| The Opening Ritual | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| EP by | ||||
| Released | July 1982 | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length | 21:47 | |||
| Label | Elemental Music | |||
| Cloven Hoof chronology | ||||
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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 .
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.
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.
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.
All songs written by Lee Payne, unless indicted otherwise.
Cleansing is the fourth album by the American heavy metal band Prong, released on January 25, 1994, by Epic Records. It was produced by Terry Date, whereas Prong's previous two albums had been produced by Mark Dodson. The album features ex-Killing Joke members Paul Raven on bass guitar and John Bechdel on keyboards and programming. Featuring an industrial-influenced sound, the record received moderate commercial success.
The new wave of British heavy metal was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of new heavy metal bands in the mid to late 1970s, during the period of punk rock's decline and the dominance of new wave music.
Battleaxe are an English heavy metal band from Sunderland. As one of the bands of the new wave of British heavy metal scene, they started out with the name Warrior and morphed into Battleaxe in early 1981. The band consisted of Dave King (vocals), Brian Smith (bass), Steve Hardy (guitar), and Ian Thompson (drums). After playing around the area and honing their craft, they entered the recording studio to make a demo called "Burn This Town". In doing so, they garnered the attention of Roadrunner Records, and the result was their first album, Burn This Town.
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History of a Time to Come is the debut full-length album by the British thrash metal band Sabbat.
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This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1982.
Cloven Hoof are an English heavy metal band from Wolverhampton, active from 1979 to 1990, and again from around 2000 onward. They were associated with the new wave of British heavy metal movement, alongside bands such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Diamond Head. Enduring many line-up changes, only founding bassist Lee Payne has remained a constant member throughout the decades.
Cloven Hoof, released in 1984, is the first full-length studio album by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. The track "Gates Of Gehenna" from the band's debut E.P., The Opening Ritual, was re-recorded in this album. Neat Records re-released this album on CD in 2002 and included 3 bonus tracks that were recorded on 10 June 1983 for the BBC Friday Rock Show.
Fighting Back, released in 1986, is a live album by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. Unusually for a live album, it features a selection of new tracks not featured on previous albums, although the song "Eye of the Sun" would later resurface on their 2006 album of the same name and "Reach For the Sky" and "The Fugitive" were used on the follow-up 1988 album, Dominator. This is the only Cloven Hoof release to feature singer Rob Kendrick, and the last with guitarist Steve Rounds and drummer Kevin Poutney before breaking up the band.
Dominator, released in 1988, is the second full-length studio album by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. This science fiction concept album debuts singer Russ North and guitarist Andy Wood in the band, as well as drummer Jon Brown. This album also shows Cloven Hoof's musical direction leaning more towards power metal than their previous releases. The songs "The Fugitive" and "Reach for the Sky" were previously recorded on their 1986 live album Fighting Back, and "Road of Eagles" was originally recorded on their first 1982 demo and also recorded live in studio for the BBC Rock Sessions in the mid 1980s.
A Sultan's Ransom, released in 1989, is the third full-length studio album by the British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. It is the last Cloven Hoof album to feature Andy Wood on guitar, due to contractual difficulties that forced the whole band itself to split up from 1990 to 2001. Music videos were made for the songs "Mad, Mad World" and "Highlander".
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Neat Records was a British independent record label based near Newcastle, England. The label was established in 1979 by David Wood, who was the owner of Impulse Studios in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear. A key figure in the establishment of the label was Steve Thompson. Thompson was house producer at Impulse at the time and helped set up Neat, became the A&R manager and produced all the initial recordings, as well as managing the publishing arm, Neat Music. The label was sold in 1995 to Sanctuary Records.
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.
The Definitive Part One, released in 2008], is a compilation album by British heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. Apart from one new song, "Mutilator", all of the tracks are re-recorded versions of existing Cloven Hoof songs from the past.
Russ North is an English singer, best known for his role in the heavy metal band Cloven Hoof. North had several stints with Cloven Hoof, from 1987 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2009. In 2011, he was asked back with the band only to leave for the final time in 2012 under bizarre circumstances.
Throne of Damnation is an EP by British power metal/heavy metal band Cloven Hoof, released in 2010. It features three new songs and two are re-recordings of existing Cloven Hoof songs. Russ North recorded the vocals before he quit the band in late 2009, and his parts were subsequently re-recorded by his replacement, Matt Moreton.
Dave Sharman is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter, whose primary genre is rock and metal. He is also a multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
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