WIRED

Wired is, so far, Nightshade’s only release giving up on the cosmic imagery and themes. The themes on Wired reveal a bare bones version of the band, unlyrical and uninhibited, delving straight in the depths of the human mind. Musically, the five songs on this EP were written in the 2001-2003 era as a firmed up continuation of Nebula Trance, with a punchier and more industrial vibe, but follows similar, distinctive aesthetics. The band introduced new synthesizers, samplers and tuned down to B – a choice that would stay on each subsequent release until today. The EP also introduced Vince on the guitars, who would stay with the band for the next 10 years, as co-writer and co-arranger. At that period of time, the band added “the” in front of their name, to distinguish themselves from homonym bands in the US and Sweden. This recording marks also the last time they went to CEM Studios in Monthey.

• Among The Breed talks about the use of drugs, and the guitar lead part is loosely inspired from Emperor’s “With Strength I burn”.
• Raging Sands is a song about religious wars with a mid-Eastern feel. It became one of the band’s live anthems. Frequently at shows, a smaller group of fans would hear that the chorus was not “Jihad!”, but “Sieg Heil!”, drawing the band’s ire and forcing them to sing differently to avoid unwanted confusion.
• Inside Of You is a song about S/M and features a sample of Jenna Jameson extracted from one of her movies (still, no one remembers from which movie).