I first came across Night Demon last year
when I saw them open for NWOBHM giants Raven. Their set was pretty enjoyable,
but I didn’t rush out to buy any of their material. With the release of their
first album, “Curse of the Damned”, I was blown away by just how much these
guys were touring. Seriously, go look up their current and past tour schedule; it’s impressive for a band of their size. Since they’ll be returning to my
city soon (and joining forces with the mighty Axxion on that night!), I thought
it would be worthwhile to seek out their debut full-length. That turned out to
be a great decision.
“Curse of the Damned” is the ultimate ode
to the NWOBHM. The riffs are simple, catchy, and fun. The solos are likewise
impressive, but they avoid getting excessively technical like many modern
traditional heavy metal bands. Instead, it is clear that Night Demon’s guitar
playing is very based in the early 1980s. Even the singer sounds like he’s put
a ton of time into determining how he can sound like he’s a British vocalist.
Though he’s not a dead ringer for the singers from bands like Angel Witch or
Diamond Head, those are still pretty apt comparisons for his general tone. In
addition to his stellar singing, he also rocks out quite impressively on the
bass. The combination of this band being a 3-piece and their homage to metal’s
earlier sounds means that the bass is loud and clear. Again, it isn’t so much
the difficulty of what he’s playing, but more the hard rocking feeling it
brings that is enjoyable.
This style of record particularly excels in
the songwriting department. Of course, everything on this album you’ve heard
before. There isn’t any blatant riff plagiarism, but Night Demon won’t bust out
anything particularly unique. This is fine though, because they offer up track
after track of memorable choruses and hooks. The first three songs in
particular are the most potent the band has to offer, but they continue to
deliver monsters later on the record, such as “Heavy Metal Heat” and “Run For
Your Life”. Normally I’d try to find some sort of criticism, but this is one
instance where I just can’t. Night Demon does everything right, and that means “Curse
of the Damned” is an incredibly entertaining record.
Highlights
"Screams In The Night"
"Curse Of The Damned"
"Satan"
Final Rating
4.25/5 or 85%.
No comments:
Post a Comment