Cloven Hoof. Another one from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal homelands of the West Midlands around the Birmingham/Wolverhampton area. The band arose at the end of the 1970s and tried to be a little bit different with the stage presence.
NWOBHM meets Kiss with the theatrics and bizarre elemental-style stage names air/water/fire/earth. Hmmmm – interesting and certainly a bit different from the heads-down rock-out approach. You had to be good to pull it off. Could Cloven Hoof?
As well as the “imaginative” stage get up and style their musical style was a bit different from the usual NWOBHM approach too. Sure, it was heavy all right but with a bit of a trippy feel to it too. So top marks to them for trying the something different.
Here’s a fine example of that difference and trippiness. Mistress of the Forest. Metal, spacey and proggy all at once with phenomenal guitar work. Fantastic.
https://youtu.be/_0WC-9eg_Sg
Did it work? Not to any great success. The many personnel changes probably did not help. This surrounded the self-titled debut album as well as the live album which came next and that was that. The Hoof was no more. Well, for a while at least.
Lee Payne, the original bassist, got things going again for another try towards the end of the 1980s with a fresh line-up. And a more “conventional” approach casting aside the elemental stage names. A good move I’d say. Two albums emerged – Dominator and A Sultan’s Ransom – however the personnel changes continued and momentum stalled once again.
Payne came back for a third try in the early 2000’s and Clove Hoof have been more or less active ever since, albeit with the ever-present comings and goings. A couple of albums came out along with various gigging and festival appearances both domestically and abroad.
Payne is the only original member remaining. Full marks to him for keeping thigs going and the NWOBHM revival in general. Cloven Hoof were/are that bit different and certainly worth adding a CD or two to your collection.
Check out A Sultan’s Ransom. It’s available with an accompanying DVD as a double-package.
>> CLOVEN HOOF A SULTAN’S RANSOM <<
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