DEMON MASTER

"Demon Master" is the second full-length studio album by US, San Francisco based thrash metal/hard rock/heavy metal act Blind Illusion. The album was independently released in July 2010. Blind Illusion was formed in 1979 and although it took until 1988 before the band were able to release their debut full-length studio album "The Sane Asylum", they are widely recognised as an important and influential San Francisco thrash metal act. Blind Illusion weren´t able to secure a new label deal after the release of "The Sane Asylum", and after releasing the 1989 "Psychodelic Symphony" demo, they slowly faded away and finally disbanded in 1992.

It wasn´t completely over for lead vocalist/guitarist Marc Biedermann though, and after a long break he opted to reform Blind Illusion in 2009. On "Demon Master" he is joined by drummer Robert Nystrom and bassist Danny Harcourt, making Blind Illusion a trio on the album.

Stylistically "Demon Master" don´t exactly pick up where "The Sane Asylum" took off. There are zero thrash metal riffs and rhythms on "Demon Master" and instead it´s a bluesy hard rock/heavy metal album with Biedermann singing instead of shouting/snarling like he did on "The Sane Asylum". So this probably came as a big surprise to the original fans of the band, who had been waiting for a follow-up album for 22 years. But changes aren´t always bad new, and Blind Illusion actually pull off playing this new hard rock/heavy metal style pretty well. Biedermann is still an excellent guitarist and his new rhythm section keep things organic, energetic, and powerful. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Biedermann can actually sing too, so all in all "Demon Master" is a pretty good quality hard rock/heavy metal release and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).