At the time of its release in 1981 'Night of the Demon' was just regarded as another satanic influenced NWOBHM release, in reality this debut is a lot more that just that. Musically they weren't typical of the genre they were heaped into, and although at this stage of their career they do delve into NWOBHM, a lot of the material is more thoughtfully crafted and further along the lines of fellow British rockers 'UFO' and 'Magnum'. 'Dave Hill's vocals are more akin to a more rugged 'Phil Mogg' than say 'Bruce Dickinson', 'John Gallagher' or 'Biff Byford' and all told is head and shoulders above many of his contemporaries. Fellow songwriter 'Mal Spooner' supplies rhythm guitar, while 'Les Hunt' provides lead, the sound they create is both dynamic and exacting and helps give early 'Demon' their distinctive early sound.

A foreboding, atmosphere introduction titled 'Full Moon' opens, possibly a bit overkill on the sound effects, but it's still interestingly done and does succeed in being very sinister. The title track ensues and sets a high standard for the album, this rhythmical rocker highlights excellent controlled vocals from 'Dave Hill' and some sweet soloing from 'Les Hunt which makes this one of many very catchy songs. The high standard is maintained with the mid tempo chugger 'Into the Nightmare' and as with the previous track another catchy affair that features a big chorus, plenty of melody, solid hooks and all told another excellent effort. 'Demon' really come into their own with the superbly penned 'Father of Time', a slower, mystical song which again emphasize 'Hill's' exacting vocals, that in this case add plenty of depth, while 'Hunt' again impresses with an abundance of timely guitar licks and a fine solo. More reminiscent of 'UFO' than the traditional NWOBHM sound is 'Decisions', a solid mid tempo rocker fuelled by a strong 'Les Hunt' bassline and a splendid 'Hawkwind' style instrumental break. The second half of the album doesn't quite impress as much as the first, but does start strongly with the mid paced 'Liar' and like the previous cut is pretty reminiscent of 'UFO', lyrically more simplistic than you would expect, but still pretty catchy and again graced with some solid fret work. Less impressive is the light-weight bluesy approach of 'Big Love' which sounds out of place and ultimately soon becomes repetitive, while the 'Thin Lizzy' / 'Rory Gallagher' implicative 'Ride the Wind' ebbs and flows to a refined rhythm. Back into 'UFO' territory is the bluesy 'Fool to Play the Hard Way' which despite a fine melodic instrumental break fails to hit the mark. More in the NWOMHM style is the rugged, pulsating rocker 'One Helluva Night' that while heavy, still maintains a pretty carefree approach, the guitaring throughout is stringent and despite the slightly repetitive chorus, still a good solid 80's romp.

The 2002 re-release includes four bonus tracks, the first of which is the short 'Guess Who' style rocker titled 'Wild Woman' and although a fairly decent listen is far too brief. Following in untypical 'Demon' fashion is 'On the Road Again' which to me sounds like 'Lynyrd Skynyrd', hardly a personal favourite of mine and this Southern Country style track fails to impress. The original '80 version of 'Liar' ensues and in all honesty seems to differs very little from the studio version reviewed above. Last up is an '88 remix of the title track 'Night of the Demon', originally featuring on the E.P. 'Tonight (The hero is back)', this is an excellent reworking, the production values are superior and all in all probably the best version you will hear.

A little different from the likes of 'Iron Maiden', 'Raven' or 'Jaguar' but still a very good debut, I personally think at this stage of their career 'Demon' could be construed as TM-NWOBHM ( Thinking Man's- NWOBHM)!