Clandestine Cuts Vol. 9 Issue #4 - Awesome New Demos and EPs
| Written by: | Nefarious, nikarg, RaduP, Abattoir |
| Published: | May 06, 2019 |
Clandestine Cuts Volume 9, Issue #4
The Metal Storm Demo/EP Spotlight
Brand New Independent Metal Lives Here.
Welcome to the Clandestine Cuts!
Welcome to the Clandestine Cuts!
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. 9 #3
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 9 #2
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 9 #1
And now to the new music...
| Midnight Dice - Midnight Dice Listen at Bandcamp With Satan's Hallow on indefinite hiatus shortly after the release of the best revivalist heavy metal album of the decade, Mandy, Steve, Jose, and Rusty formed a new band, Midnight Dice, to continue making music together after their friend Von Jugel moved away. The two original tracks in this demo are understandably somewhat different as the remaining members didn't write any music for Satan's Hallow (that was all Von Jugel) and they now miss one guitarist. However, Mandy's vocals continue to reflect Doro's recordings with Warlock, which can only be a good thing, and the musicianship in general is again top notch, offering some tasty, '80s-inspired heavy/speed metal, only this time with a more rocking vibe to it. Midnight Dice have also included an almost as good as Heathen's cover of The Sweet's "Set Me Free", to wrap up a release so unpretentious and so reminiscing of the heyday of true metal that I cannot recommend it enough. by nikarg |  |
 | Rübezahl - Tempering Of Northern Iron Listen at Bandcamp Guardian Rübezahl is a folklore mountain spirit of the Krkono?e Mountains (Giant Mountains), a mountain range along the border between the historical lands of Bohemia and Silesia. The band Rübezahl is a trio that comes from Alaska, a land with nature similar to the birthplace of second-wave black metal. Tempering Of Northern Iron contains three tracks of beautifully crafted, densely atmospheric, largely mid-paced and epic-sounding black metal, inspired by nature and European Paganism. With domineering riffs, weighty basslines, admirably varied drumming and almost death-like vocals, this EP feels like voyaging to an ancient kingdom situated at the coldest glacial cirque. by nikarg |
| Blood Spore - Fungal Warfare Upon All Life Listen at Bandcamp We've had mollusks infiltrate our death metal for long enough, it's time for some fungus-themes as well. And no, not that type of mushrooms. Introducing Philadelphia's Blood Spore who are here to declare Fungal Warfare Upon All Life and you should be very afraid, as "all life" includes you and your waifu pillow as well. And for a life form as barbaric as the fungi, the music manages to encapsulate some of that primitivism in their hitting-things-with-a-stick brutality and ferocity, with enough changes of pace and some good production to make the primitive death doom attack develop from the sound-waves coming from your speakers akin to a new life form developing from spores. Blood spores. by RaduP |  |
 | Fauns - Augury Listen at Bandcamp What a better place to start a new sludge band than New Orleans, Louisiana? What if the band is closer to the atmospheric sludge post-metal type rather than the dirty hardcore influenced sludge? What if they really like writing everything in lowercase with spaces between letters? Regardless, Fauns prove with this two-songs EP that they're aiming for mastery of the crushing atmospheres with gnarly vocals that seem to be rather fit of some thrashy death metal. There's still some work on integrating some more dynamic pacing in the thing, but for a 20 minutes EP, this is well produced and it's not as monotonous as I may have led you to believe, with some interesting clean sections that serve as transition between the two songs. by RaduP |
| Crematory Stench - Grotesque Deformities Listen at Bandcamp There's something raw I really like about death metal demos that I really can't get out of a death metal album. Because honestly, if a death metal debut album had such raw production for its optimal 40 minutes of runtime, I probably couldn't take it as well, but a 15 minute one makes the fucking best of it. With drums that loud and vocals so gnarly, Grotesque Deformities perfectly describes the sound of the album. I really hope that once Crematory Stench come up with their debut, they'll work on a better sound quality, but for now, let us bathe in the filth that is this grotesque deformity of a death metal record. So putrid that my milk went sour. by RaduP |  |
