When we here at WoM ran across Cleric's music it almost seemed as if some kind of prophesy was being fulfilled. The music registered in our minds as a kind of missing link, like an inevitable stage in metal-oriented music that has needed to happen for a long time now. Yet somehow the seat of that destiny has remained ever vacant until this particular band came along. Like everything good, it took the tireless commitment of people unifying behind a vision which for some reason always ends up having to fight against every stream, every atrophy, every regression into easy answers, in order to reach its goal. There's no accounting for how "niche" bands are perceived, even when they are fulfilling a destiny as clear as the one Cleric has taken on. It's for this reason that lowly WoM is once again graced by one of the finest and well-honed musical expressions to emerge from any music scene in the last decade.
A four piece from Philadelphia, Cleric's music mixes elements of grindcore, avant garde composition, doom and... something else entirely? Influenced by other metal pioneers such as Meshuggah, Converge, Fantômas, and Neurosis, their music zeroes in on a level of brutality and experimentation that a single band rarely maintains even for a few seconds. In their six years since inception, Cleric has released a number of EPs and a 12" picture disk through Sound Devastation Records (UK), all of which (for their very high quality and unique & intricate sounds and artwork) have garnered praise and die-hard underground accolade. Having been around awhile, and taken a lot of shit & not given up & built themselves up internally to handle whatever bullshit this world flings their way, this band is just beginning its walk down their shining path.
