Night Demon falls flat with ‘Outsider’

Ventura, Calif.-based Metal band Night Demon is back with their most ambitious album to date, “Outsider.” With over 10 years of experience, Night Demon, a power trio consisting of Jarvis Leatherby (vocals/bass), Armand John Anthony (guitar) and Dusty Squires (drums), began to taste the elixir of commercial acknowledgment with their critically acclaimed fourth album, “Darkness Remains” (2017).

Upon concluding a recent extensive tour of the United States and Europe just before the COVID-19 pandemic, they aimed to capitalize on momentum by feeding into ambition.

Channeling the fair spirit of inspiration, Leatherby employed careful precision by first developing the project idea as a film script. The band were once worshipers at the New Wave of British Heavy Metal altar (think of bands like Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Diamond Head). On this project, the trio offers a goblet of music that expands their technical abilities. Moreover, the story idea is refreshingly original.

Their latest direction, depicted in the cover art illustration, teases H.P. Lovecraft-reminiscent themes with stylistic cues from ’80s horror B films.

Leatherby explained for “Outsider,” that the concept revolves around “A young guy who works in the family graveyard and he lives in this really small town,” he said in press material. “It’s surrounded by this supernatural green mist. In this town, anybody who has left in the past has never been seen or heard from again — and nobody new has ever come in. One day, this guy gets sucked up into this green mist and ends up in the same place that he started; he’s back in his hometown. But things are different; people are different and things look different. It turns out that he’s in some kind of an alternate reality where everybody he knows has lived a different life.”

Furthermore, he gets stuck, all the while trying to return from whence he came.

With creative flair, Night Demon uses cinema-like dynamics on opener “Prelude” and snappy songwriting (“Oblivion”) to convey concepts about alternate realities and supernatural phenomena.

Don’t forget the intertwined, underlying universal feelings of alienation, loss and revenge throughout.

The guitar gallops of the expansive sounding title track with a mid-song Doom-inflected breakdown, soaring vocals and ratting drums has all of the trappings of a great Metal song. Unfortunately there’s a gear that Night Demon continually misses.

Alas, like a pleasant string of dreams ruined by a reappearing malevolent shadow, a few negatives can’t be overlooked. For instance when it comes to execution, the vocals aren’t as strong as more memorable bands. What’s more, this “power trio” do themselves a disservice by not adding more guitar.

Not implying management decisions for them — but consider the feeling when you get listening to the dueling guitar solos of genre flag bearers Iron Maiden. In that moment, when guitars swirl and clash in a perfect complement to their operatic lead singer, you feel content.

Night Demon guitar runs don’t crest or bomb in spectacular fashion. Interesting pitch changes do occur, but solos become predictable when great band chemistry just begs for one more guitarist to fill that extra space left in all of these songs.

Include Leatherby’s vocal tone as an aspect that leaves something to be

desired. Give him credit because he does experiment with slight effects on “Escape from Beyond” and is melodic on “A Wake,” but for most of the 30-minute album play through, he stays within a half-shout-half-singing range.

Even when more gruffness comes through, you just wish he’d go for an extended vocal measure or even add an extreme flair i.e. with a few well placed screams.

If you’re new to this type of Metal or want something fresh, then Night Demon’s “Outsider” is for you. If you’re more experienced with Metal and many of its sub-genres, you might be left wanting something that gets you more in a moshing mindset.

Ultimately, lackluster vocals and unimaginative six-string firepower kills the mood.