NIGHT DEMON
NIGHT DEMON “Outsider”
By Dr. Abner Mality
The third full length from NIGHT DEMON poses quite a conundrum. They have made a change to their sound here...not a super drastic one, but much more than just a minor tweak. Many would say that a shake-up is necessary in a band that plans to be around for the long haul and I can’t disagree. Does the change automatically make “Outsider” a better album than its two predecessors? Aha, there’s the rub…
NIGHT DEMON has always favored short, snappy songs in the vaunted NWOBHM mode that are very easy to get into...almost elemental. On “Outsider”, things are moodier by far and some of the tunes are much longer and more introspective. They snap into the change right away with the low-key intro “Prelude” that bleeds into the title track. This is a song that has a lot of “build” to it and comes across something like one of those classic METAL CHURCH semi-ballads. The clean vocals of Jarvis Leatherby have never sounded more soulful. It’s actually a really well constructed song with a lot emotion...it benefits from more than one listen. Older NIGHT DEMON tracks were pretty much instant in their appeal.
Now for sure, there are still some of those punchier tracks here...”Obsidian”, “Rebirth” and especially “Escape From Beyond”… the latter being my favorite track...all have the classic NIGHT DEMON sound. But even these are a bit more involved than in the past if you listen to them closely. The real test of the album comes with “A Wake”, which is the longest NIGHT DEMON track ever, another moody semi-ballad. In this case ,it kind of lost me. The energy just wasn’t there. Even stranger, the follow-up track “The Wrath” starts with a furious bang but peters out into a mellow moody bit that drains the power from the song. I can understand that the band was kind of looking at it like the melancholy after a battle, but it was like pricking a balloon and letting the air out.
The CD has a bonus cut “The Last Day” which is probably the fastest NIGHT DEMON track ever. “Outsider” is a most curious album that shows growth that is needed but I don’t know if every change they made here was for the better.