Shadow Demon hails from the Seattle U.S.A. area and after releasing a 3 song self-titled demo in 2003, Grimoire Of Ruin has arrived as their first full length album. The cover art and booklet graphics fit the ominous metal style of the band perfectly and were designed and illustrated by renowned artist Mattias Noren of ProgArt Media. The band consists of Jay Davidson (drums), Ryan Gallagher (lead guitars), Blaine Hammond (vocals), Jeff Helm (rhythm guitars) and James Rinker (bass). Recording and producing it themselves using bassist James Rinker's home studio, this CD has that raw demo-like quality to it but still was a pleasant surprise to listen to.

Having absolutely nothing to do with any past or current Seattle music trends (aside from a little influence of early Queensryche material), Shadow Demon embraces the very essence of pure heavy metal by drawing from influences like older Iced Earth, Testament, Metal Church, Mercyful Fate, early Metallica as well as classic power metal in the vein of Blind Guardian. Rather than following current trends of using harsh or death metal vocal styles, vocalist Blaine Hammond prefers to keep it clean with a voice that has the range and style of Zak Stevens (ex-Savatage, Circle II Circle) and even doubles up his vocal tracks much in the same way. For a few tracks, the more menacing style of King Diamond makes appearances and when he pushes his voice to get more of the classic "voice of despair", he slides more into Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian) territory. Right up front, the one major issue with this album is the production quality. I was reading several interviews with some of the band members and they are not trying to hide behind any of this and are upfront about the production limitations, probably due to the fact that they likely financed everything themselves. The whole album has a raw metal sound with guitars that sound like a cross between Judas Priest on the Stained Class album and Mercyful Fate on their Melissa and Don't Break The Oath albums. On the down side, there is very little bottom end to the sound and the drums sound very flat with very little definition. Production limitations aside, this is one of the more unique and classic sounding new heavy metal acts that I've heard in quite a while.

Mixing classic thrash metal and power metal, Shadow Demon's music takes the listener back to a time when heavy metal music was meant to immerse you in it's dark and brooding despair with a bleak and apocalyptic view of the world and everything around it. Lots of sudden tempo changes, riff breaks and instrumental breaks fly out left right and center during the course of this album and aside from primarily repetitive and hypnotic riffing styles, sudden bursts of reckless and aggressive thrash metal leap out at you at a moment's notice. The first two tracks, the 8 minute opening track A Dream Of Dreams and Drums Of War are prime examples of this and are a great introduction to the band. The Dark Citadel Part 1 (The Shifter) uses an ominous tone, thundering drums and some cool open string chords as well as classic thrash metal and old school power metal with Blaine Hammond even sounding like a younger James Hetfield on this one. And The Meek really shows the Blind Guardian influence with speedy double bass and a more melodic sense especially for the chorus section. A couple of tracks namely Sea Of Oblivion and Red introduce more atmospheric elements with the use of clean guitar passages, creating a more dissonant tone. Both of these tracks also feature lots of tempo changes, pummelling riff breaks and vocals that range from a screaming Hansi Kursch style to more ominous Warrel Dane (Nevermore) qualities. The lyrics which are largely written by bassist James Rinker are dark, foreboding and very clever for a relatively new band.

To really get the full enjoyment from this album, one must really look past the production quality and listen to the style of metal that these guys have created by drawing from their influences as well as putting their own unique stamp on it. There aren't many newer bands out there now that sound like this. The words reckless, raw and unrefined are words that very accurately describe this album and even though the guitar tone sounds old and lacks the muscle of many current bands, I really like the atmosphere that it brings to their music. The lead guitar work is decent but nothing outstanding and it could benefit from a little more effect as it comes across as being very "dry" and sterile. Grimoire Of Ruin needs the touch of an outside producer or engineer. All of the elements are there for this to be an outstanding album and quite possibly even a classic in the genre if only it was brought to it's full potential. More dynamics with the arrangements and beefing up the drums, lead guitar and the bass would send this thing through the roof. Something's really happening here and I hope that this band gets the full studio treatment for their next album. I'd also love to see this album get either remixed or completely re-done someday. Other bands have done so in the past and it all comes down to the degree of success that happens to come their way. I've not read anything negative about this band anywhere on the net and most have been able to look past the production limitations to realize what a real gem this thing really is.

Sound samples can be heard here