The years have come and gone since the NWOBHM started at the end of the 70s. I'm still trying to have patience to deal with fundamentalist fans of IRON MAIDEN (here in Brazil, some of them are really annoying) that there were other very good bands from those days, when the United Kingdom was boiling with Metal, when new bands started to ravage the English shores. It's lovely to see the name of the Metal maniacs from CLOVEN HOOF, a quintet from Wolverhampton, active and savage after they came back in 2001. Their new album, "Who Mourns for the Morning Star?" is really amazing!

Here, you won't find guitar shreds, extreme speed or harsh voices (and even those high pitched tunes are absent). Here, only the same Hard'n'Heavy music that we all know from their earlier works, since "Cloven Hoof" was released in 1984. They made their songs using the old and good formula: very good melodies, catchy choruses, solid and heavy rhythmic work, but always simple as on those days. But as I say sometimes, good music never gets old. The sound quality is really very good. Yes, because it is modern and clean, but the band isn't trying to sound like they were in the past (they don't need to do it, because they already are in this way). No, they don't need to, because the quintet is a veteran, so the old feeling comes from the songs, not from the production. Of course, you'll understand what they are doing.

All their nine songs are fine examples of how a veteran of NWOBHM still has space in our days. But as a mere reference for the reader, I truly recommend you to pay attention to the savage energy that flows from "Star Rider" (very good tempos, showing how melodies gathered on earlier Thrash Metal bands, with very good guitars), the abrasive song called "Song of Orpheus" with its excellent vocals and backing vocals, the bitter weight shown on the guitar riffs and rhythmic session of the aggressive "I Talk to the Dead", the hooking melodies from "Neon Angels" (that same Hard'n'Heavy sound and nasty energy that URIAH HEEP and DEEP PURPLE used to have and that influenced MERCYFUL FATE and others), the shrapnel drums on the tempos of "Time to Burn", and the excellent ones "Mindmaster" and "Bannockburn" (this one shows excellent tempo changes and great rhythmic work).

CLOVEN HOOF is here with "Who Mourns for the Morning Star?", so if you're a Heavy Metal fan in your heart, you have to buy it right now. If you're those disgusting type of IRON MAIDEN fans that thinks that they were the only thing good that NWOBHM gave to the world, sorry, but CLOVEN HOOF and many others are here to prove that you are wrong.

One of my favorite albums of this year!