Demon (band)
English heavy metal band
Demon is an English hard rock/heavy metal band with progressive rock elements, formed in 1979 by vocalist Dave Hill and guitarist Mal Spooner, both hailing from Leek, Staffordshire. The band is considered important to the new wave of British heavy metal movement.
History
Early years
The original lineup was completed by former Hunter members Les Hunt (lead guitar), Chris Ellis (bass), and John Wright (drums). The band were signed by Mike Stone's Clay Records in 1980 and licensed to Carrere Records to join their stable of metal bands. Their debut album, Night of the Demon, was released in 1981.
After their 1982 follow-up album, The Unexpected Guest, the band experimented beyond the NWOBHM sound and moved the band in a more melodic direction whilst still retaining the more traditional heavy metal black magic lyrical style.
In 1983, Demon took a change in direction. The Plague marked a swing towards a more progressive sound, adding the keyboards of session musician Andy Richards to the album's sound. Lyrically the band also changed direction, switching to a more overtly political style that was to characterise their albums for the rest of their career.
The following album, Pink Floyd influenced British Standard Approved (1985), released on the small independent Clay label, was not a huge commercial success, and with the death of Mal Spooner later that year, it appeared that the band would soon fold.
“Demon (band)” enters the record as english heavy metal band. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Demon, band and English can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1186426. VIAF identifies the subject as 163416299. The Library of Congress control number is no98039412. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “Demon (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.