If for whatever bizarre reason you’ve read my inane ramblings over the last few years, you will know that Clouds Taste Satanic is a band I massively admire.  Their instrumental doom music is of a scope that is positively cinematic, and if any horror film directors want a sound track that will match the best of John Carpenter’s work, this New York act is the place to look.  Hey, come to my Scottish home, by invite of course, and you’ll see their prints and posters on my wall, a true indication of my regard for the band.  As such, it is with a very, very, heavy heart that I finally commit to writing my review this album, their own ingenious, yet to my ears flawed, choice of covers.

Rather than showcase the writing skills of the band, ‘Cloud Covered’ gives Clouds Taste Satanic a chance to show their influences and roots, all with their own unique instrumental style; sadly, not all works, or to be honest, to my ears, not much does.  Opener ‘Funeral For A Friend’ lacks the incisive edge that Elton John employed to craft a classic that today transcends what passes for “pop” music; nice try, but whilst respectful to the original, unlike Reg Dwight at Wrigley Fields, it was a swing and a miss.  ‘Behind The Wall Of Sleep’ should have been a home run, considering how ruined Ozzy’s voice is these days, but replacing the original vocals with well bent guitar chords did not do it for me.  An even more toe-curlingly worse example of substituting lyrics for down-tuned Gibson solos occurred in ‘If You Doom Me Now’; hell, as interesting as it was to have a band I massively admire taking on a ‘Chicago’ cheesy FM rock classic, I honestly dug lumps out of the carpet with the way my toes curled.  ‘Blew’, well it blew, never having enjoyed Nirvana, even when I saw them live back in the day, and ‘Sleeping on the Roof’ had me wishing to be asleep for five minutes, and yes, the track length was four minutes!

It was only with their takes on ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (check out ‘2001; A Space Odyssey’ youngsters), and the reimagining of Pink Floyd classics and album closer ‘In The Flesh/One Of These Days’ that the band really hit their stride, showcasing their massive musical talents and grabbing my musical interest by the throat that Clouds Taste Satanic showed their ability.  I’ve seen the latter played live by Pink Floyd, and damn me if I didn’t think there was more power and urgency in this new take on the sound then when I experienced Dave Gilmour bending the strings on his famous black Stratocaster.  ‘Cloud Covered’ is an album that I can only classify as “interesting” rather than essential, whereas all the previous releases of Clouds Taste Satanic are essential on regular repeat in the Spenny household.  Let me instead recommend any of the band’s original releases, and hope that after this hiccup, as I perceive it, they go on to create more of their own unique and compelling music.

(5/10 Spenny)

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https://cloudstastesatanic.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-covered-2