Review by Alex on December 17, 2021.

Sounds like you're really hanging in there when you're taken for one heart-racing, speeding crust punk metal, fuel burning exhilarating ride of disaster when Rotting Hammer toss you into their rocket propelled vessel without a seatbelt. Clinging To Life offers you an 8-minute crash, no; splatter-landing onto cold concrete. Hold onto your balls cause this demo will pull’em right off.

You get 5 tracks speeding to absolutely nowhere: 'Rising Tide', 'Clinging To Life', 'Blood Showers', 'No Filter' and 'The Cave'; match the track titles with the sonic drum and riffing ferocity you'll hear on this record then you have one hell of a memorable demo. It’s way too short for me to say much because I'll spoil it all for you (or have I already), so let me just sum it up by saying, walk with your own seatbelt.

I hope there is more to come from this band, they seem like a promising bunch of lunatics from Ohio and Clinging To Life is proof of that.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Review by JD on June 5, 2009.

Progressive styled metal can be so damned pretentious at times, seeming to be wanting to be somewhat cartoonish, even though the musicians themselves are serious artists. Many bands have had their careers sunk by this fact, where their talents are overshadowed by that... So what, if anything, does this have to do with Qantice?

Walking that (often way too fine) line between shredding metal, and an off shoot of some very weird art which is in turn brought together as a Science Fiction novel and progressive as well, this band gets points for trying to be very original lyrically. That said, it is too bad it all sounds like a really bad recorded out take that could be from the new Trivium studio sessions or any Dragonforce album. Right down to the sound of the vocals and the minor lead breaks, this is exactly what you get.

Musically, the whole band are in fact, some very best trained and amazing musicians by some of the sonic explosions that are down on the album. They seem to really be the rare breed that can shred so hard and with such accuracy, that it is like a razor sharp knife through warmed butter. Sadly, their music breaks no new ground, and ends up sounding like fret board masturbation 101... where you can only listen to it for so long..

The story which the album is built around seems to be very interesting and often engrossing (I read those lyrics over and over again), but the music turns you off faster than people offering chocolate covered grasshoppers at a vegetarian convention. It is sad, the story which the album was all done around does have legs... too bad the music has ended up chopping them off at mid-thigh.

In my opinion only here, if they have done the album in a way heavier and more dark feeling sort of way... the albums outcome would be a better fit. As it stands, it is intriguing but not compelling in any real fashion. Qantice is a real let down after reading the bio for them... talks a big talk, but has nothing.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7.5
Originality: 7 (for the concept of the lyrics only- 5 without)
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.5 (7.1 ignoring the lyrics)