Beginnings and Night Demon EP (2011–2014) Night Demon was formed by vocalist/bassist Jarvis Leatherby and guitarist Brent Woodward in May 2011. The Night Demon EP was released on June 18, 2013 in 7" vinyl format (500 copies) via Reinig Records. Two months later, Shadow Kingdom Records issued a CD edition of the EP. The Night Demon EP was well received by the underground heavy metal press; according to a
Blabbermouth.net review, the tracks would appeal to existing fans of vintage headbanger music and also attract some new listeners to the genre. In September 2013, Night Demon retained Pennsylvania transplant Dusty Squires (formerly of the band New Liberty) as drummer. A month later, the band performed three shows in Santa Ana, Los Angeles and Las Vegas with
NWOBHM bands
Raven and
Diamond Head. In April 2014, Night Demon made their first festival appearance at the Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse in Chicago, Illinois. On April 23, 2014, the band embarked on a six-week, 31-show European tour, starting in
Cologne, Germany and including appearances at Keep It True Festival (Germany), Pounding Metal Festival (Spain), and Muskelrock Festival (Sweden). Night Demon was the guest band on
Raven's seven-week "ExtermiNation America Tour 2014" in October and November 2014. During this time, the band's live shows included nightly appearances by the band's mascot "Rocky", the hooded skeletal goblet-wielding figure from the cover of the
Night Demon EP; since then, Rocky's appearance onstage during "The Chalice" has become a regular event during Night Demon performances.
Curse of the Damned (2015–2016) Night Demon's full-length debut album,
Curse of the Damned, was released in January 2015 on
SPV in Europe and on
Century Media Records in the rest of the world. The album garnered many favorable reviews, and was voted the #1 album of 2015 by listeners of the
WJCU Metal on Metal radio show. Guitarist Brent Woodward parted ways with Night Demon in January 2016. His replacement, Armand John Anthony, had served as a studio engineer on both the Curse of the Damned album and the debut EP. He had previously played with Night Demon drummer Dusty Squires in New Liberty and he had played drums for Night Demon as a last-minute fill-in for a show at the Old Towne Pub in Pasadena, California in 2013. The new Night Demon lineup continued touring internationally in support of
Curse of the Damned. They performed about 100 shows in 2016 and early 2017, including "Final Curse" tours of the United States with Utah band Visigoth, concerts in Europe in which they performed Curse of the Damned in its entirety, a slot on the
Carcass /
Crowbar /
Ghoul tour of the US in summer 2016, appearances at Germany's
Bang Your Head!!! Festival, a second appearance at their hometown Frost & Fire Festival, and a 19-show South American tour.
Darkness Remains (2017–2018) Night Demon's second album, Darkness Remains, was released in April 2017 on
SPV in Europe and on
Century Media Records in the rest of the world. The album was preceded by the singles "Welcome to the Night" (with an accompanying music video) and "Hallowed Ground." A 7" vinyl single for "Black Widow" was also issued, backed with a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Turn Up the Night". Darkness Remains was released to positive reviews from the worldwide heavy metal press, including monthly soundcheck rankings of #1 in
Deaf Forever magazine and #3 in
Hard Rock. The German
Metal Hammer magazine praised
Darkness Remains and recommended the album to fans of early music by
Iron Maiden,
Jaguar, and
Tygers of Pan Tang. Night Demon played more than 100 shows around the world in 2017 in support of Darkness Remains. Highlights included a spring US tour supporting
Anvil, a spring European tour dubbed "Darkness Over Europe", a November tour of the UK and Ireland
(Darkness over U.K.&Ireland), and appearances at festivals in Europe and the US, including
Ozzfest (California),
Rock Hard Festival (Germany),
Summer Breeze Open Air (Germany), Party San (Germany), Keep It True (Germany), Very 'Eavy (Netherlands), Pounding Metal (Spain), Up the Hammers (Greece), Muskelrock (Sweden), Headbangers Open Air (Germany), Chaos Descends (Germany), Defenders of the Old (New York), Days of Darkness (Maryland), and Frost & Fire (California). Night Demon closed out the year with a headlining appearance at the Cleveland Metal Holiday Food Drive in Cleveland, Ohio in December. The show was recorded in front of a large crowd at
The Beachland Ballroom and was released as a triple-live album,
Live Darkness, in August 2018 via
Century Media Records/Shadow Kingdom Records in the US and
SPV in Europe. In September 2017, the German
Metal Hammer magazine presented Night Demon with an award for best "Up & Coming" band. The Metal Hammer awards show received substantial international media coverage. Darkness Remains was named album of the year in magazines such as
Deaf Forever and
Rocks!, and Night Demon again earned the top spot in the
WJCU Metal on Metal Listeners Poll for 2017. In 2018, Night Demon toured Europe for five weeks in January and February 2018 as part of
Accept's "The Rise of Chaos" tour. That summer they went on the European festival circuit, including return engagements at the
Rock Hard Festival and the
Bang Your Head!!! Festival in Germany, and Muskelrock in Sweden, as well as their debut appearance at the
Wacken Open Air Festival, the largest heavy metal festival in the world.
