Last Updated on 01:55 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Heavy Metal
Country: U.K.
Label: High Roller Records
Year: 2017
CLOVEN HOOF was one of the smartest bands of the music genre called ‘New Wave Of British Heavy Metal’. Quite imaginative from their beginning, by trying to stand out from the masses they did not hesitate to adopt the personas ‘Earth’, ‘Fire’, ‘Water’ and ‘Air’, which certainly hid something theatrical and was probably ahead of its time. From that lineup, of course, we can only find the legendary bassist Lee Payne, who through a thousand waves and three perfect even though so different albums, ‘Fighting Back’ (1986), ‘Dominator’ (1988) and ‘A Sultan’s Ransom ‘(1989) and after a long silence he returned with the 2014’s very good ‘Resist Or Serve’, (whose review/presentation you can read here by Nestor Papakostas). In the current version of CLOVEN HOOF we discover a different aspect of them. In the music part, we forget the N.W.O.B.H.M. elements and what we listen to is basically a mix of Priest/Dio and authentic American Heavy Metal with some power or (few) prog chips here and there. The production is clean and modern and I dare to say that at the very first listening sessions, the album looked very polished and the compositions somewhat bland. And we may not be talking about a masterpiece or a diamond of the genre, but honestly the album, as you listen to it the more you discover parts and songs you love. George Call’s voice almost reminds me of Dickinson and the guitars, though flirting with the Judas Priest’s sound, create their own personality and distinctive sound. From my personal conversation with Lee Payne (the whole interview here), I realized that this was something like a personal bet but also a desire to make a sound similar to this style, so respecting this and feeling satisfied with the final result I can only suggest strongly the album to some potential buyers out there. I sing the ‘Neon Angels’, ‘Morning Star’, ‘Time to Burn’ and ‘Go Tell The Spartans’, whilst the ‘Star Rider’ (which anything but like a catchpenny worked on me) sounds cheesy enough in my ears…
4/6