Exclusive Interview with NIGHTSHADE: 25 Years of Industrial Metal Evolution

The Experiment portal recently spoke with NIGHTSHADE, the industrial metal pioneers who have been carving their unique path for over 25 years. From their gritty beginnings in the ’90s Swiss underground to their latest remasters and upcoming releases, the band shared insights into their creative evolution and enduring passion.

NIGHTSHADE has been forging its own path in industrial metal for over 25 years, blending gritty guitars with fearless synths. Looking back at your journey from the ’90s Swiss underground to today’s remasters and new works, what’s kept the fire alive in your creative engine?

The passion for heavy music has remained intact over the years. But also the curiosity to discover new sounds, new inspiration that drives us a lot. You have to think how to renew yourself over the years, and seek inspiration from various music styles, but also in life and other forms of art, or sometimes just stop and look around you and recognize those things that inspire you, and then bring them back in the music! If you can’t think of new ideas to bring back into the music, it’s harder to keep the flame alive!

The «WIRED (2025 Remaster)» brings back your 2003 EP with a fresh twist, including reprogrammed drum machines using vintage gear and AI. What sparked the idea to revisit this early work, and how did blending old-school tech with modern tools shape its new vibe?

I’ve always loved this record, which was originally written to make it to our live setlist, and so to me, these songs are always associated with the energy you get when playing live, which we did quite a lot. What we wanted to do with the remaster was to preserve what made this record what it was in terms of the sound and production, but the drums never sounded good enough, and so by reprogramming exactly the same drums with the same equipment, which is a small Yamaha sequencer from the 90’s, we were able to replace them in the recording and bring this record to its full potential, just like it should have sounded originally!

Your lyric video for “Glass” dropped alongside the remastered «WIRED»—what story or mood were you aiming to capture with its visuals, and how does it tie into the track’s industrial roots?

Glass is a very dark song about the duality that exists within yourself and ultimately, it portrays a battle of wills where the oppressive force declares itself the last remnant of the shattered individual, urging them to abandon hope and accept their pain. So “Glass” is a reference to yourself looking at that darker side that eventuallyu prevails. The video totally illustrating the lyrics of the song and so you see a lady looking at the mirror and another character that shows that darker side.

Since «Sounds of Dark Matter» in 2021, you’ve kept your signature mix of heavy guitars and wild synths alive. How did working with Sebastian Has on that album influence your approach to the upcoming full-length release?

Sebastian has essentially re-imagined and engineered the modern Nightshade sound … When we gave him the recorded tracks for mixing, he took our sound to a whole different level, heavy, warm and organic, all at the same time. It was a hard thing to do, because we use tons of synths arrangements in the music and it makes the production more complicated. Sometimes you need to heard more guitars riffs, sometimes you surrender to the synth atmospheres and at times both need to coexist, and he managed to find the right balances and tones needed to make it work. That’s pretty much the same thing on the upcoming release, but I won’t say much more today because we’re in the final stages of the production process!

NIGHTSHADE’s sound has always danced between industrial metal and electronic experimentation. With the «WIRED» remaster leaning into a vintage analog feel, what new sonic territories are you itching to explore in your next album?

WIRED remaster is almost like a creative break before the next album. In the last few years, I’ve been really keen to limit to the maximum the use of the computer when writing new music, because much of what you hear today heavily relies on PC’s and you end up working too much with the eyes and not enough with the ears. So when you disconnect the computer you just end up with the instruments, your ears and your feeling and that’s the premise for our music today. Also, with computers everywhere and everything being super-produced, I think it’s more important than ever to get back to analog sounds, real instruments, recording people live, using microphones, etc…

You’ve been at this for over 25 years, starting as rebellious teens in the ’90s Swiss black metal scene. How do you keep that outsider spirit burning in your music today, especially with projects like the «WIRED» remaster?

WIRED is helping us with that because today most bands can afford to record with great equipment, and then computer plugins also add up, so a lot of bands sound pretty much the same and more rarely stand out in terms of their production. Re-releasing WIRED today with its original production enhanced, goes kind of counter-clockwise to what’s going on today and forces us to think, “Hey, let’s do things differently”.

The reprogrammed drum machine in «WIRED (2025 Remaster)» nods to your influences like Samael and Kovenant. How did those early electro-metal inspirations shape your identity, and do they still echo in your creative process?

Back in the days, they totally shaped up our sound, and that bombastic drum machine could not avoid us comparisons with Samael from the Passage – Eternal eras. We used that drum machine until 2004, and so people were going “Yeah, that’s like Samael because only they use drum machine in metal!”. Nowadays we don’t use drum machine, actually since 2019, but we might get back to it anytime!

With a remastered EP out now and a new album on the horizon, what’s the biggest challenge you face in balancing NIGHTSHADE’s bold past with the fresh energy you’re bringing to 2025 and beyond?

The scene has changed a lot and metal is very different too. The audience has many more alternatives today. I mean, people vote with their attention and your music does not only compete with other bands, it also competes with short videos of people jumping off buildings or algorithms that would promote a higher selling artist …. So a lot of the music goes into specialized niches with their own followers, that’s fine but it also harder to get out of it if you evolve musically and artistically. And with thousands of bands releasing music every day on the top of it, it’s probably a bit more difficult for music to reach its audience.