Clandestine Cuts #8 - Feat. Defender, Tormenta, Dreamcatcher, Despair, Eulen, Formless, Cult Of Whores And Dogs
| Written by: | Doc G. |
| Published: | May 02, 2011 |
Clandestine Cuts #8
Demo/EP Spotlight
Like a bad case of herpes, right as soon as you thought it was gone for good, it's back, and even less ignorable than ever! It's Clandestine Cuts! We're onto issue number 8, for those of you who missed our first few issues, vote for whichever band you think is the best, and the top 10 will be nominated in the yearly MetalStorm awards for our Clandestine Cut Of The Year!
Everybody loves re-runs! Go back and vote for the previous ones from this year:
Clandestine Cuts #5
Clandestine Cuts #6
Clandestine Cuts #7
Voting Closed on January 10, 2012
| Defender - WWIII http://www.facebook.com/defenderofficial Well, the title doesn't really leave too much to the imagination, neither does the music. Unfortunately, the name merely stresses the lack of creativity, not the ferocity you would expect from an EP titled WWIII. To sum things up so you can move along to something more worthy of your time - this sounds like a watered down, super-melodic thrash drenched in power metal, and metalcore of the non-aggressive variety. by Luke Godin |  |
 | Tormenta - Tormented Souls http://www.myspace.com/thetormenta Ok, now here's something real interesting! Thrash...that's all there is to it. The guitar work sounds incredibly close to Megadeth; high-speed, rip-roaring shred splattered across pounding rhythm tracks, yet it's delivery is so much more convincing than Megadeth, making this better than almost any MegaDave release since at least Countdown... Bold claim...sort of. What makes Tormenta special is the fact they pull off an attack of pure ferocity - mostly from a healthy dose of what seems to be Entombed influence - that Megadeth never did. Fast, bold & aggressive, with a noteworthy amount of technical prowess; what else would you want in your thrash? by Luke Godin |
| Dreamcatcher - Souldesign http://www.myspace.com/dreamcatchermusic Above anything else, there's no denying this band has their shit together. Attempting heavily synth'd-out melodic metal is a risky move for any up-and-coming act, how many times have we seen that go horribly wrong? Needless to say, whether you hate music that could potentially be extremely palatable to a wider, mainstream audience, Dreamcatcher is definitely a band that is serious about their craft on all levels. It's very akin to power metal in it's tightly-layered guitar-keyboard combo, but closer to the melodic end of metalcore in the vocal delivery. It's definitely a band with promise, but one that also needs to focus on a wider range of song styles. If a band sounds tired after only a few tracks, there's certainly work to be done. by Luke Godin |  |
 | Despair - Enlightened Split/w Eulen http://www.myspace.com/despairambientblack/music Underground black metal - it's generally a dime-a-thousand, factory production line form of music. Like any other form of music, though, it has it's hidden gems, Despair are definitely amongst that few. It's a pretty straight-forward black metal approach with a good amount of post influence splashed in. To try and describe their sound wouldn't do them too much justice, as stated before, it's a pretty straight-forward sound. All there is to say is that the riffs are very distinct & varied. One song just isn't enough. by Luke Godin |
| Eulen - Enlightened Split/w Despair http://www.myspace.com/owlers ...And on the other half of the Enlightened Split EP we have Eulen; a massive sounding, raw blackened doom metal. Like Despair, their sound is fairly easy to describe; haunting melodies with cold sounding black metal riffs pushing forward at a glacial pace. Eulen seem to have a good grasp on how to execute slightly more ambient music like this; it's all about depth. Eulen really made the most of the raw production values to create something truly haunting here. All in all the Enlightened split EP with Despair is a solid release on both sides. by Luke Godin |  |
 | Formless - 2010 Demo http://www.myspace.com/formlessband/music Shit, so someone knows how to make a proper demo - there's not enough room for long ass intros of fade-in ambient lead-ins or any such time-fillers. Ok, so "Forever Of Nothing" does take about 40 seconds to kick in, but for the most part this a nice 20 minute onslaught of one techy death metal riff after another. Every once in a while we get a short break with some melancholy clean vocals of the female variety, but considering they don't go overkill on these, they actually add a fresh dynamic to the music rather than sounding like some gimmicky aspect crow-barred into the music. by Luke Godin |
