After making a huge splash in the
traditional heavy metal scene with their debut album, Night Demon returns just
two years later for round two: “Darkness Remains”. The band may have a new
guitar player, but rest assured that little has changed musically. Night Demon
still excels by delivering short, catchy tunes that bring metal back to the
1980s. Their single-axe attack means the bass playing is always front and
center, particularly during guitar solos. Riffs are in no short supply, and
often show homage to any number of NWOBHM or early heavy metal bands. There
really aren’t any influences on this record beyond 1986, and that’s exactly the
way Night Demon fans should want it.
This style of metal means that Night Demon
will rise and fall based on the quality of their songwriting. “Curse of the
Damned” was overflowing with great efforts, and “Darkness Remains” follows in a
similar vein. The opening track, “Welcome To The Night” is an obvious winner,
due largely to its energetic riffing. The band is able to seamlessly transition
into bluesy guitar leads, resulting in a smooth, refined heavy metal sound. In
general, this tends to be a strength of Night Demon’s: their songs flow well
and move from riff to riff without any difficulty. The record doesn’t let up
anytime soon either, with both “Hallowed Ground” and “Maiden Hell” rounding out
the other early highlights. The tempo may decline with “Stranger In The Room”,
but this song shows that Night Demon can do pretty much any heavy metal sound successfully.
Though some of the following tracks stick better than other, there really are
no weak points, and all of the first 8 songs show a similar rocking formula.
The band does offer some slight
experimentation on “Flight of the Manticore”, which is an instrumental that
kneels at the altar of “Powerslave”. Much in the way that Gruesome manages to
recapture the sound of Death’s music, this particular track is the most
authentic worship of the “Powerslave” record around. This song is followed by
the title track closing out the album, which is a slow-burning tune featuring
vocals that are drowned in some sort of filtering effect. This unleashes a
potential the band displayed on the debut, which is their penchant for writing
atmospheric moments that fit the band’s darker themes.
“Darkness Remains” quickly proves that it
is a very worthy follow-up to “Curse of the Damned”. Which one is superior is
essentially a toss-up of which set of songs click better with you, but the core
formula is identical. One thing is certain: if you grew up listening to Iron
Maiden and Judas Priest, Night Demon will win you over instantly! They might
not have the dueling lead guitars (at least live, there are occasionally some on the record), but every other element is in tact, and
played to perfection. Ultimately, it is clear that Night Demon are big fans of
old-school heavy metal, but they are even better practitioners of the style!
Highlights
"Welcome To The Night"
"Maiden Hell"
"Flight of The Manticore"
Final Rating
4.4/5 or 88%.
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