“So set ’em up for another round”

Demon had a pretty good thing going with the supremely upbeat and hooky batch of horror metal songs that opened their 1981 debut album Night Of The Demon. But the Staffordshire band got the heebie jeebies about the appeal of their creepy concept and hedged their bets, filling the album’s second side with more generic hard rock fare.

Album closer One Helluva Night is the best of that bunch. A fairly rote bit of Saturday night boozing anthemry, it doesn’t quite have the crafty class of the album’s creepier tracks. But it is the record’s heaviest track with excellent dissonant, crunchy riffing and a gruffer performance from the usually more Phil Mogg-like vocalist Dave Hill. I can’t help but find Night Of The Demon‘s evil side far more seductive but One Helluva Night is still a helluva fun NWOBHM banger. Proof that even a less demonic-than-usual Demon were still more than capable of lifting the spirits.