Endless Night (endless_night_band@yahoo.gr) is a duette hailing from Northern Greece (I figured that out from the inlay credits...). Featuring Vaggelis Tyflopoulos on vocals and Basilis Odontidis on guitars, bass and programming, Demonlight is a self financed work, not being sure if it's the band's debut release since there's no bio available.
Focusing on the album cover I had the impression I'd fall onto one of the usual atmospheric Death Metal albums. Still, something a little bit different was hidden inside. Leaving aside the beautiful For My Lenore instrumental intro, I had the chance to hear four songs with good to brilliant ideas, but with average to dissapointing results in terms of performance and production.
To specify things: the guitar riffs - not being innovative - are very interesting, influenced by the Iced Earth trademark, some atmospheric Death recipes (can't come up with some band for comparison right now) and crucial vocal elements of the Dark Wave genre (call it Joy Division, Bauhaus, early Cure). Most of the melodies/harmonies can be called attractive (even though not that precisely played), building up a set of songs that in no way can be labeled as boring. Still, the use of drum machine (not that well programmed, I must say) leaves lots of empty space - some good bass lines cannot balance this situation - and adds an ungly note to the listening session.
The vocals are not bad, still I don't think they're well attached to the guitar harmonies. Maybe it would be better if the music was built around the singer - then, we wouldn't be featuring this review here, I must add... Not to forget: the last song of the Demonight album is a speedy cover version of Iced Earth's Pure Evil, sung by Basilis Odontidis. Brutal vocals bring out an occult feeling; I liked this one!
Summary: In my poor mind, there's no excuse in using programmed drum parts in a Metal (generally speakin') album; leave this shit for the electro freaks. I'm sure this album would achieve much more recognition with additional musicians, each one focusing in his own job. It's a pitty to have such good ideas for songs and be beaten on the easy level. See what's happening outside: the - completely - different case...