After witnessing the crowd suck the energy right out of the room at the recent Quicksand show in London like a coven of Redwing bedecked Nostferatu’s, there was some doubt if I could ever bring myself to write about music on here again, such was the infectious wave of complete apathy and nausea that consumed me.The flipside to the whole turgid experience was that it made me accutely aware of how vital the current UKHC trip is and how fortunate I am to still get a kick out of a DIY hardcore show whilst many of my peer group seem content to turn out to reunion gigs every so often and schmooze the night away. Fuck that shit.
In an effort then to stave off the famished spectre of mosh yuppie vampirism I have sought out new music that posesses that crucial spark of vitae and an audience that will greet it with rabid enthusiasm and a voracious appetite. My garlic necklace, my supersoaker filled with holy water, my motherfucking Nanook, if you will, is a band from the incredibly fertile and productive South Wales hardcore scene: Clandestine AD.
Drawing membership from some of the more exciting and successful bands SW has produced over the past eight years (Forsaken/Ark Of the Covenant/Natural Order/Brutality Will Prevail) Clandestine AD definitely look to a specific aspect of late 90’s metallic hardcore for their muse. A shared appreciation for the swirling metallic violence of Turmoil and steel tensile dynamics of Adamantium is clearly evident and there’s more than a hint of the surging, dischordant weight that was the signature of 18 Visions and Disembodied’s crushing early material. Ash Gray (who can normally be found bringing the shred in his day job with Brutality Will Prevail) lends his voice to this project and the lads got a fair set of lungs on him. Lyrics seething with self doubt and brimming over with raw throated bellicosity, a primal howl amid the suffocating atmosphere Clandestine AD have conjured. The songs climax and wane perfectly, nerves stretched to breaking point before the tension frays and the whole thing collapses into monstrous barrages of Martyr AD swathed chugga.
It ain’t hard to tell that the heads involved in this project have all ground out some serious years and miles in dirty vans and sweaty practice rooms. There’s some really impressive song writing chops on display here… (EDIT: There was a bit in here about how sick the drums sounded and that Johnny is a wicked good drummer but Posi Mike just told me they recorded that song with a drum machine and that I’m a fucking idiot. #drumliar)
I believe a 7” is in the works and some live shows will manifest in September, until then you can meditate upon how buck the Clandestine pit will be and practice your wardance by embracing the sickness on their bandcamp page HERE and keep updated with their progress and live shows HERE. I was also stoked to discover that Ash has an appreciation for Warhammer & 40K so we’ll be discussing that, metal, Louis Gaultier and all things in between in an interview in the near future. Watch this space.