Review NIGHT DEMON ‘Year of the Demon’

Southern California metal musketeers Night Demon worked on a special compilation album which will be in the stores end of March this year. ‘Year of the Demon’ is the meaningful title of a longplayer the entails tens songs.

Night Demon released a self-titled EP in 2012, a springboard for an impressive and energetic trip through the hemisphere of heavy metal. To pay attention to the 10 years anniversary Jarvis Leatherby (vocals/bass), Armand John Anthony (guitar) and Dusty Squires (drums) the trio decided to unleash ‘Year of the Demon’, an album that doesn’t contain un-released material. With touring plans that went down the drain due to the pandemic, Night Demon decided to record songs, which they released as 7” vinyl pressings during 2020. ‘Empires Fall’ was the starting point and ‘In Trance’ ended the series in August 2020.

The 7”s were sold-out rather quickly everybody who missed them can catch-up now. ‘Year of the Demon’ contains A- and B-sides. In chronological order, the setlist echoes the release flow which means that it all starts with melodic metal anthem ‘Empires Fall’. The massive ‘Kill the Pain’ is next, referring to the NWoBHM.

Not to forget is the straight-ahead ‘Vysteria’ before the Scorpions cover ‘In Trance’ introduces some cover versions. There are two covers of the German metal icons on this release. Next to ‘In Trance’, ‘Top of the Bill’ has been Night Demon-ized too, done in a collaboration of now less than Uli Jon Roth. A Night Demon live version of Iron Maiden’s ‘Wasted Years’ is part of the tracklist as well a Thin Lizzy cover. ‘The Sun Goes Down’ shows the bands honoring an influential band as the other covers do too. The fact of Night Demon playing a Cirith Ungol song isn’t a surprise as we know that Jarvis Leatherby handles the bass for the epic metal specialists. The band gets support by Cirith Ungol frontman Tim Baker who added vocals to this impressive version of an epic metal classic.

‘Year of the Demon’ is a way to celebrate the first 10 years of Night Demon as well as the album bridges the waiting time for a new studio album which is scheduled for November 4^th, 2022.