A Sultan's Ransom

NWOBHM was a pretty fast movement; if you didn't have something out by '83, you weren't going to be commercially successful. By the mid-1980s, the masses had moved on from NWOBHM and were onto thrash; there simply wasn't a market for the music anymore. However, that didn't stop tons of bands from trying to cash in a bit late to the party or branching out in other directions, and while this most often led to disaster, there are some pretty mature non-NWOBHM efforts by British bands in the mid-to-late 80s; Elixir's Son of Odin, Full Moon's debut, Desolation Angels' debut, and the Cloven Hoof albums with Russ North stand among the best of those. While 1988's Dominator wasn't a complete flop, the spotty songwriting and sub-par production put it well below their 1989 crowning achievement, A Sultan's Ransom.

The style here is a bit more mature version of Dominator; namely, power metal with strong NWOBHM leanings, not surprising given the band's history. The galloping leads and youthful energy could easily have fit in a few years earlier, but the more mature riffing and guitar harmonies mark this clearly as its own beast, and that's not to mention Russ Fucking North on vox. Possessing one of the most powerful midranges out there and an upper register that pierces the stratosphere, the closest comparisons I can make are either a cleaner, deeper Bruce Dickinson or perhaps a more sober Glen May (of Tyrant). His occasional use of multi-tracking is laudable ("Mistress of the Forest" especially), and the guitar tone, unlike Dominator, is loud and up front, with a damn nice squealing quality that just screams '80s in the best way possible.

The song structures are pretty simple, but there are very few songs here that aren't absolute winners. "Mad, Mad World" is the only song I have any real complaint about, and that's due to the fact that it sounds like glam rock, and not good glam rock at that. I'm not really sure what the band was thinking here; every other song is on target, but this one just stinks. The rest of the album is Russ North soaring over huge, catchy hooks and speedy solos that leave nothing to be desired. "Astral Rider" and "Mistress of the Forest" are especially good, but overall the thing's just a giant platter of squealing metal ready to be digested. Highly recommended, one of the best power metal albums of the 80s.

This is a strange album for many reasons, I mean, historically Cloven Hoof were a NWOBHM band but sonically this is a lot closer to USPM. I guess that’s all part of a recurrent trend in late 80s British music - namely, ripping off a former colony - after all, there were no shortage of British bands attempting to sound like Guns N Roses or to be “the next Metallica”. But A Sultan’s Ransom can clutch another merit firmly to its chest: being one of very few examples of a NWOBHM band changing its style and managing to adapt - artistically, at least, the fact that the band split in 1990 was perhaps indicative of financial or personnel problems - well into the second half of the 80s.

The links with USPM here are very strong - it could be something to do with both Cloven Hoof and, say, Crimson Glory, Fates Warning and Virgin Steele sharing similar musical influences; Maiden, Priest, Dio era Sabbath and Rainbow (particular the Sab’s penchant for heavy riffs but a very strong focus on the vocals and a lot of keyboards adding a great deal to its lush atmospheric sound). So maybe, you could consider that debut somewhat nearer to what other USPM bands were putting out around ‘84? The debut’s epic yet rocking sound certainly doesn’t sound too out-of-place when put aside something like Ample Destruction or Battle Cry (or perhaps we say the Americans were influenced by NWOBHM, eh?). You’ll find there’s similar tropes between Cloven Hoof and the USPM bands of this time. For instance, if you were to compare - let’s say - Virgin Steele’s Age of Consent and Crimson Glory’s debut to A Sultan’s Ransom you’d find a lot heavy yet highly melodic riffs, the use of acoustic (or at least clean) intro and outro sections being utilised to great effect and the feeling that the whole band had sat around and consciously decided to build their whole sound around the vocals. It’s actually something I value about the said bands, due to the vocalists being so highly valued and placed in the band’s sound you get the fact that everything in the band is about strengthening a rich melodic feel; vocalists are never afraid to multi-track themselves, riffs are big and heavy yet they always possess a degree of finesse, the bass will often provide a counter melody at a key moment in the song and drums… well, drums are being hit with sticks, you can’t expect too much. So, if the British Guns N Roses copyists were rendered much too podgy due to a diet of pork scratchings and snakebite to ever fit into Axl’s “stars and stripes” spandex shorts then Cloven Hoof are fairing well against their US counterparts. But still, if there’s a point I must stress it’s that Cloven Hoof are to be considered contemporaries rather than distant, bumbling cousins. Whatever the case Russ North's dwelling on hunchbacks and Esmeralda isn't too far away from Midnight telling us how he must find Azrael.

