Night Demon @ Piranha Bar
W/ Thunderor, Murtenscythe, Double Cross
September 20th, 2022
Knowing that the Californian heavy metal band Night Demon and Canadian metal upstarts Thunderor (featuring members past and present of Skull Fist) were making their way to my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador on September 23rd, 2022, I figured I’d head down to Piranha Bar on September 20th to check them out and see what was in store for my brethren back home.
Unfortunately, I arrived too late after jamming with my own band to catch Double Cross, the new band from former members of Montreal death metal legends Crosstitution, who sadly broke up during the pandemic. I did manage to catch the last 30 seconds of Murtenscythe’s set, however. I have seen these guys before and my own band was supposed to play a show with them earlier in 2022 before two members of my band came down with COVID. For shame. For the uninitiated, Murtenscythe plays a style of death metal infused with elements of psychedelia and stoner rock. They’re a lot of fun, and I would recommend checking them out live if you get a chance.
While I was sad that I didn’t get to see Double Cross or Murtenscythe, there were still two awesome out of town bands in store for me. The first of those two was Toronto’s Thunderor. Those of you who have been reading this blog will know that I reviewed the band’s debut record Fire It Up earlier this year, and found it to my liking. While I may have had my issues with the vocal performance on occasion throughout the album, I found its sincere and over-the-top offering of classic 80’s cheese to be quite enjoyable and infectious. Watching most of those songs get performed live was a true treat, especially given the fact that JJ Tartaglia sings and plays drums at the same time. As a fellow singing drummer I always have to appreciate the level of dedication that requires. On top of their skill level, the band also had great stage presence. Something I’ve found within my own band is that as a frontman who plays drums you often have to rely on your bassist and guitarist to really get the crowd into it with their own stage presence, given that you can’t move around the stage. As such, guitarist Johnny Nesta and bassist Oscar Rangel did a great job at keeping the crowd engaged with lots of movement and some serious shredding on the part of Nesta. Hearing these songs performed live made them more enjoyable to me than on the record just because of the sheer energy behind them in a live setting. It was a great performance.
After Thunderor it was time for the headlining act, Night Demon, and let me tell you, these guys brought the heat level up a few notches for sure. Night Demon play a style of old school heavy metal that’s fast and moody but has a lot of power behind it. Frontman and bassist Jarvis Leatherby has a fucking fantastic voice that reminds me of some of the old school greats. He’s got power and pzazz that’s matched by guitarist Armand John Anthony and drummer Dusty Squires. All three members have energy out the wazoo and it makes for one hell of a great live show. During one song that was mostly instrumental both Leatherby and Anthony descended the stage with their wireless rigs and kept playing in amongst the crowd, a move that seems to be a staple for bands of this style. Then, during the final song of their set (barring the encore of course), “Night Demon”, they brought the titular Night Demon himself, some guy dressed in a long flowing robe with a Walmart skeleton mask and holding a chalice in one hand and Night Demon’s sigil logo in the other. It was incredibly goofy and I loved it. It was one of those moments that makes you step back for a second and observe yourself from the third person. In this case it was another reminder of how inherently silly heavy metal subculture is, but how much I love it because of that as opposed to in spite of that.
While it was sad that I missed the two local openers, Thunderor and Night Demon still absolutely crushed it. In spite of having worked all day and being tired as fuck I still enjoyed the fuck out of these two NWOTHM bands bringing back the classic sounds of an age long passed. These bands both have their own unique flavour of classic heavy metal revivalism and they bring it to the stage in a really fun and engaging way. Go see them if you get the chance. You’ll likely like what you see.
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 