Black Crows categorise their new Daemon in the all mountain bracket, but we would rather think of them as freeride skis - yes they're capable of hitting any kind of terrain you throw at them across the mountain and yes they're versatile and relatively easy to turn, considering their high-performance credentials, but they're a freeride ski, almost in the purest sense of the word.
The reverse camber is probably the first thing to consider - if you're a bit of jibber then you get it, if you're expecting smooth carved arcs slicing across the hardpack then it's not for you, get an Orb instead. What you do get is quick fire response, playful and fun skis you can throw around in the powder - powering through most of the other stuff that might get in your way.
Back on the piste, the late set edge inherently brought on because of the reverse camber makes them pivot well, but unlike many of the Black Crows all mountain and freeride models, they're far less 'Alpine' in feel because of that. Whilst this suits some skiers, it's not everyone's cup of tea and if you prefer a more traditional ski then it's best you stay clear.
But for strong freeride skiers that can channel their inner jibber and like to play in all kinds of terrain, then you can't find a better example of the perfect freeride skis. In Phillip Pullmans series of books (His Dark Materials) a Daemon is an external physical manifestation of a person's inner self. Who this particular creature feels more comfortable with and who it doesn't will be very much down to the user's inner self to decide.