A Sultan’s Ransom is a classy album but it does have a couple of flaws present. Firstly, the production, though much cleaner and clearer than any preceding Cloven Hoof album, this in itself proves to be problematic. The guitar tone lacks bite - it’s just a sort of heavily reverberated mush - not the worst tone I’ve heard by a long distance but it’s certainly doing its best to date this album significantly. It’s as if giving the album a big sticker saying “best before 31st of December 1989”. Secondly, Andy Wood, though far from a bad guitarist, often seems convinced his solos will be much better if he fits as many notes into an allocated space as possibly. Again, it’s not bad - far from it, even - but you feel if he’d focused a bit more on the key melodies that are present in solos they’d be much better off for it. Furthermore, he does tend to occasionally cheapen some of the said melodies, to give another parallel with a US band, again, if you listen to what Jon Drenning and Ben Jackson did on Crimson Glory and Transcendence they did a much better job of incorporating flashy techniques into key melodies - whammy bar dives, pinch harmonics etc - but unlike Wood’s playing they didn’t feel like interjections. Wood’s playing occasionally breaks the flow of what should be a really enjoyable part of the song. Anyway, it’s not a major problem - just a noticeable one. However, to add injury to insult there’s a really naff attempt at a commercial song. It seems baffling after they didn’t do anything of the sort on Dominator; it’s kind of like Manilla Road dropping “wooo, baby!/heavy metal, yeah, yeah, yeah” rocking songs on The Deluge and then deciding they could really use one on Mystification. You didn’t ever need them! Anyway, fuck me, ‘Mad, Mad World’ is horrid it reminds me of Tony Hadley meets Duran Duran, but with enough cursory metal guitars to fit into what otherwise is, umm, a metal album. Tumbling-down-the-stairs melodies… ugh, no. I don’t listen to this song often, however, I do sometimes hear it by accident.

Thankfully, A Sultan’s Ransom knows its strengths which happen to be usually classy songwriting and Russ North’s wonderful, sonorous voice. ‘Astral Riders’ proves to be a fun opener - hectic and fun; a busy way to start the album, however, perhaps misleadingly speedy given that the album settles into a comfortable mid-pace for most of its duration. ‘Norte Dame’ provides one of the best representations of Cloven Hoof’s second era: a morose introductory section, giving North room to swoon and croon, and then we’re into some blazing, anthemic power metal. One of A Sultan’s Ransom’s real strengths is that when they get a good hook, they know how to make it into a great one. Point in case: the ‘hear the bells, cry sanctuary!’ bit.

But then there’s something else entirely…

Ever had the problem when you solidly enjoy an album - but one particular song means so much more? Somehow, for the album’s final track, Cloven Hoof manage to transcend the subtle creeping flaws that - didn't mar - but hindered the rest of the album. ‘Mistress of the Forest’ is something wonderful; a quirky keyboard-on-harpsichord-setting intro, then the second intro all misty and ethereal… enchanting, really. It’s a song the veers between beauty and danger, perfectly capturing its description of a bad-luck, mysterious woman; as we all know the fairer sex are perhaps more complex and dangerous than cans of beer (be they full or empty). Lyrically, it echoes both ‘Fata Morgana’ and ‘A Dangerous Meeting’, which are taken from my two favourite albums of the 1980s, so that’s no bad thing. This probably wasn’t intention… but I have a lot of free time at present. It all builds to a fierce gallop at the final verse, she is waiting… the scene is set for you. One more final - and achingly beautiful acoustic outro - and it’s all over.

