Review: NIGHT DEMON “Night Demon”

NIGHT DEMON “Night Demon”
Shadow Kingdom records

That’s time for a little classic of our beloved genre of music!!! YESSSSS! I mean classic, old good Heavy Metal!!! That’s what presents to us three guys from Ventura in sunny California who in 2011 decided to create a band. Creating of four songs which contained EP entitled the same as reviewing tape didn’t took long time and it saw the light of the day in 2012. Well, I’m sure that they created more than four songs, but just decided to enclose only these four ones in EP. Then guys released full-length “Curse of the Damned” in 2015. Now we have “Night Demon” which seems for some kind of reminiscence.

Ventura (or as it officially calls City of San Buenaventura) gets its beginning in 1782, but officially began a city almost 100 years later. Anyway, it’s quite huge city and it has more than 100.000 of dwellers. So there’re other Metal bands, but I’ll don’t mention any pf them here! Firstly scene of this city is for me rather a mystery and secondly even if it wouldn’t be I don’t see any reason to write here about it. Here there’s place for describing in conceivably the best way “Night Demon”!

On this tape we have eight songs – all which took place on entitled the same EP, JAGUAR’s cover (“Crazy Axe”), “Lightning to the Nations” which seems for me as the only new one here and real rarity: two songs from the first ever gig of the band. Music as I mentioned is classic Heavy Metal played in old good style. Anyway, covering one of the greatest and unfortunately quite forgotten NWOBHM’s bands isn’t any accident! I can hear deep fascination of this music in every riff, every drums’ beat, every word which’s singing by Jervis Leatherby who by the way since some time is also vocalist on gigs of JAGUAR and bassist in other band from Ventura which contrary to NIGH DEMON was formed long, long time ago, two years before my birth – CIRITH UNGOL (also since 2016)!

Except Jervis (voc, bass) in the band play two more guys: Dustin Squiers (dr) and Armand John Anthony (guit). Well, I mentioned in few words about classic Heavy Metal Jervis’ way of singing. I didn’t and I’ll don’t compare him to anybody, but when I hear him I clearly know who’s his idol on this field. So now there’ll be something about what do another two guys in this band. Dustin beats in very energetic way, use cymbals when he only can (what I like very much – cymbals are integral parties of drums and they’re not there only to look fine!). Maybe there’s no a lot of passages and stuff like that, maybe it’s not so very complicated and hard to play for somebody who has at least fair to middling idea about this instrument. But who cares?!? There’s what the most important in this music – power! Besides he plays smoothly and forward and it’s enough for me! Armand uses his guitar also in very classic way. Riffs are mostly short and with right dose of aggression, power. They change sometimes, but not too often what s good for common character of this music. I also can’t notice some soloes and stuff like that (some riffs can be treating like that, but…). And it’s very good in my opinion! Heavy Metal, especially this type of Heavy Metal, isn’t about some technical displays. It’s about power, possibility of taking it out!

There’s surely something to improve here and guys surely know about it. But in general that’s really great piece of old good Heavy Metal!!! So check it out.