Formed in a small town in the Italian Alps back in 2000, Cleaver (formerly ‘Saluster’) have only previously recorded two demos (One of which they won recording time for due to a competition between 15 local bands. The demo was called ‘Deep Conceits Deep in the Tarn’, the quality of this demo was so bad they never released it) and in 2005 released another demo, titled ‘Gates to the Woods’. The band then spent most of 2004-2005 in the studio concentrating on their music and getting lots of practice for improving their abilities and making it a lot tighter. Now finally releasing the demo ‘Leur Sauvage Poussee’ we can see just how far they have come.
The albums intro track ‘Leaving the Beloved Prison’ sounds very much like that of Japanese instrumental band Mono, it’s beautiful and relaxing, but then pelts in straight away with the second track ‘Ipna’ with some quite unique riffing which sound almost power metal, and making it even more different with the death metal style drumming and vocals. ‘Searching for Tragedy’ is a catchy death metal track, admittedly I can’t understand what they are singing/growling about but nevertheless, I do like this track for its random shouting dual. The middle section has a bit of a battle metal feel to it and fades out to the next track. I did feel they could have made a cracking end to this track rather than just a fade. A couple of other tracks that stood out for me are the windmilling-worthy ‘Happy little things’ for the epic drumming techniques and vocals that sound like old school death metallers The Rotted (formerly Goreotted). ‘The Grand Fruit of Sloth’ is a cracking track for its heavy, grindy, in your face riffs and just before the middle section an almost demonic sounding growl fest!
So a few of the tracks are a little cheesy, containing both power metal melodies mixed with grind core drumming, and vocals sometimes don’t seem to fit, but some of the tracks are catchy. As for the intro track, ‘Leaving The Beloved Prison,’ this is just an amazing piece and definitely my favourite part of this CD. The artwork for the cover is impressive and the band member photos are a mix between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (look out for Professor Snape on the last page of the bands slip insert). Overall the is definitely something different and I would at least recommend a quick listen.
http://www.myspace.com/cleavermetal
