Night Demon: Galloping At Breakneck Speed
No matter what avenues metal ventures into, there will always be a time and a place for those bands who continue to keep the classic sound alive; the twin lead guitars, the frantic gallop, the well-trodden path that has spawned multiple subgenres and millions of patch jackets. California’s NIGHT DEMON are one such group; formed in 2011, the trio have been delighting those who have a penchant for the sound of the NWOBHM since their inception, with both debut record Curse Of The Damned and follow-up Darkness Remains receiving rave reviews. It’s been six years since we had a full album from them and that begs the obvious question; was such a delay down to you-know-what?
“Honestly, not really,” confirms bassist and founding member Jarvis Leatherby. “I know you look at band timelines, especially in metal, on studio full-lengths, but in reality we’ve put out both a live album and five seven-inch singles since, the latter becoming one compilation in 2022; we also did three world tours on Darkness Remains. But also, I noticed that, whilst there were some pretty good albums that came out during the pandemic that got a lot of attention because people were at home and able to listen to them, those bands lost that opportunity to go and play the songs live, which is really what you have to do in metal nowadays. So we wanted to take our time and make sure that we can go play it live, across the world, multiple times when it’s released.”
It’s a smart strategy; Leatherby knows NIGHT DEMON aren’t a band with the intention of having 20-odd albums (something made even trickier owing to his role as bassist in proto-doom legends CIRITH UNGOL) and it means that fans aren’t going to be waiting long to hear third album Outsider in all of its glory – and, quite likely, in full; this is NIGHT DEMON’s first, full-blown concept album.
“Outsider is about a young man who grows up in an insular town surrounded by a supernatural green mist, a town that nobody has ever left or, if they have, have never been seen again,” explains Jarvis. “One day, out of sheer curiosity, he decides to leave and when he does, he ends up back where he’s started, but everyone, although the same externally, have entirely different personalities. He also comes across another version of himself and thing escalate from there, with this guy trying to dispose of his doppelgänger and adapt to survive whilst also trying to get back to his own reality, It sounds more complicated than it is, but I like to describe it as Back To The Future meet It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Inspired by Jarvis’ COVID-imposed exile in rural Northern Ireland, Outsider tells its whole story in less than 35 minutes, which isn’t so much short as miniature when you think about the grand, two-hour plus rock operas that these records can be. Yet, it fits so much in – occasionally, you’ll get the likes of SABBATH, MAIDEN and MOTÖRHEAD within the space of a couple of minutes, but it never feels shoehorned. “ The thing about our band is we’ve always written short songs,” explains Jarvis. “We also don’t like to repeat a lot of things and wanted to keep that in mind too. For the longer songs on here (the six minute Beyond The Grave and seven-and-a-half minute closer The Wrath), we wanted to take you on a journey, but without that repetition that can bog those down. It’s like a concept album for people with short attention spans; you don’t have to invest a lot of your life to this!”
Indeed, this approach to writing the album also means that the eight tracks are just as strong on their own as they are telling the story. “Yeah, we really wanted to make good songs that were universal to the listener, where you could jump in on song five, for example, and relate to it instead of being lost in the story,” explains Jarvis. “I feel a lot of concept albums really suffer when that happens.”
Jarvis also mentioned that if anyone buys a physical copy of the album, the complete storyline will be present along with all the lyrics. “I also had a hard time with bands who didn’t leave it to speculation,” he laughs. “I would think ‘what the fuck, does this mean the story isn’t good enough that you don’t want to tell us? What is it?! [laughs]!”
NIGHT DEMON’s first two albums started as concepts and quickly veered off the tracks, Jarvis says. This time, they’ve absolutely nailed it. Quite where they go from here is anyone’s guess, but it’ll certainly be with fists in the air and wearing an array of denim, leather and studded belts.
Outsider is out now via Century Media Records.
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