 | Await The Desolation - Age Of Desperation Listen at Bandcamp Age Of Desperation is a an offering from Texas based deathcore outfit Await The Desolation. From my perspective, deathcore as a genre can be very limited in terms of originality, creativity and diversity. Element that basically attracts me the most to this one, is the high-quality production that portrays the overall sound in a very compact, strong and sovereign manner, exposing out drums a bit more. Of course, quality production can't help, if the music miss the spots in many other aspects. Age Of Desperation holds the level of attention with its diversity of hastened, smacking passages, topped up with neck-snapping breakdowns, that are obviously indispensable for genre such as deathcore is. Fronted by a vocalist that admirably possess quite opulent range of vocal capacity and abilities. If you are up for a wall-breaking, ruthless deathcore, Await The Desolation should please your appetite with this EP. by Abattoir |
Comments
Comments: 10
Visited by: 68 users
| Starvynth i c deaf people Staff Posts: 3165  |
This is gonna be a tough round. First time ever that I liked every single competitor. Midnight Dice - 80's Heavy Metal is usually not my cup of tea. But add enough sugar and any tea will taste sweet. Midnight Dice's sugar is called Mandy Martillo. Rübezahl - mid-paced, riffy 2nd wave worship without shrieks but decent DM vocals is right down my alley and 'Through Heart And Lung' is a great track. Sorry, Mandy... Blood Spore - just like Radu said, you can't escape the spores and the primitive doom/death anyway, so you might as well just give up, lay down and sacrifice your worthless body to the almighty filamentous fungi. You'll be a perfect breeding ground. Crematory Stench - I can't believe these guys are from California. And I can't believe this is from 2019. Instead, it brings back some strong memories of 1991, Finland, first Amorphis demo and first three Sentenced demos. Great stuff! Await The Desolation - the crystal clear production is indeed the first plus factor you will notice. And that they stole Black Dahlia Murder's logo. And that this is - despite of all the justified criticism aimed at Deathcore and its stereotypes - an exceptionally good release of the genre. Distinguished vocals, catchy riffs, good songwriting... I am really surprised how good this actually is. Did I miss out something? Yes, I skipped Faun because I read 'sludge'. Not only that they are playing sludge, above that, they're from New Orleans, just like Crowbar, my personal hate band of all time. There can be no doubt, they suck. Period. But then I thought, okay, let's be fair and give it a try nevertheless. After all, Radu has placed the right keywords like 'post-metal' and 'atmospheric, in contrast to 'hardcore' and 'dirty'... And guess what? This blend of rather unobtrusive, blackened sludge and gazy post-metal sounds very enjoyable. It really does. So we have six bands and all of them are individually good at what they are supposed to do. All well and good - but what am I about to do with my vote now? 
---- signatures = SPAM
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941  |
Wow, Rübezahl was incredibly satisfying. "[B]eautifully crafted, densely atmospheric," INDEED. Thanks Nicky!
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Al-thor Posts: 26  |
Really good selection, thanks for finding and posting these. Personal favourite would Rübezahl but Crematory Stench was a short blast of enjoyment 
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62000  |
Miami vice goes my vote, other chose was Alaska
---- 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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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345  |
Written by Susan on 08.05.2019 at 07:57 You're welcome! I've got sth even better lined up for the next issue 
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| tintinb Posts: 2022 |
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| AKDrummer78 Posts: 4 |
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| AKDrummer78 Posts: 4 |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345 |
Written by AKDrummer78 on 23.05.2019 at 04:38 You're welcome! It's a great effort. Keep 'em coming and we'll keep featuring them here Written by AKDrummer78 on 23.05.2019 at 05:28 Indeed!
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| AKDrummer78 Posts: 4 |
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