Member:
Whitebeard
Date:
10/4/2007
With the sad death of Mal Spooner, shortly after the finishing of the bands fourth album, British Standard Approved, Demon found themselves a bit adrift in the musical sea. After all, Spooner had been a founder member of the band, a life long friend of vocalist and co-founder Dave Hill and half the band’s powerhouse song writing team. Between them they had charted the bands growth from being just another NWOBHM act into one of the most musically interesting and socially aware rock bands of their age. But now Spooner had gone and the band had found themselves not knowing what to do next.
It is from this uncertain period that Heart Of Our Time emerged. Featuring the same personel as BSA (with the exception of Spooner of course) it shows a band who are going through changes. Dave Hill is forging a new song writing partnership with keysman Steve Watts, and guitarist Andy Waterhouse is no longer a sidekick, he has suddenly found himself centre stage with a very big pair of shoes to fill. And in a way it shows.
'Heart...' lacks the scope or sheer grandeur of The Plague or British Standard Approved and it also lacks the vision and drive of the albums like Breakout that were to follow. Even the production sounds a tad too safe to do such an edgy band proud. Performances are on the whole restrained, and the result s somewhat less than satisfying. Don't get me wrong, this album isn't bad as such, it's just that it doesn't really stand up to comparison with what came before and what was to yet to come.
However this album does have a few moments of sheer brilliance. The call to arms that is “Genius?” where Dave Hill lays out Demons mission statement ' I wanna make it in my own time, for absent friends and faces. I wanna stay when the lights go up and show it wasn't wasted...' Apt for it is this track along with the title tune that point the listener forward towards the prog tinged metal (or is that metal tinged prog) that was to become the bands trade mark for the next 20 plus years.
However the real stand out track here is “Expressing The Heart” a slow and powerful song where Dave Hill lays out some emotive sentiments... 'Black and white, expressing the heart of our time. Old and young, expressing the heart of our time. You and me, we, have so much to learn. We speak as children do without fear of our lives..'; and does so with a display of vocal gymnastics that is spine tingling to hear.
In conclusion Heart Of Our Time is not the best Demon album by a long shot, and is not the best place to start for those new to the band, but for those more familiar with the bands more accessible work it makes for interesting listening.
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