Hitting the scene at the tail end of the NWOBHM heyday, CHARIOT would release two albums in the 1980's on Shades Records before morphing into DIRTY DEEDS during the 1990's. Eventually returning to record as CHARIOT for 2006's "Behind the Wire" album, 3 of the four main members are still going strong - guitarist Paul Lane the latest recruit who has been with the quartet for 8 years. "Demons and Angels" is the fifth studio record for the band, and at 13 songs contains 66 minutes of Traditional NWOBHM, sometimes very riff-oriented while at other times nostalgic in a 70's Hard Rock way.

Pete Franklin as a singer has a moaning, bluesy range that is in the same caliber as Mat Sinner during his long storied SINNER career. "Bark at the Moon" period OZZY OSBOURNE comes up on the firepower guitar oriented "Feed the Flames", while the follow up "Cold Blood" is one of those street level Hard Rock anthems that used to fill the biggest 10,000 seat plus arenas- Paul Lane using fleet fingers and whammy bar accents during the lead break. Names such as TANK and ANVIL have been thrown around before - but I get a sense of US Hard Rock like early CINDERELLA on a commercial track like "One" or early DEF LEPPARD on the 7:19 "Fate of the Condemned" that pushes CHARIOT beyond a pure Heavy Metal act - which would make sense given their love of solid hooks and grooves.

I do think that bands really need to assess the 'quality vs quantity' debate in terms of final product - we do live in a fast paced society and rarely do I find the need for an album to go beyond the 50-55 minute mark unless you are a Progressive artist ("Flesh and Bone" one that could have hit the cutting room floor). In the end though, "Demons and Angels" should find enough of an audience for those who love bare bones basic guitar oriented Traditional Metal with Bluesy Vocals, harmonic sensibilities, and electricity.