You can go ahead and place Night Demon in the file labeled “Stuff that Will Not Be Reviewed on Stereogum in 2013.” Ain’t gonna happen. No way, no how, fuhgeddaboudit. Not only would readers of such a site largely ignore the article, but such mainstream exposure would do them little good. These Californians aren’t out to change any musical landscapes, break down any walls, or even offer some ironic retro bullshit.
They are out to replicate the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Pure and simple as that.
On the band’s brief four-song debut EP, literally every characteristic can be traced to the NWOBHM era. The riffs are an oft-gallopy, sometimes machine gunning, let’s-get-all-Fast-Eddie-when-it-calls-for-it mash up of the era’s best. The bass work is a dancing, chord shaping joy straight from Harris Technical Institute. Jarvis Leatherby’s vocals? A touch of Di’Anno, a touch of Heybourne, and a focus on soaring melody. Even the lyrics are all metal and evil and demons and Satan and stuff. Night Demon seriously sounds like an almost direct mashup of Angel Witch and Saxon, and it does a pretty darn good job doing so.
Hell, there’s a moment right before the chorus of “The Chalice” when it really sounds as if the band is about to switch to the Angel Witch classic “Loser.” And if there’s one crack in Night Demon’s faux-British armor, it’s that: the familiarity. The style is supposed to feel familiar, but there are more than a couple passages that inspire some more-than-subtle déjà vu (leads in the eponymous track feel lifted from 100 sources, for example). That said, the majority of the EP wins big. From the ultra-catchy vocal melodies and stellar bass work by Leatherby to the great bridge in “Ancient Evil” and touches of epicness throughout, the band brings a great time while leaving promise for the future.
I would be in serious error to say this is going to offer much at all to the type who wishes Hydra Head were still out there pretending to be forward thinking, but it would also be wrong to say that Night Demon wouldn’t fit right in with the tastes of those who usually look to Shadow Kingdom Records for some goods. After all, SKR really tends to understand their primary fan base, and therefore had a pretty good idea that Night Demon would fit into those tastes. This little EP probably won’t make the label a whole ton of money, but it should help to continue a good amount of customer loyalty and put plenty of smiles on the faces of some old school bangers’ in the process.
