'The Plague' witnessed 'Demon' changing their sound from an earlier NWOBHM slant to a more progressive Hard Rock / almost 'Pink Floyd' approach, 'British Standard Approved' sees them continuing strongly in the same vein. This release is semi conceptual and I believe is loosely centred around 'The Titanic', although this doesn't come across particularly strongly. As with the predecessor there is plenty of experimentation with soundscapes and keyboard effects, some of which come off successfully, while others perhaps haven't dated so well.

The opener 'First Class' takes a while to get underway due to the drawn-out conversational intro, but when we eventually get into the track proper it's surprisingly characteristic of earlier 'Demon', relatively heavy by this albums standards and featuring 'Dave Hill's' excellent yet distinctive punchy vocals. 'Cold in the Air' follows seamlessly but in an eerie, otherworldly 'Pink Floyd' style, this soon gives way to 'Touching the Ice' an harmonious piece which successfully incorporates plenty of soundscapes, 'Mal Spooner's' subtle guitar licks help add to the atmosphere, but perhaps the pan pipes were pushing it a bit. The purely instrumental 'Second Stage' ensues in atmospheric fashion and at times is a little reminiscent of 'Hawkwind', but ultimately fails to really move the concept on, while the oddly titled 'Proxima' is a nothing track, a bit off instrumentation and the odd lyrics. Things start to pickup around this point of the album and none more so than with the double shot of 'The Link' part 1 & 2, a melodic coupling which displays some splendid instrumental work and more of 'Dave Hill's' underrated vocals. 'New Ground' follows with an almost disco feel, but does have a slight edge which makes it reminiscent of early 80's 'Rolling Stones', 'Dave Hill' does excellently on the simplistic but effective lyrics and all said a pretty catchy affair. Next up is 'From the Outside' which again proceeds with an almost disco beat, but develops more experimentally with plenty of keys and effects, before the melodic uplifting body of the song, a fairly unusual number but still quite appealing. The single release from 'British Standard Approved' was 'Wonderland' which does have that more commercial Rock vibe to it, the production seems a little slicker for this track as well, that said it's a decent affair, catchy chorus, perhaps the keyboards sound a little dated, but still interesting. The album unfortunately concludes with the pretty awful 'Hemispheres', a sluggish number that initially starts out in a 'Pink Floyd' vein, but closes as an awful, monotonous flag waving affair.

The 2002 remastered release of 'British Standard Approved' includes three bonus tracks, the first of which is a live working of possibly the best track on the album 'New Ground' and this fails to disappoint, the production is surprisingly good, which according to the liner notes say this and the following song were salvaged from a cassette recording. A live rendition of 'A Sane Man' follows and as with the studio counterpart is a fairly listless and tedious affair, the last cut is a decent acoustic version of 'Wonderland' recorded in 2002.

Not an album which initially impressed me, but after a few listens found some of the track growing on me. Sadly this was to be 'Mal Spooner's' last release as he passed away seven days after the recording of this album.