If the album was all that good it would be perfect, as it stands, it’s not. Worthy, and fully worth tracking down, though. I got a copy from Greece and it came with some lovely Greek stamps…

‘On the eve of the dead
at the forest edge,
thirteen corpses are found consumed by fire.
Shrill laughter came with the fall of the rain,
as the flames danced higher and higher.
Mistress of the forest,
Shimmering into view.
She abides eternally waiting
as the scene is set for you.’

Cloven Hoof, many NWOBHM followers know the name by now. It's unspeakable how such a class act was left behind in the dust after all these years. These guys had more than what it takes to become a legend, then again they have reformed with none other than vocalist Russ North after all these years so maybe they will make a groundbreaking comeback not to be messed with (as most of us don't consider Eye of the Sun to be a comeback of any sort). As some already stated this album may have been released just a bit too late, either way it stands the test of time flawlessly and is a brilliant gem of its own kind, sound, and style. There's nothing I can rightfully compare this too.

If you've read the previous reviews it should be well known by now that vocalist Russ North is possibly the biggest highlight here. There's pretty much nobody out there with a voice such as his. He has by far one of the most overpowering voices I've ever come across in metal, he could sing about anything and you'd be forced to believe him. It's like if Zeus wanted to talk to everyone on the world at one single time, standing at the top of a mountain or something - this is probably what he'd sound like. Nobody can say "You're the Silver Surfer" like North does here. Lyrics are easier to hear and understand than ever before and these choruses completely soar through the skies.

But I firmly believe the greatest aspect here is the band in its entirety, the song structures. The progression of every single track is clearly unprecedented and insanely creative, leaving you with nothing but pure satisfaction song after song. It's as if every track here was made to be the closing number for the end of the album, they all seem to inevitably build up to some blisteringly awesome solo's, unforgettable choruses, catchy rhythm's and beats never heard before, and so forth. Every track is very dynamic and pretty much a one of a kind experience. All members and instruments are completely above and beyond.

The one thing that typically haunted the band in their earlier days was the production flaws, or mainly the mixing. Luckily it's not nearly as bad as Dominator's and doesn't really bring the album to a halt of any kind. Though there are definitely a few moments where the solo's might come out of nowhere and pierce your ears and sometimes the overall sound just seems a bit odd. It needed some polishing but they probably just wanted to get this out as fast as they could. Overall, it's hardly terrible. With the quality of the music here this flaw is meaningless.

Unlike some people I personally don't get as many sci-fi chills with this one as I do with Dominator. The songs and ideas here typically feel a little more straightforward but regardless they still took the formula of their previous release and mastered it here. The unique atmosphere is still abound on several tracks and there's certainly a lot of epic influences covering some of the later ones. From the incredibly uplifting and epic beast Forgotten Heroes, to the mysterious Jekyll and Hyde, and to the just downright silly and enjoyable Silver Surfer, this album has emotions of every kind on it. Both Notre Dame and Highlander take the epic level to its limits, with nothing but unpredictable structuring and progression. There's then the monstrous Mistress Of The Forest which is nonstop in its dynamic progression, the track is constantly changing and there's never a repeating moment where they revert back to a pattern of any sort in it. Truly a remarkable song, but so is every single track here.

That's probably enough drooling over this one. The first time I deluged into this gem I found myself listening to it multiple times on a daily basis and this lasted for at least a month or two. Since then, maybe a year later or so it's been a regular CD in my car whenever I drive and very few make it there! Unfortunately if you want to grab a copy of this you're going to have to pull a brick out of your wallet, but luckily their current label plans on re-releasing both this and Dominator in a double pack with a remastered sound (hopefully patching things up correctly), so hopefully we'll see that release soon. Until then get this in anyway possible and take a dive into nothing but brilliance. Anyone who appreciates heavy metal should love this.

