DEMON

Being a huge Gazpacho fan I was rather excited about this new release from the Boheme styled Norwegian band. What could eclipse the magnificent Tick Tock or Night? Or even the excellent Missa Atropas?

Demon is a fine piece of music but herein lies a problem for me, in any event there is nothing new on Demon that makes it stand out from any of it's predecessors. The album seems to just tread water carefully. They have introduced more folk passages to help the dark theme, the violin and mandolin threading in and out, yet this is not enough and I cannot but feel that Ohme's vocals are lethargic or uneventful. No risk taking as such except on ' Death Room'. ' The Wizard of Altai Mountains' sounds like a watered down instrumental with Ohme's vocals from 90's electronica band Deep Forest. The weakest tracks are the ' I've been walking' suite that just never seem to take off, however the album does improve markedly from this juncture.

So in summary a great album from Gazpacho. You can always be guaranteed quality musicianship and attention to minimalist detail, I just feel the album falls a bit short in that no new risks are being taken by the band and we have another safe rerun from them. A solid three stars. Note Gazpacho albums can be very slow burners so give it plenty of time.