal clear.
Guest appearances from Bobby Yagodich and Chaney Crabb add new voices to the album. What made those collaborations click, and how do you decide when a guest vocalist genuinely adds something instead of becoming just another feature?
So, Bobby is from Verminoth, who we’ve played multiple shows with and became friends with. That was a very easy decision. Verminoth is metal as hell; Bobby is an awesome dude and sick vocalist. We’re always open to features if they make sense and that one was a no brainer. As far as Chaney goes, I absolutely love Entheos and I know the other guys do too. I’ve personally wanted to have Chaney on a song since forever. To the end of your question, we actually almost had Chaney on one of our previous songs but decided to hold off on it until the song, time, and feeling was right. It’s easy to just throw a feature on for click bait or views if they’re from a big band, but we really always go with people who we’ve had a personal goal of working with and something we would just love to hear for ourselves.
Extreme metal is constantly shifting between technicality, atmosphere, and outright heaviness. Looking at today's scene, what excites you the most and what trends do you think are becoming overused?
I love seeing how many awesome death metal bands are thriving. Technical bands like Archspire and Entheos doing their own headliner tours. Inferi and Archspire dropping two AOTY contenders on the same day, older bands like Psycroptic, Cryptopsy, Aborted, and The Black Dahlia Murder (my favorite band ever) still killing it and getting the respect the deserve. I’m in love with good death metal and always love to see the genre get love. As far as trends becoming overused? Everyone already says it but I’m tired of vocal Olympics and especially the reaction-bait massive breakdown. Some of that stuff has me feeling genuine nothingness when listening to it. Again, modern deathcore is cool and works for many bands, I just wanna see it be less predictable and derivative.
Social media rewards short attention spans, while albums demand time from the listener. As a band releasing full-length records in 2026, do you think complete albums are becoming harder to sell, or do they remain the best way to present your music?
It definitely does reward short attention spans. I hate it. You can even see it with a lot of underground bands releasing only singles or 3-4 song EPs exclusively. I mean we’ve done that before too. It makes sense. I do truly believe, still, that when a band puts their all into a larger body of work and put out a full length album that they’ve been working on for years, listening to that album front to back is 100% the best way to get lost in the music and to really know the band. Our new album actually had the best first week streams of anything we’ve ever released, so it seems full-lengths are here to stay.
Nights Of Malice has shared the stage with many different bands over the years. Has playing live changed the way you write new material, especially when deciding what will have the biggest impact in front of an audience?
I’d say slightly, yes. There have been a handful of times where we consider what will have the best live crowd reaction or what will get people moving when writing a breakdown or a crazy fast part. I think that’s important to sometimes think about. Also, probably like most bands, we always choose our live setlist based on what songs we think will have the best crowd response.
The title "Chaos Exordium" suggests the beginning of something destructive. Does the album represent a new chapter for Nights Of Malice, or is it the culmination of everything you've been building since your earliest releases?
Definitely something that feels like a new chapter. This band has had a few previous chapters where we were definitely trying to find ourselves and the music we want to write/perform. I feel like our latest EP, “Unholy Genesis” was the closest we got to sounding like our true selves, but unfortunately the writing and time restraints that came with that recording process only let us explore so much. With “Chaos Exordium” we were able to take our time and fully realize these songs and this bands sound. We wrote 100% for ourselves and its music we love, think is engaging to play and fun to listen to. We hope this new chapter resonates with listeners and takes us to the next level, because this is the most sincere version of this band to date.
Deathcore has matured into a much broader genre than it was fifteen years ago. Where do you see Nights Of Malice fitting into that evolution, and what do you want listeners to remember after spending time with "Chaos Exordium"?
It’s funny I’ve seen people argue about what genre we are a lot online. Sometimes we don’t even know what to call ourselves. I’d say in the realm of deathcore, we would definitely fit in with bands like Through The Eyes Of The Dead, All Shall Perish, and maybe Fit For An Autopsy. Deathcore was always supposed to have elements of death metal in it, but I sometimes think we’re becoming more and more straight death metal… but we have breakdowns that some would still call deathcore. I don’t know honestly. I just hope that listeners think we have a unique sound that’s ours, and we didn’t abide by the trends of modern deathcore with our new album. And of course, I hope they remember the riffs.
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