It’s been a long road back for Emblem, but on July 12th, 2025, the band reunited on stage once again to open for California band Night Demon. The bill featured the two metal powerhouses as well as Turbo, coming from Halifax, despite a broken guitar to play an unforgettable night at the Rockhouse.
Night Demon are no strangers to St. John’s, playing in the capital several times throughout their career. However, this show was different, as the band is currently touring their ‘Curse of the Damned’ record for the 10 year anniversary. This means the band played the album from start to finish as well as some hits, fan favourites and a cover.
This was one of the most highly anticipated events for metal fans in town and it delivered in every way. Even just walking into the venue and hearing the music before the bands even got up, the feeling was in the air that this was going to be a night to remember.
Turbo took the stage around 8:15pm and ripped through songs like ‘Broke & Ugly’, ‘Alive’, ‘Ignite the Night’, and ‘Down in Mexico’. For those unfamiliar with Turbo, they are a thrash metal band with some harsher vocals reminiscent of David Sanchez from Havok. They have that classic thrash metal look and attitude which is something not seen all that much today. The band put on a fast and aggressive performance setting the tone for the night.
After Turbo, it was time for something locals have been waiting on for a long time, the return of Emblem. While not having any music out on streaming services, they do have a self titled album, a two song EP, and a single all available on Bandcamp.
Their last release was in January of 2019. Fans would have understood if the band sounded a little off after all the time away from the stage, but Emblem came out and it was like they never left.
The best way to describe Emblem to someone who has never heard them is if the song structures and harmonies of the ‘Powerslave’, ‘The Number of the Beast’, and ‘Piece of Mind’ albums from Iron Maiden were infused with just a touch more thrash.
The set consisted of ‘Soldiers of Steel’, ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Castle of Oak’, and many more as the band played a set of around an hour long. The crowd let the band know how excited they were to see them back on stage chanting “Emblem! Emblem! Emblem!” after almost every song to which the members of the band admitted to getting emotional about it. An outstanding reunion show with hopefully more on the horizon.
Night Demon was easily the loudest, fastest, and most energetic band out of the three. The bands stage presence showed that they knew their music is good. The pits started right from the set opener ‘Screams in the Night’ and continued all the way through the show.
The only break in the album was for them to pay homage to Black Sabbath by breaking out a legendary cover of the first metal song ever written, ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath. The energy from the band kept up the entire set list as they played for over an hour.
The band was called back for an encore to which they came back to invite fans to an after party at Lucy’s Bar for Heavy Metal Karaoke before kicking into their closing song ‘Night Demon’. This concluded the show in its entirety with all bands leaving everything on the stage and all fans leaving everything in the pits. With a few shows in town under their belt, metal fans around town hope they will be back again sooner rather than later.
Night Demon also runs a podcast called ‘Night Demon Heavy Metal Podcast’ which airs every Friday and has for the last 259 weeks. The podcast is produced right here in St. John’s and is available on all services. The band also has an exclusive merchandise line including limited splatter vinyls and box sets to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of ‘Cursed of the Damned’ that is available on their website with some limited vinyls and city exclusive shirts available at their shows.
This was one of the best nights in town for any metal head in a very long time. With Emblem back together, Heavy NFLD coming up at the end of the month, and Heavy Metal Karaoke at the end of every month, metal fans around St. John’s have never had it any better.