Live Darkness (2018–2020) Following the release of the
Live Darkness album in summer 2018, Night Demon embarked on extensive tours of the United States and Europe, then played a series of one-off shows in both North America and Europe. On November 30, 2018, the band performed at the
Decibel Magazine festival pre-party at the legendary
Troubadour nightclub in
West Hollywood, California, supporting
Armored Saint. On December 21, 2018, Night Demon played the "Another Death Angel Xmas" show with Bay Area thrash veterans
Death Angel at the famed
Slim's venue in
San Francisco, California. On February 2–3, 2019, Night Demon played a pair of shows aboard the
Independence of the Seas cruise ship as part of the
70000 Tons of Metal Festival traveling between Ft. Lauderdale and Haiti. On March 2, 2019, the band headlined the Hell Over Hammaburg festival at the
Markthalle Hamburg in the city of
Hamburg, Germany. At this special show, former
Scorpions guitarist
Uli Jon Roth joined Night Demon on stage for an encore consisting of "In Trance" and "Top of the Bill" from the Scorpions' 1975
In Trance album. In November and December 2019, Night Demon conducted a five-week tour of Europe supporting
Sacred Reich on their tour for their album,
Awakening. In spring 2020, Night Demon released their first new music in three years. On April 3, 2020, the band released a new single called "Empires Fall", featuring a cover of "Fast Bikes" by obscure
NWOBHM band Le Griffe as the
B-side. On May 8, 2020, Night Demon released a second single entitled "Kill the Pain", with the B-side being a cover of
Cirith Ungol song "100 mph". During the spring and summer of 2020, three more strictly limited 7" singles followed: "Are You Out There" (b/w
Thin Lizzy cover "The Sun Goes Down") released on June 5, 2020; "Vysteria" (b/w
Iron Maiden cover "Wasted Years") released on July 3, 2020; and "In Trance" (
Scorpions cover b/w "Top of the Bill" both recorded live with
Uli Jon Roth) released on August 7, 2020.
Year of the Demon (2022) All five of the 2020 7" singles sold out almost instantly. Many diehard fans were unable to obtain physical copies. And none of the B-sides of these singles were ever released on digital/streaming platforms. To bring these songs to a wider audience, Night Demon released a compilation album entitled
Year of the Demon via
Century Media Records worldwide on March 25, 2022, in various physical and digital formats.
Year of the Demon collects all 10 songs from the 2020 standalone singles in a comprehensive repository, and adds stunning new artwork to the package. Following the release of this album, Night Demon toured extensively worldwide for the remainder of 2022.
Outsider (2023–present) At the end of 2022, Night Demon unveiled their third studio album via a teaser video featuring the first track off their new album, "Prelude". The teaser video includes eerie footage from a rural location in Ireland showcasing an ancient church at the end of a path. Entitled
Outsider, the album tells the story of a young gravedigger named Johnny who inadvertently stumbles into an alternate, shadow realm of his own hometown through a mysterious green mist that encircles the town. The first single and music video, "Outsider", was released on January 13, 2023, along with a full track listing and additional album details. A second single, "Escape from Beyond", followed on February 23, 2023, along with an accompanying music video. Outsider was released on March 17, 2023, to positive reviews. One reviewer wrote, "Given the passion on display for the glory days, however, methinks Night Demon are on course to creating the best version of it they possibly can; if you literally need heavy metal to live, then Outsider might be immortality on tap. It's a no-fuss, no-mess motorcycle ride along the highway of heavy metal history, blaring anthemic earworms and fist-pumping choruses all the way down. While that highway might be a straight and fairly unchallenging one, Night Demon have still captured and recreated that sensation of past metal glories as close to truly as possible while implementing their personal touches." According to another journalist, "Outsider is a beautifully paced record that deftly floats from slow and dark to hard and heavy with masterful confidence. Slowly building songs like 'Beyond the Grave' are balanced with burners like 'Escape from Beyond.' You get the sense that there's an overarching master plan behind every musical decision." A third single, "Beyond the Grave", was released on March 23, 2023, with yet another accompanying music video. A fourth video followed for standout album track "The Wrath" on August 24, 2023. Following the release of
Outsider, Night Demon have once again engaged in extensive worldwide touring activities. In spring 2023, Night Demon joined forces with
Satan and
Haunt for a 21-date North American tour dubbed the ''Hell's Decibels Tour''. In addition to return engagements throughout Europe, the band's
Outsider touring itinerary has brought them to previously-unseen territories such as Japan, Australia and even China, with many of those dates also featuring fellow Ventura metallurgists
Cirith Ungol. In spring 2024, Night Demon embarked on a full-scale North American tour in direct support of German heavy metal legends
Blind Guardian. They also played at the
Hell's Heroes music festival held in
Houston in March 2024. Along with
Overkill, Night Demon will support
King Diamond on their Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920 tour in North America from October to December 2024. In early 2025, Night Demon will launch a four-week tour of mainland Europe and the United Kingdom in direct support of
Queensrÿche. == Band members ==