Band:	CloverSeeds
Album:	Innocence
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Bunkers And Cathedrals
02. A Thousand Knives For A Thousand Lies
03. Beside
04. Avalon
05. Dark Flag
06. Wizard
07. Innocence
08. Recall
09. Canvas
10. Khaos
11. Town

Clover Seeds is one of those new bands who have chosen to play Progressive Atmospheric music. With bands like Porcupine Tree, Riverside and even Anathema now, this genre is becoming trendy and a lot of newcomers try to follow them in the road of success. In France, all these bands are extremely popular and some good surprises start to appear. I can talk about Demians of course but let's focus a bit more on Clover Seeds because I can tell you that we're in front of something surprising here. If you like Prog Rock and cool Atmospheric Metal, "Innocence" is highly recommended.

Clover Seeds is a good melting-pot of different genres. Some of you will find influences from Muse or Radiohead, some other from Porcupine Tree and you all will be right. Actually Clover Seeds is not especially a Metal band but more a dark Progressive Rock one. The voice of Ced is really good and sounds a bit like the one of Matthew Bellamy (without being similar though) and if "Innocence" can be a bit Pop on a side, it also features some real Progressive Metal riffs and definitely, Porcupine Tree is not so far of us here. The general ambiance of the record is dark and melancholic; this is not fast at all and really atmospheric. All the songs have good introductions and become more powerful through the minutes, there is always a good progression in each tracks which are, as you can guess, not linear at all. Sure now that we have a lot of bands which play the same kind of music, I cannot tell that "Innocence" is really original but this is extremely well done and I think that you should have a look at it if you like peaceful Progressive music.

For a first album I can tell you that the guys have done something great. Of course the songs are good but the recording is perfect and the general artwork is just exceptional. This is really professional and I don't see why it shouldn't work. Sure Clover Seeds is not yet signed on a major but they have a good label and it shouldn't be so hard for you to buy this album. The guys are good musicians, the singer gives a lot of emotions to the songs it's really good and only suffers a bit of its similarity (in the genre only) with the famous bands of the category. Though, "Innocence" is just a first album and when I see its quality I'm ready to bet some money with you that we will heard a lot of good words about this band in the future? You'll see?

Of course, you have to like Progressive dark Rock to enjoy "Innocence", of course you have to be open-minded and like Pop Rock influences to understand this release but if you like Anathema, Demians, Riverside or Porcupine Tree, I can tell you that you'll have some good surprises here (and I'm a fan of the genre so I don't think that I'm so wrong!). I will keep an eye on Clover Seeds but no doubt that it's just a beginning and that they will be able to become "something" as we say. That's great to see that France is not an underground Metal country anymore, if the bands of the country follow this way I'm even sure that frog-land will become a main Metal country in some few year. That's good news, thanks to the masters like Gojira and thanks to the newcomers like Clover Seeds.