There really are very few bands that have a claim at being my favorite band. The type of band that you genuinely feel you have a connection to, that despite how much time passes in which you don't listen to them, you can come back and feel it all again. I had grown a bit tired of Opeth in the past few years, mostly from a disappointing release, and from seeing them live twice with almost the same setlist, but when getting back in the headspace for the Getting Into article, it all came back and I remembered why I loved them. But I needed some help.

Is independent, unsigned, and underground metal what you seek? Weary traveller of the metal world, rest a while here. Clandestine Cuts are the best demos and EPs from these bands, the heart and soul of metal music. These musicians are slaves to their passions, and their blood keeps the metal machine alive and turning. Support them with a simple listen, and discover the future. This issue features music from Meurtrières, Lungtoucher, VoidOath, Zous, Holy Tyrant and Black Scythe.

We here at Metal Storm pride ourselves on our thousands of metal reviews and interviews and article; metal is our collective soul and passion, which is why we bother with this junk. That being said, we'd be lying if we stuck to our trve-kvlt guns and claimed that metal is the only thing we ever listen to. Whether we want to admit it or not, we do check out some other stuff from time to time; some of us are more poptimistic than others, but there's a whole world out there aside from Satan-worshiping black metal and dragon-slaying power metal.

While I'm sure pretty much any Metal Storm user could stop and name ten of their favorite bands if given time to think about it, it's less often that we really stop and consider a bigger, more overarching factor in the metal community: the record labels that serve as hosts to these bands in the first place.

Sonata Arctica were the first band to announce two timezone-adjusted separate streams for American and European audiences on SemiLive, based on their recurring all-acoustic tours and sets. Seeing how they said there would be slight differences in the setlists and how one of my ambitions in life (hindered by geography) is to be the kind of person who sees multiple sets from the same tour, I figured I should just watch both. Here's how that worked out for the band and me, just casually keeping live music alive through the magic of the internet on Acoustic Adventures 2020.