DEMON BOX

"Demon Box" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Norwegian hard/psychadelic rock act Motorpsycho. The album was released through Voices of Wonder in February 1993. "Demon Box" was released in a single CD format and double vinyl format. The vinyl edition features three additional tracks not found on the CD version and a longer version of the track "Babylon". This was due to the time limit of the CD format.

While the music on the album is still heavily influenced by late eighties Soundgarden and at times pretty heavy (like in "Feedtime" or the harsh title track) quite a bit has happened since the debut album. More mellow psychadelic influences have crept into the sound (listen to tracks like "Tuesday Morning" "All Is Loneliness" for an example of that) as well as other musical styles like folk rock. Just for a brief moment during the opening track "Waiting For The One" I´m actually reminded of Fairport Convention. "Step Inside Again" represents the most experimental part of the band´s sound as does the 5 noisy minutes in the middle of the title track.

The musicianship is strong although lead vocalist Bent Saether sometimes sound slightly out of key during the more mellow tracks. His raw screaming vocals are really impressive though. It´s no wonder Motorpsycho are often compared to Soundgarden, with a vocalist like that in the band. Although his performance is a bit shaky at times, he should be complimented for how varied his vocal performance is on the album. It´s a great asset to the diversity factor of the album.

The band are generally very well playing and the sound production is powerful and organic sounding. A great change from the more rough sounding productions on the early releases by the band. Overall "Demon Box" is a good quality album and while there are a couple of more unremarkable tracks on the album, the most memorable tracks are really strong. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.