Cloven Hoof didn't have very good timing here. This album was released in 1989, long after most of the NWOBHM bands had either died out or become stale. But here was a fresh and young band riding on the last echoes of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, pumping out a solid, consistently ass-kicking album of hammering heavy metal tunes and not faltering even a bit.

A Sultan's Ransom, while oddly titled, was the third effort from Cloven Hoof, and the first one I ever heard by them. Their sound is a basic, typical NWOBHM one, with bellowing, melodic vocals, speedy, catchy, thrashy riffs, simplistic yet powerful drum beats, and a clicking, whiddling bass sound backing it all up with conviction and rigidity. There isn't much here that is different or distinguished from the rest of the NWOBHM movement (think Court in the Act era Satan crossed with Piece of Mind Maiden, with echoes of Ample Destruction making appearances here and there), but Cloven Hoof take a set-in-stone style and build upon it with a few thousand helpings of nitrous. Vocalist Russ North is the primary reason for this; boasting a dynamic, deep-throated bellow that can soar straight up into the stratosphere ala Dickinson or Conklin. He has a catchy voice, and gives a 100% performance on just about every song here, boosting this record to stratospheric heights. The rest of the band does an excellent job as well, although nothing really jumps out at you and grabs you by the throat like some of North's vocal melodies do. But hell, who needs a bunch of virtuosic wanking anyway? This is just solid, balls-out heavy fucking metal to the core, and I like it just fine the way it is.

There are no weak tracks on this album, and while some may seem weak at first, you end up loving them after a few listens anyway. There are a few tracks that completely fucking rule here though, my favorite of which being the stunning opener "Astral Rider." A galloping, speedy tune with a killer chorus and a solo that will melt your face off, "Astral Rider" is easily one of the top 10 best songs that ever came out of the NWOBHM movement, with the next track "Forgotten Heroes" probably being up there too - a triumphant, volleying mini epic that I will never tire of hearing. The choruses on this disc really do rule, being just a peg short of the ball-shattering choruses on Jag Panzer's timeless classic Ample Destruction - epic, soaring, and majestic, just exploding with gallons of raw fucking energy. Other standouts here include the speedy "D.V.R.", which has enough energy to power a small city for a week or so, and the ripping, star-shattering "Silver Surfer." "Highlander" also really rocks, and it just may be the catchiest song on here, and "Jekyll and Hyde" is a fun, Maidenish jaunt that won't disappoint at all. The epic "Mistress of the Forest" ends the album in a rush of grandeur and class, rounding off A Sultan's Ransom as a delightfully cool heavy metal outing for those who want to forage further into the genre's underground.

Highly recommended to old school NWOBHM/traditional metal purists, and if you say otherwise, you're likely a lost cause anyway.

To become famous and successful as a band you need to create something unique… and fabulous. Sometimes that isn’t enough, and people will talk about you in the past tense as “Should have been huge”. Cloven Hoof’s A Sultan’s Ransom (sadly) fits that description. Released in the later era of NWOBHM, A Sultan’s Ransom can be seen as an attempt to do something different, and probably would have been huge, had it been released a few years earlier.

It may not have stirred things up much, but A Sultan’s Ransom is still genuinely interesting and unique. It’s interesting – and telling of its qualities – that it will probably garner more attention from present time metal fans than it ever did upon release. The songwriting is unusually epic and the band experiments with some interesting (and unconventional) melodies and hooks, as well as keyboard. I was genuinely surprised when I saw the album was released in 1989 - it sounds newer than that. A lot of credit should go to vocalist Russ North for his work here. Like Iced Earth’s Matt Barlow, he’s totally unique and irreplaceable. Finding a comparison is hard, but the only vocalist I can think of who is a close match is Michael Grant from Onward… maybe a tiny resemblance to Matt Barlow.

