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Clandestine Cuts Vol. 8 Issue #5 - Awesome New Demos and EPs


Written by: Nefarious, Abattoir, nikarg, RaduP
Published: 04.01.2019


Clandestine Cuts Volume 8, 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. 8 #4
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 8 #3
Clandestine Cuts Vol. 8 #2

And now to the new music...



Moisturizer - One Dozen Donuts
Listen at Bandcamp

What could you get from a Moisturizer and One Dozen Donuts? A lot more than you would think. A pure, relentless, Rhode Island-styled grindcore skin care. Possessed with fearless growls and high-pitched vocals, unstoppable, blast beating drumms, unmercifuly distorted guitar shredding, and the bass that sounds just monstrous, so twisted and heavy, that even sludge metal bands wouldn't mind it. All the noise and intensity will come in abundance, hard to bear for some. As ridiculous as it might sounds, Moisturizer and their One Dozen Donuts could simply blow away your mind with this mature EP, being a debut release of course. Just give it a spin. One should be enough for a positive response.

by Abattoir





The Subliminal - Relics
Listen at Bandcamp

The Subliminal is a Dutch groove metal act and Relics is their debut EP. Their music is influenced by bands like Gojira, The Black Dahlia Murder and Lamb Of God with roaring vocals, catchy riffs and a muscular rhythm section. From the first notes of "Lowlife" you get the urge to jump up and down and smash everything in your living room which is exactly what this kind of metal is made for. Their melodic bridges soften the sound for a little while and serve as counterweight to the heaviness, creating the necessary build-up for the violent riffs to take over. Relics is quite accessible and it certainly isn't breaking any new ground but it will surely break your skull in two.

by nikarg





Disparaître - Disparaitre
Listen to Bandcamp

Not much is known regarding this French black metal act but they let their music do the talking. "Disparaître" means "to disappear" and the three songs featured here indeed make all light and happiness vanish. The band's atmospheric and grief-filled black metal with scorching riffs, mournful melodies, blast-heavy drumming and hollow, resonant vocals is sure to plunge the listener in abyssal darkness. The recording could be better but it's only a demo and the relatively poor sound doesn't hinder the appreciation of Disparaître's carefully structured songwriting and passionate execution. If you like your black metal raw but at the same time emotional, this one has a lot of potential.

by nikarg





Teleport - The Expansion
Listen at Bandcamp

Sometimes it's disheartening to see how long an amazing band can go without releasing a full-length, as Slovenia's Teleport has been putting out demos since 2010, though it's quite clear that The Expansion brings their sound to complete refinement. Starting out as a black/thrash outfit, they've shed their skin to become an old-school progressive death band caught in the strange space between Vektor, Gorguts and Blood Incantation. The Expansion is completely dazzling, cosmic and the band's intricate and dissonant music is complemented by the gnarly growls to give us 20 minutes of sci-fi horror and the hopes for a debut full-length.

by RaduP





Desolation Realm - Desolation Realm
Listen at Bandcamp

Usually when death metal albums are filthy, it is due to how drowned in bass they sound. But Norway's Desolation Realm instead feel like they are cursing you from another dimension and the sounds don't project seamlessly in ours. Equal parts Disembowelment and Timeghoul, their debut demo is some of the rawest sounding metal that I've heard lately, and that is further accentuated by the primitive drumming and the gurgling vocals. This is 20 minutes of sinister, unnerving and esoteric death metal.

by RaduP





Fall In Line - Fall In Line
Listen at Bandcamp

When you hear that noisy guitar feedback right at the beginning, you know you're in for something good. Fall In Line arrive just in time to deliver us a dose of less that 10 minutes of New York Hardcore with their self-titled EP. Rather mid-paced and slightly sludgy, but not too sludgy, Fall In Line want more than just to deliver moshing and wall-hitting music, though there's (relatively ) plenty of that here as well. Well performed, well produced and well written, the only criticism you could give it is that it could be even more unforgiving, but engaging and impactful in its short runtime? That it is.

by RaduP







Poll

What's your favorite new release this issue?

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Comments

Comments: 7   Visited by: 63 users
05.01.2019 - 19:04
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
A Police tribute song something. Musicaly i choose french kitchen, but artwork goes for land where winter dwells and speaks a bit weird
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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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07.01.2019 - 00:53
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Fortunately, I followed the bandcamp link before I read the introducing texts coz elsewise, I had skipped The Subliminal right after reading 'Groove Metal'. Some Gorja influences can not be denied, but adding The Black Dahlia Murder and it will still not be groove metal, no matter how much Lamb Of God influence you subjoin. I really think one should suppress this misleading identifier. In my book, groove metal is e.g. late Pantera and very happily, I can neither spot Anselmo nor Cavalera or Flynn on this EP.
Anyway, I love it. Great discovery mr. nikarg, thanks!
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signatures = SPAM
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07.01.2019 - 03:37
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Starvynth on 07.01.2019 at 00:53

