Written by:	nikarg, musclassia, Starvynth, Abattoir
Published:	September 08, 2024

Clandestine Cuts Volume 14, Issue #8
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 to this, go back and enjoy our last few issues:

Clandestine Cuts Vol. 14 #7
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 14 #6
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 14 #5

And now to the new music...

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Graven Lore is a new death metal band from the USA with a knack for melody, and a fantastic sense of groove. There are three main songs on this EP, excluding the intro and outro, with “Boiled To Bile” leaning toward the doomy side of death metal, “Poecilotheric Abominations” boasting a faster, super-addictive, headbanging riff, mixed with slower passages, and “Forklift (Thru The Face)” sounding exactly like its title suggests, with an absolutely face-piercing main riff. This release has an energy and catchiness that stays with you; it is OSDM done right, taking cues from doom and thrash, and focusing on great and memorable songwriting above all else.

by nikarg

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Atlanta as a music city has most heavily been associated with hip-hop and R&B, but the likes of Mastodon and Sevendust have led its metal scene to prominence. Nihilect offer a more extreme take on the genre, balancing dissonance and harmony in an intense technical death metal sound with deathcore leanings. Jackhammer drum assaults, contorted riffs and ferocious roars explode out of the speakers, but Nihilect do also have a tendency towards technical, hard-hitting breakdowns, and are also willing to dial down the intensity for more melodic or atmospheric detours. There’s also the occasional surprise across this debut EP’s six songs, such as a riff passage on “Heirloom” that owes an unexpected amount to early 00s metalcore.

by musclassia

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Besides the clever wordplay and the cool-as-fuck cover art, Goatrocity’s Atrocity Of God is a blackened thrash dynamite, reminiscing the sound of early Venom and Bathory. From start to finish, every track feels like the fat has been completely removed, getting straight to the point. There is no noise or excess build-up tricks; just fast riffs, venomous leads, hellish vocals, and a raw production that gives this release a sinister and unholy overtone. This kind of music is best enjoyed in smaller chunks as it can easily get monotonous the longer it goes on, and Goatrocity have nailed both the duration and the songwriting. Every time a coven of witches gathers to perform a black mass in the honour of Lucifer, Atrocity Of God may very well be the soundtrack.

by nikarg

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With the likes of Stortregn and Anachronism, Switzerland is starting to make some significant contributions to the progressive/technical death metal scene, and Adelon are set to follow in their footsteps. A couple of singles have been followed up by debut EP Resurgence, whose quartet of tracks feature an abundance of frenetic, technical extremity, but also a propensity for gnarly groove. Adelon also weave in elements of melody into proceedings, in the form of guitar leads, riffs, and infrequent yet effective use of keyboards; the integration of these elements together on tracks such as “Fleshless Vertebrae” and the at-times almost dreamy and Fallujah-esque “Monisme” is a very promising sign of things to come from this group.

by musclassia

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Jackpot! That was my first thought when I stumbled upon Post-God Apocalypse, because Theist's second EP fills a gap in the musical landscape that I had long hoped existed, but had never really been able to find. Theist originally comes from the small but refined Indonesian crust punk scene, and these musical roots are still quite evident in their self-titled EP from 2014. Ten years later, the ideological connection may still be there, but musically, the crust influence is now almost exclusively limited to the hoarsely barked vocals. The certain one-dimensionality of punk, however, has completely disappeared and has made way for a lot of variety and diverse musical influences. Acoustic passages now blend seamlessly with wild blast-beat fury; richly orchestrated, symphonic black/death metal is interrupted by ambient interludes, and just when you think you’ve finally grasped the musical concept, the contrast of angelic female guest vocals and brief forays into industrial takes you off into completely different realms. What the four Indonesians from Badung deliver defies easy categorization, but if their aim was to create a musical equivalent of the chaos of a cataclysm without descending into dissonance and cacophony, then they have more than succeeded. Post-God Apocalypse is dark and menacing, yet so infused with bittersweet melancholy that you almost wish you were there yourself, to gaze briefly into the abyss before the world as we know it comes to an end.

by Starvynth

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Despite being formed quite some time ago (in 2015), Pennsylvania-based sludge metal duo, Mires, had not shared much music up to now, as they are resurfacing with a brand new 6-track EP, titled Very Little Joy. The title might be suitable for many things these days, and it certainly depicts the overall impression of this product after a couple spins. This has slowly-paced tempo, with pounding drums, gushing and smothered screams, and smacking, heavy-riffed and low-tuned guitars, which you will be able to feel in your guts. Interestingly, despite being comprised of predominantly slow-paced and relatively “short-lived” tracks in terms of duration, the feeling is quite straightforward; a punch of raw and relentless sludge metal in your face. Alongside the crushing sludge that composes the main course, Very Little Joy also contains elements of doom, blackened hardcore as well as some stoner seasoning.

by Abattoir

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