The band sets the bar high right from the start with two of the best songs on the album: ‘Astral Rider’ and ‘Forgotten Heroes’. ‘Astral Rider’ starts with a keyboard intro and proceeds with some technical, almost Satan-esque riffing. The refrain is catchy and almost surreal –gives you a feeling that you’re in for something special, and indeed you are. ‘Forgotten Heroes’ flows like water from a fountain and has some of the best guitar melodies on the album. It’s a catchy, melodic and fairly straightforward song - a definite highlight.
Next song, ‘D.V.R.’, is a speedier and shorter song that doesn’t disappoint but is too brief to reach up to the standard set by the previous two songs and sounds a little out of place.
‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is next and has some of the most stylish riffing on the album. The instrumental break which starts around 1:40 is pure magic. At this point you may ask yourself if it can get any better than this…
A fast forward to ‘Highlander’ proves your wrong, as this song may be the best on the whole album. The highlight of the song is the verse which is sung with such emotional intensity it threatens to stick in your head forever. I bet Steve Harris wishes he had written it first. The last song, ‘Mistress of the Forest’, is the most epic of the bunch and sends fairy-tale vibes down your spine. The intro and build-up is tasteful, and the finish, masterful. It’s not an instant winner like ‘Forgotten Heroes’ or ‘Highlander’, but you’ll learn to love it.

At this point in time, NWOBHM was in decline. The style was falling in popularity and new, different bands and styles were forming. With A Sultan’s Ransom Cloven Hoof showed a willingness to adapt and created a sound that was unique and totally their own. So, if you ask me which bands we should have kept from the era, Cloven Hoof definitely gets my vote. Maybe if the band had released A Sultan’s Ransom a few years earlier, it would have been the start of something great. Instead, the band split-up shortly after its release.

This rarity is a true gem of the NWOBHM treasure. The two most outstanding elements are the vocals and the guitars. Russ North is without any doubt one of the best metal singers in the world. Few can combine the power, class, range, technicality, and falsetto screams he shows off only in the first song. Coming to that, he has a voice of his own. Charismatic, strong, inspired and emotional. Yes this singer rocks. He joined Cloven Hoof on the Dominator album but A Sultan’s Ransom feature even finer works of his. This guy was by the way in the final round when Iron Maiden selected a new vocalist.

The guitarist Andy Wood moves the listener to the seventh heaven with his blazing leads, glimmering solos and blasting riffs. It’s such a pleasure listening to the melodic yet so powerful guitars played by competent hands switching between riff attacks, solo crescendos and calmer passages faster and easier than oneself put butter on the breakfast bread. Actually, the guitar work is unparalleled by most bands of the time. It’s like Andy LaRocque in King Diamond’s band during their three best albums, squared. Drumming feels just as human-made as it shall do. Not the overly exact beats of a machine, but the harder, yet more fluid-like ones you only hear from a really skilled drummer. They just flow on, and on, and on… One doesn’t hear any echoes; one cannot but appreciate the swift and soft switching between tempos that happens quite often.

The music is a dynamic speed-attack by this now ten years old band, who now really proves they are masters of the genre. There isn’t one single tune not giving one a sudden, strong and vital urge to head bang. Astral Rider is an instant hit, and so are all the other songs. The only weak spot, Notre Dame, is weak only in sense that it is weaker than the other songs on this album. I don’t want to give the impression that it in is a weak song; that would be misleading. In fact, it slays most Iron Maiden and Judas Priest songs without any problems. Forgotten Heroes and especially Mad, Mad World are extremely catchy, with the kind of choruses you’ll find yourself singing on the street. But even these songs, and the magnificent Astral Rider, speedy, D.V.R, Accept-tasting Jekyll & Hyde, they are all nothing compared to the two real masterpieces, the two epic closing songs. Highlander and Mistress of the Forest are perhaps the two most expressive NWOBHM ever recorded. If not, they are definitely among the top ones.