Fortunately, I followed the bandcamp link before I read the introducing texts coz elsewise, I had skipped The Subliminal right after reading 'Groove Metal'. Some Gorja influences can not be denied, but adding The Black Dahlia Murder and it will still not be groove metal, no matter how much Lamb Of God influence you subjoin. I really think one should suppress this misleading identifier. In my book, groove metal is e.g. late Pantera and very happily, I can neither spot Anselmo nor Cavalera or Flynn on this EP.
Anyway, I love it. Great discovery mr. nikarg, thanks!



funny thing. I am part of the judges panel at the Dutch Metal Battle prelims (the Utrecht region) for quite a few years now. The Subliminal won those prelims in January 2018. All three of us the judges agreed they were the best. They made it to the finals, which they didn't win, btw.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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07.01.2019 - 04:48
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 07.01.2019 at 03:37

Written by Starvynth on 07.01.2019 at 00:53

Fortunately, I followed the bandcamp link before I read the introducing texts coz elsewise, I had skipped The Subliminal right after reading 'Groove Metal'. Some Gorja influences can not be denied, but adding The Black Dahlia Murder and it will still not be groove metal, no matter how much Lamb Of God influence you subjoin. I really think one should suppress this misleading identifier. In my book, groove metal is e.g. late Pantera and very happily, I can neither spot Anselmo nor Cavalera or Flynn on this EP.
Anyway, I love it. Great discovery mr. nikarg, thanks!

funny thing. I am part of the judges panel at the Dutch Metal Battle prelims (the Utrecht region) for quite a few years now. The Subliminal won those prelims in January 2018. All three of us the judges agreed they were the best. They made it to the finals, which they didn't win, btw.

Interesting background knowledge, thanks!
My dutch colleague told me one of the remaining four bands' vocalists was "an animal on stage" and did sound just like Nick Holmes in his prime (whenever that was because Holmes' live performance never really impressed me that much) - but he couldn't recall the band's name...
Can you confirm he might have ment The Subliminal or most probably someone else of the foursome?
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signatures = SPAM
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08.01.2019 - 00:50
Mercurial

Nice to see Teleport here. Arguably the best bit of death metal last year, but yeah, they need go full length next time.
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08.01.2019 - 11:14
nikarg

Written by Starvynth on 07.01.2019 at 00:53

Fortunately, I followed the bandcamp link before I read the introducing texts coz elsewise, I had skipped The Subliminal right after reading 'Groove Metal'. Some Gorja influences can not be denied, but adding The Black Dahlia Murder and it will still not be groove metal, no matter how much Lamb Of God influence you subjoin. I really think one should suppress this misleading identifier. In my book, groove metal is e.g. late Pantera and very happily, I can neither spot Anselmo nor Cavalera or Flynn on this EP.
Anyway, I love it. Great discovery mr. nikarg, thanks!

You're welcome. I'm not that into groove metal myself but I liked this one a lot, it's aggressive and fun. But what you call it if not groove metal?
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08.01.2019 - 14:34
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Written by nikarg on 08.01.2019 at 11:14

Written by Starvynth on 07.01.2019 at 00:53

Fortunately, I followed the bandcamp link before I read the introducing texts coz elsewise, I had skipped The Subliminal right after reading 'Groove Metal'. Some Gorja influences can not be denied, but adding The Black Dahlia Murder and it will still not be groove metal, no matter how much Lamb Of God influence you subjoin. I really think one should suppress this misleading identifier. In my book, groove metal is e.g. late Pantera and very happily, I can neither spot Anselmo nor Cavalera or Flynn on this EP.
Anyway, I love it. Great discovery mr. nikarg, thanks!

You're welcome. I'm not that into groove metal myself but I liked this one a lot, it's aggressive and fun. But what you call it if not groove metal?

It's kinda groovy, no question 'bout that. But calling it plain "groove metal" without any addition is misleading I suppose - at least if you stick to the MS classifications.
I just don't think they have too much in common with Pantera, Damageplan and the like and thankfully, they're not cloning modern groove metal like Five Finger Death Punch, either.

The Subliminal is tagged death metal and alternative metal on bandcamp. Basically, I'd agree it's a mix of both styles but I'd replace 'death' by 'melo-death'. First major band to pop up in my mind combining melodic death with alternative metal was In Flames and yes, I do think The Subliminal sound like a slightly heavier (and better) version of the new millennium's In Flames before they dropped their death metal and Gothenburg roots.

"Their music is influenced by bands like [...] The Black Dahlia Murder [...]"
I agree on that and it makes totally sense if you consider that bands like At The Gates and In Flames are regarded to be the most important influences of the melodic death and metalcore TBDM are playing.
But would you call any of these outfits groove metal acts?

My idea is the band knows very well they sound like In Flames once did - but they also know new In Flames suck and any direct linkage is the worst marketing strategy one can think of.
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signatures = SPAM
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