| Cult Of Whores And Dogs - Brass Knuckle Bondage And Morgue Rules http://www.myspace.com/thecultofwhoresanddogs/music Ugh...this could have been good. It really could have. Initially it sounds like an interesting slab of raw doom mixed with some good ol' fashion punk rock. It sounds grimy as fuck, which is good, considering there's no doubt that's what they were aiming for, but good lord I don't think I've ever heard something so repetitive. Maybe there's a reason you don't see many punk/doom hybrids - grooveless, repetitive riffs don't always translate that well at half-speed. by Luke Godin |  |
Comments
Comments: 17
Visited by: 131 users
| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774  |
The vocals of defender is a bit too upfront in the production... else it might have sounded better imo EDIT: pretty weak issue overall
---- loves 小巫
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Lol, all the bylines. i will check these out later, when time permits.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
Written by BitterCOld on 03.05.2011 at 00:30 Just keeping things consistent.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Euelen/Despair or Formless should take this issue - not a very strong one at that. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by Doc G. on 03.05.2011 at 02:11 sorry i couldn't help out, still have a half dozen reviews and change to get done. posted 10 reviews in the last 33 days or so. getting fucking carpal tunnel syndrome.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
Written by BitterCOld on 03.05.2011 at 02:20 Lol. Oh, you don't know the half of it. Oh well, I'm not too concerned. Demo/EP write-ups are pretty easy for me. It's all the freaking UBB coding that makes this time consuming, no amount of input from anyone would have made it less so.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 03.05.2011 at 02:15 I chose Eulen in the end... Formless was good, but rather straightforward while Eulen had a bit more depth to me
---- loves 小巫
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Kudos to the non-staff/elite that have checked this out thus far. nice to see folks checking into shit other than teh ZOMG POPULAR KEWL METUL! shit.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
Written by BitterCOld on 04.05.2011 at 10:32 Exactly. Blind Guardian and Iron Maiden don't give a damn if you check out their reviews. These small-time bands actually value any exposure whatsoever.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| InnerSelf proofread free Posts: 2682  |
It is really great to see my home country bands split here  I chose Despair though I liked some of the other stuff but like what have been said this is not the strongest Clandestine Cut issue
---- He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself.
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| qlacs "The Quaker" Posts: 1547  |
Formless! I know them since they demo came out, they are really good.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62017  |
Cult Of Whores And Dogs sounds like Wolfs In The Throne Room(I mean same type band title) and album arywork looks like Forgotten Tomb, but I could choose between 2 Lebenese bands, but after long thoughts I vote for Eulen I like it lil better how other band, but only lil
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| InnerSelf proofread free Posts: 2682 |
Written by Bad English on 07.05.2011 at 22:49 Syrian 
---- He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Hmmm yeah, first time that the Clandestine Cuts are weak.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Promonex Cathemeral Elite Posts: 9720  |
Tormenta all the way. Eulen and Dreamcatcher were quite decent as well.
---- All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu... This is the truth! This is my belief! ...At least for now. - The Mystery of Life, Vol. 841 Ch. 26
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| JD Account deleted |
JD
Account deleted Written by InnerSelf on 04.05.2011 at 18:29 How did I miss this "Clandestine Cuts"... After listening to both songs, I think I enjoyed Despair's Immortality Of Shadows more, therefor I voted for them, although Eulen has some great songs on their new debut.
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| InnerSelf proofread free Posts: 2682 |
Written by [user id=28526] on 30.10.2011 at 14:52 Yep the debut is very impressive, I'm really enjoying it at the moment
---- He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself.
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