DEMON
DEMON "Invincible"
By Dr. Abner Mality
I well remember seeing DEMON's debut "Night of the Demon" in the early 80's. The cover was impossibly gory, garish and grotesque for that time period so I immediately picked it up. Thinking I'd get unholy noise somewhat akin to VENOM, the record was instead something more like AC/DC meets SAXON with a slight supernatural touch. An enjoyable album, but not living up to the gore of the cover art. With their second album "The Unexpected Guest", the band unleashed an all-time classic of the NWOBHM and I thought the band had a good chance of meeting IRON MAIDEN and DEF LEPPARD at the top. Third album "The Plague" quashed those hopes, as the band turned into all-out prog rock and dropped the spooky stuff for pure politics. That pretty much finished DEMON off for me.
It's been 45 years since their beginning and like almost all NWOBHM bands, they are still hanging in there. Singer Dave Hill is the only survivor of the early line-up. I found their 2016 effort "Cemetery Junction" to be an acceptable if dated offering. Now we have "Invincible"...has DEMON managed to regain their hellish heyday?
This album has traces of all the band's prior efforts. It's British melodic hard rock with touches of metal, AOR and prog liberally sprinkled throughout...comparisons to MAGNUM (R.I.P.) and recent URIAH HEEP are not misplaced. The album puts me in a tough spot, because it is DEMON in the classic sense, yet there's a certain sense of routine to it that borders on tiredness at times. The smoky vocals of Dave Hill are still relatively strong, but if you listen to his performance on old albums like "The Unexpected Guest", you can tell he's missing something here. Still better than many rock vocalists, though.
Songs range from the strong and powerful belter "Beyond the Darkside", which could have been on "The Unexpected Guest", to the routine and by the numbers "Break The Spell". "Hole In the Sky" is a driving "Kashmir" type epic that mesmerizes. The rest of the tunes flow by, well played but not reaching the next level. You can say the same for the instrumental performances. In fact, you can say that for the album as a whole.