Written by:	nikarg, RaduP, musclassia, Starvynth
Published:	April 10, 2022

Clandestine Cuts Volume 12, Issue #3
The Metal Storm Demo/EP Spotlight



Is independent, unsigned, and underground metal what you seek? Weary traveller of the metal world, rest here a while. 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.

Metal Storm users: you can vote in the poll below to choose your favourite demo/EP of the issue. The winners each year are nominated in our annual Metal Storm Awards so exercise your rights: this is the one category chosen completely by YOU the readers. Make sure your favourite independent metal is recognized each year!

(Think your band has what it takes to be featured in the Cuts? Email demos@metalstorm.net to submit your music.)

In case you're new at this, go back and enjoy our last few issues:

Clandestine Cuts Vol. 12 #2
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 12 #1
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 11 #12

And now to the new music...

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The band is called Green King. Their digital EP costs 4.20€ at Bandcamp. They describe their music as “beer fueled stoner and heavy metal for all the trippers, tokers, hippies and followers of the left-hand path out there”. You get the point, don’t you? Rock Alley Tapes is some proto-heavy metal with a stoner attitude. One great thing about it is that the pace is not of the sluggish, usual borefest stoner, move-the-fuck-on-you-sloth-that-riff-is-not-even-that-good-to-play-for-2-minutes-straight kind. “Mistbreather” may sound more like typical stoner but “Dragon Lords” has this upbeat, dirty doom riff and Green King have many tricks up their sleeve, like an almost melodeath intro on “Until Rust Takes It All”, for example. In general, the riffs are mean and green, and the lead guitar work is outright killer - just check out the last minute and a half of “The Keeper”. A debut LP is on the way, so expect some more old-school heavy metal rolling a big fat one for you in the near future.

by nikarg

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Symphonic deathcore is very much an ‘in’ thing at the moment; however, the extent to which bands balance the two aspects can vary, from those that slap a few flourishes on top of a dark deathcore base (such as Worm Shepherd) to the likes of Shadow Of Intent fully fleshing out the symphonic side and taking the deathcore in a more melodic direction. Very much at the latter end of the spectrum come Winter’s Gate with their second EP, The Voyage In Becoming. The folk metal-influenced tone of this EP at times is closer to the grandeur of an Aephanemer or Equilibrium, with epic-minded backdrops and bright lead guitar melodies, yet at the same time there’s chunky breakdowns, gnarly technical deathcore riffs and a spirited roaring vocal performance. It’s a dazzling and majestic interpretation of the current trend in deathcore, and I would be surprised if this group remains unsigned for much longer.

by musclassia

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The most exciting copse since the one that Hamilton punted Verstappen off at, Bristol’s Copse make their debut with a two-track demonstration of the joys of blackgaze done right. It’s certainly on the harder-hitting end of the blackgaze/atmo-black spectrum; hitting a very similar tone early on to Abigail Williams’ “Black Waves”, “Mara” subsequently pushes forward into onslaughts of blast beats and pounding double bass rhythms. It’s a very single-minded song that subtly weaves melody within a relentless percussive barrage; “Mondrem” is slightly more varied, but still takes a similar approach. Compared with the bright shimmer of “Mara”, “Mondrem” is more melancholic, and features a punky post-hardcore edge alongside the sadly beautiful tremolo melodies and ballistic blasts. Mara | Mondrem doesn’t feature much downtime, operating at maximum energy pretty much constantly after the first couple of minutes of “Mara”, but the quality of the melodies and the subtle transitions keep it engaging through; Copse could be a real force in this sphere of metal if they carry on at this level.

by musclassia

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When it comes to Romania's scene, and especially Timisoara's, most of the attention has been given to the three core members of Negură Bunget, but starting from there you have a couple of degrees of separation to a lot of bands. Andrei "Putrid" Jumugă and Dragos "Urmuz" Oichea might be familiar names for those that explored those degrees, as they've played in Argus Megere, Dordeduh, Ordinul Negru, and Syn Ze Șase Tri. What I find most surprising about Ruthless Portrait is that it feels more like an experiment out of the comfort zone, since Putrid is primarily a drummer, yet he plays bass and guitars here, while Urmuz has mostly had backing vocal duties now taking the lead. There's quite an endearing awkwardness to Ruthless Portrait that combines the very obvious skill that the people involved have with the uneasiness in performance. I can safely attest, that said uneasiness will be less and less of a factor with each In Ruins album henceforth.

by RaduP

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This little EP is a marriage between black metal and synthwave, and, as different as these genres are, I know many metalheads that enjoy both. Can they be enjoyed when put in a blender though? I don’t know if Night Of The Vampire’s Eternal Night has been influenced by The Night Eternal, the vampire horror novel by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan but what I do know is that it is a very successful mix of styles that doesn’t sound forced or gimmicky (*cough*Lamp Of Murmuur*cough*). Imagine a mash-up of Nosferatu and Knight Rider, in which Count Orlok is driving K.I.T.T. playing this EP in the cassette player. Or it could have easily been part of the score of American Horror Story 1984. If you are into ‘80s horror films, darkwave, post-punk, and catchy black metal, this is made for you.

by nikarg

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Now that we have In Aphelion, one might wonder what the other members of Necrophobic have been doing since the release of Dawn Of The Damned. Well, at least the drummer has not been idle either, as Unhallow is a new project of Necrophobic's Joakim Sterner and Robert Sennebäck, the very first vocalist and current guitarist of Dismember. If you expect ferociously fast melodic black/death metal à la Necrophobic paired with a fierce and take-no-prisoners approach on swedeath à la Dismember from the founding members of two of Sweden's oldest and finest extreme metal bands, you will be surprised, because the two veterans of the Scandinavian death metal scene take a direction on their first demo that has only little in common with the typical output of their main bands. Dæmonum represents a dark and doomy take on melodic death metal in slowed down speed, which reminds a bit of the early recordings of Tiamat and Cemetary, but is also reminiscent of Dæmonarch's criminally overlooked debut. Especially the keyboards performed by R. Sennebäck contribute to the very dense and eerie atmosphere, which could well serve as the soundtrack of a horror movie. In any case, if these two demo tracks are a foretaste of an upcoming full-length album, fans of this particular style should be very excited, because it would fill a gap in the musical landscape that no other band has been able to fill since Clouds and Godless Beauty, and that was more than 30 years ago.

by Starvynth

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