Anthology

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合計収録時間 : 01:18:44
In retrospect, New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Demon had quite the comprehensive "rock group" career, complete with the usual hit-and-miss albums, creative holding patterns and experiments, occasional splits over musical differences, and even a tragic death (unfortunate guitarist and songwriting heart and soul Mal Spooner) -- everything except the success part, actually. Which is why it's nice to find their mostly overlooked efforts chronicled in 1991's Anthology, a sometimes flawed but revealing glimpse into the group's transition from metallic hard rock, to commercial AOR, to outright pop, to bloated progressive rock, and finally back to hard rock again. Quite a journey, to be sure, this restless sort of genre-hopping quickly made the group almost unrecognizable to their original predominantly heavy metal fan base, who might want to skip this release altogether and stick to the group's first two albums. As for the more curious and adventurous listeners, they too should be forewarned that Anthology's sound quality wavers between spotty and acceptable; some tracks, including the crucial "Night of the Demon" and "Don't Break the Circle," have been remixed (however minutely), and the set's 1987 cutoff hardly marks it as comprehensive. But seeing as Demon's post-1989 output has generally fallen well short of the six albums represented here, there's little use starting a fight -- better to enjoy these judiciously chosen 17 tracks, highlighted by the aforementioned classics, as well as additional numbers like "Into the Nightmare," "Heart of Our Time," and "Hollywood." And until a more extensive, possibly two-disc update emerges, Anthology remains the best starting point for sampling Demon's catalog. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia