Who Mourns for the Morning Star?

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Artist: Cloven Hoof
Label: High Roller Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 44:43
Rating: 4/5

Cloven Hoof are considered heavy metal legends today. They emerged during the »New Wave of British Heavy Metal« boom, at the turn of the seventies into the eighties, right alongside peers like (among others) Iron Maiden, who found commercial luck where Cloven Hoof didn’t.

Well, two eras define Cloven Hoof. The first wrapped up in 1990, followed by a long stretch of silence, and then the band woke up from a decade of hibernation and has been going nonstop ever since, though with frequent lineup shuffles. The new album, »Who Mourns for the Morning Star?«, is no exception. The only original, founding member of today’s Cloven Hoof is the man who has stuck with the band through everything and seen every era of metal. That’s bassist Lee Payne. Thanks to his undimmed drive, the old-school metal outfit keeps on biting without a chipped tooth in sight. For the new album, the quintet swapped out no fewer than three members. This year the crew welcomed a somewhat younger but very experienced vocalist, George Call (Aska, Banshee, Warrion, Emerald, Violent Storm); in 2014, after the release of Resist Or Serve, the band took on new guitarist Luke Hatton, while drummer Danny White joined two years ago. The only member of the current Cloven Hoof lineup with a slightly longer tenure, six years, is guitarist Chriss Coss.

Anyway, the previous album »Resist or Serve« did a superb job of keeping the band plugged into the eighties, especially when we talk today about bands that came out of the N.W.O.B.H.M. era. So it’s easy to conclude that, as long as everything’s in the right place in the players’ heads, albums made even in 2017 can carry the old-guard character of these bands into a time of new ideas with no trouble. Songs composed in the traditional manner come across as simply unique in a fresh production outfit. Only a band formed in 1979 can pull that off in 2017.  And  »Who Mourns for the Morning Star?«, despite the recent change of three lineup members, keeps that link to the old school and the legacy of the eighties. It’s one more proof that Lee Payne has everything the band does under absolute control.

Lucky it’s that way. The album couldn’t boast greater authenticity or a deeper blood-deep commitment to the old school of British metal. It keeps alive a tradition in which the influence of rock’n’roll music shines through too. The songs are occult, dark, stuffed with dramatic theater, yet incredibly melodic and catchy, mostly thanks to highly musical choruses that give the album a dose of pomp and bombast. Given the newer advances in studio sound treatment, and some of the arranging moves too, the band’s current take on the metal world also draws closer to the doctrine of the genre that later traveled to Germany and gave birth to power metal.

Everything’s right where it should be. Ornamental flourishes over fiery phrases, harmonies in thirds, the explosive, dominant and incredibly piercing singing of George Call, who is hungry to prove himself. The vocalist has an incredible range, easily conquering the high notes across a span of three octaves while holding on to a gripping vocal power.

»Who Mourns for the Morning Star?« is an album that, in these new times, powerfully and authentically recalls the golden days of the eighties, when metal was a young child of the musical universe. So Lee Payne and his crew have delivered an excellent new studio achievement, backed with full credibility by the name of a legendary representative of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement, which to this day has remained unfairly overlooked and somewhat forgotten on the global music stage. All the more reason it works as if it had barely turned twenty dewy years old, brimming with the lifeblood of creative freshness and drive. Just the way it should be. No surrender, no retreat. Fans of (retro) nostalgic metal days will be more than happy to sink their teeth into the material from Cloven Hoof’s new studio release. 

Cloven Hoof – Star Rider (official audio):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsQSIhghFa8

Lineup

George Call – vocals, backing vocals
Chris Coss – guitar
Luke Hatton – guitar
Lee Payne – bass
Danny White – drums 

Production

Cloven Hoof

Tracklist