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Clandestine Cuts Vol. 12 Issue #5 - Awesome New Demos and EPs


Written by: nikarg, RaduP, musclassia, Starvynth
Published: 05.06.2022


Clandestine Cuts Volume 12, Issue #5
The Metal Storm Demo/EP Spotlight

Brand New Independent Metal Lives Here.
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. 12 #4
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 12 #3
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 12 #2

And now to the new music...






Bergfried - Romantik I (Austria)
[Heavy / Folk Metal]


Erech Leleth is a very talented multi-instrumentalist from Germany, now based in Austria, whose black metal project Narzissus has been featured twice already in our Clandestine Cuts (here and here). Bergfried is another child of his and an entirely different thing musically. It is a heavy / folk mix, recommended for fans of Wytch Hazel, Lordian Guard, and Grendel’s Sÿster. But let me be clear; this band is totally unique-sounding and I am pretty sure I have not heard anything like that before. Romantik I has an epic and medieval atmosphere and a lo-fi sound, and the female vocalist is nothing short of brilliant. Synths are used in abundance and they are super-cheesy and super-tasty. I cannot adequately describe this release; at times it sounds almost carnival-esque (“Hungry Hearts”, “The Battle”), at times it sounds doomy and… romantic (“War-Torn Lovers”), and at times it sounds U.S. country-like (“Oh Lord”). Just listen to it because all the time it sounds awesome and authentic.

by nikarg






Adharcáil - Adharcáil (USA)
[Experimental Death Metal]


For the last time, it's not that Will Smith, and no, I won't make any jokes about the Oscar's incident. What really intrigued me about Adharcáil is that it finds Colin Marston, of Krallice and Behold The Arctopus and a shitload of others, working with Baring Teeth's Andrew Hawkins on guitars and Afterbirth's Will Smith on vocals. The names are decently big, but Adharcáil's sound is as raw and unpolished as one would expect a CC band to be, even if Marston handles the mixing and the mastering. The result sounds surreally lo-fi, along with those avant-garde brutal death metal leanings that everyone involved has, but with a more restrained and atmospheric keyboard-heavy vibe, one that would certainly have some potential for refinement in the full-length phase.

by RaduP






Coma Hole - Coma Hole (USA)
[Stoner Metal | Grunge]


Two things I don't understand about Coma Hole's self-titled: why the cover art is so horribly cropped without any regards for how that bordering square aligns, and why they considered this 35-minutes album an EP considering that bands have released full lengths shorter than this. Other than this, this Coma Hole duo forgoes the need of a guitarist by making the bass fuzzy enough to fill that void. The energy harnessed by the two over the four songs despite the limitations in lineup and production is pretty immense, and I can only hope that Eryka Fir's vocals grow even stronger by the next release, because the pieces seem to be falling into place.

by RaduP






Voidhammer - The Voidhammer (USA)
[Sludge Metal | Doom Metal]


The one-man Texan project Voidhammer is self-described as ‘blackened battle stoner doom’, listing the likes of High On Fire, Celtic Frost and Conan as influences, and those bands can definitely be heard at times when listening to The Voidhammer. It’s not an easy sound to describe, despite band mastermind Lucas Rohr’s best efforts; I don’t hear too much stoner here, but I can pick up on quite a bit of High On Fire, as well as some sludge and death. With an appropriately coarse production to add some dinge to the nasty sludge doom grooves of “Altar Of Storms” and harshness to the stompy aggression of “Shieldwall Breaker”, The Voidhammer does also explore some more contemplative moods, particularly with the clean interlude “The Vision”. Bringing riffs, bite and the kind of ‘familiar yet not immediately categorizable’ sound that one needs in order to stand out from the crowd, Voidhammer are well poised to make waves in the metal underground.

by musclassia






Knight's Oath - II (UK)
[Epic Heavy Metal]


Although I listened to the self-titled debut EP by Knight’s Oath when it came out less than a year ago, I missed the opportunity to include it in the Clandestine Cuts at the time. Better late than never, they say, so I am correcting this mistake now that they have released their second EP, aptly titled II. The band plays a sweet mix of Warlord, Ashbury, and Wytch Hazel, but of course they are not at that level yet. However, this particular kind of epic heavy metal is difficult to go wrong, especially when it has an organic sound such as this. And you gotta love the beautiful guitar work, both when vigorous riffs and melodic leads are played. The vocals admittedly need a bit of work but, overall, Knight’s Oath are on the right track of creating some space for them in the epic metal battleground.

