Night of the Demon

I always thought Demon’s one of the best “lesser known” NWOBHM bands (e.g. not as widely known as Maiden of Saxon), mainly because of the cool, somewhat rough vocals instead of the standard high vocals most bands in the genre use. The vocals on this album are really good and fit really well with the music. Second thing I instantly loved when I heard this band first where the leads and solo’s. On this debut they’re nice, but not as outstanding as their second album. Noteworthy solo’s on this one are the ones on Ride The Wind and One Helluva Night. These really make you want to bang your head, standing on your bed playing air-guitar all through the songs.

Another thing that makes this album so damn catchy are the repeating sing-along choruses. Due to this you might think the lyrics are not too interesting… wrong. We have really interesting lyrics here, mostly featuring a little occult stuff (Hey, they’re called Demon, right?), profound and well written. Therefore it’s only a good thing the choruses are easy to remember, it sticks in your head and makes you want to listen to them many times again.

As for the songs, the album start with an intro. The intro tries to set a kind of mood for the album but it doesn’t flow into the opening riff very well, it sound kind of disappointing every time I hear it. I like the created atmosphere the intro has but the album isn’t that dark in it’s entirety. The rest of the songs can be divided into the faster ones; Decisions, Into the nightmare, Night of the demon, Ride the wind and One helluva night, and the more mid tempo songs like Father of time, Liar, Big Love and Fool to play the hard way. The slower ones show some more emotion in the vocals, but the best part is the up-tempo part of the album, which really rocks on, time after time. It’s a so called feel-good album, it makes you happy when you listen to it.

If you like 80’s metal or NWOBHM, be sure not to miss this one in your collection. Great vocal performance, nice solo’s and catchy songs, that’s the album in summary. I you don’t have it yet, the LP version should be not too hard to find for a few bucks, and pick up The Unexpected Guest (their second album) at the same time, then you have the two essential Demon-albums. Have fun!