Animus RisingNoisecreep recently told the story of Cloutier and his one-member metal band Davola. In his other metal project, Animus Rising, he doubled the personnel to two musicians -- the other being Jeremy Hinskton, who was living in Switzerland at the time. "You know that Jeremy and I hadn't met while making the record," Cloutier told Noisecreep. "But he decided to come back to America when I told him I was going to audio engineering school in Arizona. He followed my lead and we finally met in person on new years this year and are now classmates."

The story behind Animus Risings' origin are much like Davola's. Cloutier, not finding any like-minded individuals in his geographic locale, tried to generate professional interest online. He caught the attention of Hinskton, who was in a similar situation.

"[H]e hit me up after hearing my stuff and asked me if I wanted to sing on his song that he wrote and I agreed. I was surprised at how easy it was to come up with something vocally to complement what Jeremy had written. Long story short, we decided to keep writing together and we both discovered a crazy musical chemistry going on despite the fact that we were both in different countries trading files online."

Hinskton helped bring aboard members from California-area bands to help out, and he claimed to personally know Ill Niño. He said they would be willing to record the duo's EP. "I admit, I was pretty skeptical about that," Cloutier admits. "But Jeremy came from a pretty strong metal scene in California and not only did the guy seem to know everyone, he also reached out to everyone that he wanted to have on this project."

"So, when things were all set to record, Jeremy recorded bass and guitar tracks dry and sent that and all the MIDI for the drums ]all were programmed] to Cristian [Machado, singer] and Laz [Pina, bass] at their studio in Hoboken, NJ.

Hinskton recorded the bass and guitar tracks, and programmed the drums, then sent it to Christian and Laz [Ill Niño vocalist and bassist, respectively]. "All the tracks were re-amped and tweaked and were done by the time I headed down from New Hampshire to track vocals and lead guitar. The whole thing was pretty surreal for me and it was an honor working with Cristian and Laz. Great dudes and great at what they do. It was pretty funny when they asked me where I knew Jeremy from and when I met him. I remember saying, 'Um .... actually, I haven't yet.'"

The result was s four-song release by Animus Rising, which is currently for sale on iTunes. Though they have no shows currently scheduled, the duo will record more songs to make a proper full-length and will recruit more members for live performances.

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