A quick start-of-week roundup…
Cloven Hoof
February 6th 2018 see’s the release of two Cloven Hoof CDs by Metal Nation Records:
The Definitive Part One
Active throughout the 1980’s the band folded in 1989 but reemerged in the mid-Noughties. Aware none of their four albums were available bassist and founder Lee Payne, together with long time Cloven Hoof vocalist Russ North, recruited drummer Joe Brown and guitarist Ben Read, re-entering the studio to record a new unreleased track together with unavailable classics from their back catalogue.
Only previously available from band gigs ten years ago the CD has been repackaged and given a professional release with distribution for the first time. The booklet has been extensively overhauled with new sleeve notes by the band and personal photos added plus full lyrics .
The Definitive Part Two
The second part of this series consists of rare and unreleased tracks recorded by Cloven Hoof in recent years and highlights four great vocalists associated with them during that time. The first five tracks are the 2010 self financed EP, The Throne Of Damnation – a short run private pressing featuring vocalist Matt Moreton (who had appeared on two previous Hoof albums). This EP was never made available commercially again, only sold via the band.
The other six tracks are unreleased gems featuring one song each from the vocal talents of Ash Cooper and recent frontman Joe Whelan who now tours as a featured vocalist in Jeff Wayne’s Arena musical of War Of The Worlds. The final four songs feature the talented vocalist Lee Small (Lionheart and Ex Shy, Phenomena and Skyscraper frontman). A full explanation of this period is included in the CD booklet by Lee Payne.
Metallica
Nearly three decades after going out of print, Metallica will release a remastered version of The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited on April 13th 2018 as part of their ongoing remasters series via their own Blackened Recordings label.
Originally released over 30 years ago on August 21st 1987, the collection features the band covering songs by early Metallica influencers such as Diamond Head, Holocaust, Killing Joke, Budgie, and The Misfits. The five songs from the EP were later included as a part of the 1998 multi-platinum release Garage, Inc., but the band felt it was time to bring it back in the original formats. This marks the first time this specific version is available to UK-based fans as the track “The Wait” was not included on the original version of the EP.
Fans who pre-order the EP will receive an instant of “The Wait” (originally released by Killing Joke in 1980).
Note that the EP now costs a little more than $5.98!
Cast The Stone
US-based death/black metal act Cast The Stone re-emerge with a new record deal with Agonia Records. Cast The Stone first began in 2002 as the original project between guitarist Mark Kloeppel of Misery Index, bassist Derek Engemann of Scour and Cattle Decapitation, and drummer Jesse Schobel of Legend/ex-Scour, prior to their departure into their current metal-scene mainstays. Rounded out by vocalist Andrew Huskey, the band will release new music in their original line-up in 2018.
Through years of successful touring and record creation within the hip’s other very well known projects, an attitude was fostered of “how would we do this now”? Cast The Stone returns not as some metal supergroup, but as a project of the original and purest intent of its hip. To be blunt, without Cast The Stone, the vast majority of the Misery Index discography, Cattle Decapitation’s seminal Monolith of Inhumanity and The Anthropocene Extinction albums, and Scour with Philip H. Anselmo, would not exist. Therefore, Cast The Stone has re-emerged to claim its rightful place in music history, as well as the future.
Yovel
Yovel as Band of the Day. They’ve just been back in touch to inform us that their debut album, Hɪðəˈtu, will be out in March. The cover art can be seen here, and you can check out a track from it, “Centennial”, below.
Given the band’s creepy reputation and the song we’ve already heard, expect Hɪðəˈtu to be very, very dark indeed.
