The Opening Ritual

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The Opening Ritual
Theopeningritual.jpg
EP by Cloven Hoof
Released July 1982
Genre Heavy metal
Length21:47
Label Elemental Music
Cloven Hoof chronology
The Opening Ritual
(1982)
Cloven Hoof
(1984)

The Opening Ritual is an EP by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof, and their debut release. The track in this EP, "The Gates Of Gehenna" was re-recorded by the same band for their self-titled first full-length studio album. There exists a bootleg split album of this EP and the band's live album Fighting Back .

Extended play musical recording longer than a single, but shorter than a full album

An extended play record, often referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single, but is usually unqualified as an album or LP. EPs generally contain a minimum of four tracks and maximum of six tracks, and are considered "less expensive and time-consuming" for an artist to produce than an album. An EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) and LP, but it is now applied to mid-length CDs and downloads as well.

British people citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, British Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies, and their descendants

The British people, or the Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Celtic Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain and Brittany, whose surviving members are the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, and Bretons. It may also refer to citizens of the former British Empire.

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock, and acid rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. The genre's lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with aggression and machismo.

Contents

History

The EP stayed in the Sounds and Kerrang! heavy metal charts for six weeks, peaking at number 18. Articles in Kerrang! and Noise magazines followed, with Geoff Barton tipping the band for the top in his prestigious "Breaking through in '82 feature," and playlist.

<i>Kerrang!</i> British magazine about rock and metal music

Kerrang! is a British weekly magazine devoted to hard rock and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent. It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on a distorted electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the new wave of British heavy metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music weekly.

Geoff Barton is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! and was an editor of Sounds music magazine.

Over in America, unbeknownst to the band, John Strednansky was championing the band in his Metal Rendezvous magazine, and college radio stations were airing the EP on their playlists. A worldwide buzz was growing and international stardom seemed a formality. However, bad contract advice and in-fighting put paid to a huge recording deal. The untimely death of David Hemmings, the band's manager, was another terrible blow. An independent label was the only alternative for Cloven Hoof to once again gather momentum.

Undeterred, The Opening Ritual attained airplay on numerous radio stations worldwide, but it was not until Tommy Vance and Geoff Barton played tracks off the EP on radio one in the UK that the Cloven ones' career really began to break into a gallop.

Tommy Vance presenter

Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, known professionally as Tommy Vance, was an English radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. He was one of the first music broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans. The Friday Rock Show that he hosted gave new bands airtime for their music and fans an opportunity to hear it. His radio show was a factor in the rise of the new wave of British heavy metal. He used a personal tag-line of "TV on the radio". His voice was heard by millions around the world announcing the Wembley Stadium acts at Live Aid in 1985.

1983 saw Cloven Hoof touring throughout the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, earning themselves a sizeable underground cult following. In the summer of that year, the band recorded a four-track session for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 and a similar session for Beacon Radio for DJ Mike Davies.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

The Friday Rock Show was a radio show in the United Kingdom that was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 from 10pm to midnight on Friday nights, from 17 November 1978 until 2 April 1993.

BBC Radio 1 British national radio station

BBC Radio 1 is a British radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7 pm, including electronica, dance, hip hop, rock and indie. The choice of music and presenting style is entirely that of programme hosts, however those who present in the daytime have to rotate a number of songs a specific number of times per week. It was launched in 1967 to meet the demand for music generated by pirate radio stations, when the average age of the UK population was 27. The BBC claim that they target the 15–29 age group, and the average age of its UK audience since 2009 is 30. BBC Radio 1 started 24-hour broadcasting on 1 May 1991.

Track listing

All songs written by Lee Payne, unless indicted otherwise.

Lee Payne is the founding bassist and main songwriter of the British heavy metal/power metal band Cloven Hoof. Payne is a self-taught musician and is the only member of Cloven Hoof to feature in every line-up of the band to date.

  1. "The Gates of Gehenna" - 6:10
  2. "Stormrider" - 4:17
  3. "Back in the USA" - 4:40
  4. "Starship Sentinel" - 6:40

Credits

Related Research Articles

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References