Review by Jeger on August 11, 2024.

Jarvis Leatherby and the American heavy metal power trio known as Night Demon have swiftly and with much authority become the heart & soul of the contemporary USA heavy metal scene alongside the reserved Sumerlands and the prolific Haunt to name a couple. And they’ve done it through the release of “where the fuck did these dudes come from?” records like 2015’s Curse Of The Damned and 2017’s Darkness Remains that honor Di’Anno era Maiden and that have also carved their names into the hearts of those who appreciate genuine, fists-clenched, melodic, and epic fucking heavy metal crafted with torque and with horsepower, Jack, the American way… 

With all the power of a five-piece and just unknowingly oozing all those feel-good Cali vibes are Night Demon, and last year, they took to the mind’s lonesome and scarcely traveled highways through the realm of disjoint into rising and eventual redemption as they recorded their magnum opus, Outsider, released via who? Century fucking Media. Still humble though and still just having a good time. Night Demon - the blue-collar heavy metal band, just old-school denim, leather, and “Obsidian”: racing riffs, pulsating rhythms, and triumphant as an 80’s film montage. Preceded by the “let’s drink 37 beers and crank the Survivor” titular cut. Damn, this thing feels good, as the words spill, heart pumping in rhythm to every fluid chug and soul ablaze to the anthem of it all. The way heavy metal is supposed to sound and feel, plain and simple. It sounds like a renegade’s wet dream and feels like something to floor your Prius to. Cali, man… A Prius is like a fucking Camaro… 

“Outsider” is Night Demon’s major label LP debut, so naturally they held nothing back: dynamics enhanced on every phase from Jarvis’s risk-taking vox contribution to the slow-burners like “Beyond the Grave” that play out like ballads and put on display a very well-mixed, beautifully engineered record; alive with texture and clarity, not white-washed. Epic metal compositions that pass over seamlessly into more sleazy hard rock-based elements and chugging like a fucking brew the whole time. Night Demon at their most accessible yet most explorative. As a band that has come into their own and who have also reached the cusp of the apex of their career, the music has become reflective of this newly acquired, executive level of pro-grade genre dominance. A little more patient this time around perhaps; taking their time putting together the closer in all of its epic glory and all of its many captivating parts. Closing out in contemplative fashion - a dreamlike melodic passage into a fucking banger of a bonus track! I’ll let you discover this one on your own as I do that thing where you kiss your fingers like an Italian dude… Heavy metal perfection. 

Beacons of what to do right when it comes to just being the kind of band that other bands wanna be like. It’s called class and it’s called character - to transcend to the upper echelons of the scene and still make time to do an interview for my Facebook page back in the day during my amateur years. Real passionate heavy metal created by some pretty fucking cool dudes. All that American swagger man, like a Hells Angel and music for the exploration of imaginative concepts but also for chugging brews, for choking down bong loads, and for doing that creepy bicep flex in the mirror a la American Psycho as you bang your friend’s mom to “Stranger In the Room”… And “Outsider”? A classy major label debut as I had hoped it would be. A band with integrity, kids. Pull out your crayons and construction paper if you have to, and take notes because this is how it’s done…

Rating: 9.5/10

Review by JD on March 13, 2017.

Reviewing a band you have reviewed before can be a bit of a problem.  It can be a shining advancement, a stagnant same old shit or a complete and utter failure.  DarkRise is one of those bands that I face... after many years of reviewing – it is becoming that I am reviewing a band many times.  Let’s see what this act has done since their album Built. 

DarkRise from Switzerland impressed me the first time around, giving me death metal that was very traditional and yet held the unmistakable mark of originality and pure power… that was in 2009… this album was four years past that one.  Now let’s see exactly what the band is up to, and see if it matches up to their previous ones – or fails.

Right off the bat, you can hear DarkRise has advanced in their musicianship many fold over previous releases.  The trademark brutal death metal is still there, but strong melodies now add to the attack… add in some wicked thrash elements and even hardcore punk bombastic fury enters into the metallic vortex.  The results are simply brutal and right on the money. Take a listen to songs like bludgeoning riffs of  'Cold' or the punch in the nuts death metal aggression of 'Do or Die', it will take only a second to see that the band has progressed and now is even more of a potent metal force.

It is now very clear, DarkRise is a band that has not only progressed, but transcended out of the limits of the death metal label, but has shown the truest metal acts stay true to themselves – but grows into a beast all of its own.  Truly, this is one album, no matter if it is a few years old, most metalheads will enjoy.

Rating: 9 out of 10