CLOVEN HOOF - A Sultan's Ransom (1989), early impressions

After just a few listens, my categorization of a record isn't going to be crystallized, and I may or may not know how much I like it  - that's kinda the whole point of these "early impressions" posts.  Those posts in which I'm uncertain what I'm hearing aren't all the same.  Sometimes you get something as entertaining (to me, anyway) as that time I came into a Wuthering Heights record without context and just had no idea how to even process what I was hearing.  Other times, it's more that I have some broad impressions but I can't say exactly why.  Main impressions of A Sultan's Ransom - I like it, and it seems somehow unusual.

The part about liking it is pretty easy to explain - it's good solid metal.  Lively energetic songs, good vocal performance from Russ North, numerous hooks that I'm pretty certain are going to grow on me big time.  Boom, that's my early impression.  This'll be a short post!

But not quite that short.  Maybe I'm primed by my understanding that this would be an ambitious record in some way.  I think it is.  That's the part where I can't say exactly from whence that impression is coming.  On its surface, Ransom basically sounds like a late-'80s metal record.  The sound is closest to what I think of as NWOBHM - which of course was more a scene than a defined subgenre.  It has elements of power,* mixed with some elements such as the vocals that retain a strong link to the previous generations blues-and-booze-infused "southern rock,"** but basically, it's an all-purpose taste of what metal sounded like in that era.  Yet, listening to opener "Astral Rider," the song feels like it's taking me somewhere different than I'd go were I listening to Jag Panzer or whoever.***  Maybe it's the keyboards, maybe the lyrics, maybe the way the solo changes pace a few times in line with the rider's changing pace.  So, they're a prog band?  Not really; there are some very short like tracks like "D.V.R." and AOR-adjacent single "Mad, Mad World" sound on early listens like extremely straightforward metal songs, including the way DVR gies for a virtuosic solo in an otherwise simple song.  So, they write normal songs but throw in some sophisticated solos?  Not always; the parts that make me feel like the record is pleasantly off-kilter in songs like "1001 Nights" and "Notre Dame" aren't in the solos.  They most often come from something in the choruses, be it the vocal choices or the guitar lines.  So, the different songwriters each bring different energies?  Not really; I'm not having much success drawing a through-line between, say, whether or not [bassist and only permanent band member] Lee Payne has a writing credit on a track and what said track sounds like.  I'll vaguely wave at my overall feelings by saying that I think in, say, a Running Wild song, the fake-harpsichord/choral intro from "Mistress Of The Forest" would be just an intro to establish the main riff, whereas in Cloven Hoof's hands the intro lingers after the guitars have taken over and finds its way subtly into other parts of the song.

If I were forced to pick three reasons for why Ransom sounds ambitious to me, I'd go with these.  One, there's frequent use of chords that sound a little dissonant, or just harmonic.  It's frequent that the vocal line at the point of the hook will be about half a step higher than it "should" be, which just reads to my ears as cool and a little mysterious.  Two, the production, while rich and full, imbues a bit of echoey resonance that lets the music have a similar effect that the sparseness in Warlord's '80s work does; different way of getting there, but similar sense that there's more to the music that's beneath the surface.  Three, the simple fact that I struggle to identify any individual things that Cloven Hoof are doing here that other bands weren't, yet the record still feels unique.  Are they masters of creating novelty using a thoroughly established toolkit, maybe?

Anyway, I do like Ransom quite a bit.  That's what I can say after a couple listens - one of those records that one has a good feeling about.

Tidbits:

- I'm not totally sure why Russ, an Englishman, has vocal inflections that sound like they come from the American south, but he does.  Maybe just the stereotypical British fascination with Americana?  

- "1001 Nights" seems to be about the frame story from the Arabian Nights (with Sheherazade, etc) rather than about any of its component tales of action/adventure.

- "Notre Dame" manages to come up with a way of pronouncing the second word that is neither the usual accepted pronunciation of the titular cathedral nor the Americanized pronunciation that the university in Indiana uses.

Favorite track:  "Astral Rider"

Runner up:  "1001 Nights"

Least favorite track:  "D.V.R."

Preliminary rating:  4/5

Coming up:  More on A Sultan's Ransom, whenever I get around to it!

*Including the flares of high-pitched singing and fantasy themes... both common to many '80s metal bands including those classified as power and those that aren't

**The "modern" descendant that comes to mind, especially during something like "Astral Rider" with its groove and beer-drenched vocals telling a cosmic story, would be the proggier side of stoner metal.  Very specifically, perhaps because of the song title, my point of comparison to a record I know is with Warp Riders by The Sword. 

 

***But it's not just the vocals that do that... in fact, at the time of this writing, JP's Harry Conklin is Cloven Hoof's most recent in a line of lead singers.  I imagine that he'd fit in rather well.