by nikarg






Wrathbearer - Leaving The Mortal Realm (Germany)
[Black Metal | Death Metal]


The first 25 seconds of the EP opener “Pillars Of Solitude” are barely over and already a broad grin spreads, because the vocalist of Wrathbearer lets you forget for a moment that Trevor Strnad is no longer among the living... Parallels to The Black Dahlia Murder's Nocturnal era are also evident on the instrumental level, but this resemblance is more of a coincidental nature, because unlike TBDM, the black metal elements on Leaving The Mortal Realm are more than just an unconscious influence; they represent an equivalent and integral component of the band's black/death metal background. The quintet, founded in Löhne in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2020, compiled three songs for their first EP, and each track impressively demonstrates the band's intention: to create music that is always brachial and usually served at breakneck speed, but remains catchy and memorable. Mission accomplished!

by Starvynth






Poll

What's your favourite new release of this issue?

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Comments

Comments: 8   Visited by: 80 users
05.06.2022 - 17:50
Nejde
CommunityManager
Adharcáil slaps really hard and I'm definitely getting jiggy with it but my picks ended up with Wrathbearer and Bergfried, voting for the latter.
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Bow to the King Hercules!
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05.06.2022 - 18:32
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
As someone won something in 2004, I take that country writers pick, but quastion is whitch one.... hmmm sons of old Albion was a bit better
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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05.06.2022 - 20:05
F3ynman2000
Nocturnal Bro
Voidhammer all the way! This is exactly my kind of metal!

In one song summoning a monster from the deep, in another song warriors charge into battle, and another song about the "prophet of the world's damnation"? Sounds like Lucifer's Fall, Bolt Thrower, and Asphyx had a child who knows how to play some fantastically heavy dooooomm!
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06.06.2022 - 14:48
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Adharcáil would have been my pick sincen it' clear their weird, dissonant, brutal style of death metal works for me. But sometimes I crave something traditional.
Bergfried Hits the right spot and the comparison with Wytch Hazel is very precise and it's exactly what drew me in. I enjoy the carnaval/medieval-esque sound because it reminds me a tiny bit of The Meads Of Asphodel during their wilder moments. The production also adds this little black-metal feeling as well. Jut the right amount of rawness on the riffs.

Knight's Oath is on the good path but unfortunately I did not enjoy those vocals at all. Their music is great though.

Come Hole and Voidhammer are excellent at what they do but I guess it's just me falling out of the genre at the moment.
Bergfried with their fanfastic singer wins for me.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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17.06.2022 - 21:25
nikarg

I cannot see beyond Bergfried; it is one of my favourite releases of the year and I have played the EP to death. Voidhammer comfortably takes second place, and the rest I like almost equally.
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18.06.2022 - 00:21
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Written by nikarg on 17.06.2022 at 21:25

I cannot see beyond Bergfried; it is one of my favourite releases of the year and I have played the EP to death. Voidhammer comfortably takes second place, and the rest I like almost equally.

Yeah, Bergfried is really something completely different and easily my favorite EP of this month's bunch. "Oh Lord" alone is worth the purchase.

By the way, this is already the fourth time that we feature one of Erech's projects. Apart from Bergfried and 2 x Narzissus, we also had Grandeur in issue #6.
I can only repeat what I already said in 2021: If I had to pick one underground metal musician who has impressed me the most over the last two years, it would be Erech Leleth. This guy is simply amazing.
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signatures = SPAM
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18.06.2022 - 08:05
nikarg

Written by Starvynth on 18.06.2022 at 00:21

By the way, this is already the fourth time that we feature one of Erech's projects. Apart from Bergfried and 2 x Narzissus, we also had Grandeur in issue #6.

Good catch! I had completely forgotten about Grandeur. The guy is very talented indeed.
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30.10.2022 - 01:59
quieted_darkness

Adharcáil was excellent pretty much the whole way until it got to the final song where I felt Marston plays the synths/keys a little more than welcomed in my opinion.
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