Cloven Hoof-Age of Steel

Cloven Hoof, a band who helped spawn the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. A band who brought about power metal and speed metal and brought the occult firmly into the mythos of metal. They’re a band who throw their weight behind a good cause and they’re back with a brand new album entitled Age Of Steel.

“Bathory,” a song about the legendary Elizabeth Bathory kicks things off. It is haunting and mesmerising, and a song that really gets to the heart of the matter. The guitar leads on this song are phenomenal, and the way the vocals interweave themselves with the riffs is simply excellent. A great way to open proceedings.

“Alderley Edge,” is epic, a song that traverses space and time, there are hints of Maiden and Dominators era Cloven Hoof, and as such this is a song that is sure to be a hit with the fans when performed live.

“Apathy,” moves through quickly, galloping around the sun and producing a riff range that is highly impressive. The song narrates the issue with the world today and how that is coming around to screw us all.

“Touch The Rainbow,” goes for the epic route. A song that weaves itself in and out of the listener’s mind, it creates a tapestry of sound that allows everything to be submersed within the feeling of the soul. It then speeds up and the true brilliance is revealed.

“Bedlam,” produces chaos and madness, a song that narrates the chaos of the world and how we’re all trying to handle it. The guitars are on fire throughout this song.

“Ascension,” is regal. Highly regal. A song that is sure to be a hit with the band’s fans due to how awesome it is and how it weaves together different parts of the band’s history together, there’s parts from their debut, their second and their previous effort all mixed together for this.

“Gods of War,” is simply epic. A song that weaves together the fabric of time to form a song that narrates the stories of hell and the unbent wisdom of destruction.

“Victim of the Furies,” goes all in and demonstrates why the Hoof are one of the best bands going. The timing is simply superb and the instrumentation is flawless.

“Judas,” narrates the story of one of the world’s oldest betrayals and sets it to the scene of melodic guitar tones and a ravaging vocal line.

“Age of Steel,” finishes things off with a mighty flourish.

The album is out on April 24th. Do yourself a favour and get this record.