Daniel Mark Clements is an American singer-songwriter from Venice, California, best known as the lead vocalist of crossover thrash band Excel, and the only member that remained in the group since its formation until its dissolution. Currently he is a member of Against, the group formed with his very close friends from No Mercy and Suicidal Tendencies.
History
Dan started singing at a young age, taking his first heavy metal and punk inspirations from Black Sabbath and The Police respectively. In 1983, at the age of 16 years he left home and went to live with a friend at Venice High, soon after Dan's friend cousin, Adam Siegel, moved in. Then Clements recorded a tape to give it to Adam, and they started talking about forming a band. The group was called "Chaotic Noise" with Evan Warech on drums and some temporary bassists during 1984, they played a lot of shows around L.A. with different bands of the same scene like No Mercy, Suicidal Tendencies, Beowülf and Cryptic Slaughter. They became very good friends of all those musicians and adopted each other as early influences. A few months later, Rickey Pallamino took over the four strings and Chaotic Noise recorded their first Demo. They also became close friends of a graffiti crew, Kings Stop at Nothing, specially with a boy called Shaun Ross, Dan and Adam learned to paint with him and included the graffiti in the style of the band. When Pallamino left Chaotic Noise, there was no one better than Shaun to replace him, then they changed their name to Excel, name that was created by Shaun Ross when he was in Kings Stop at Nothing. Dan printed posters to find a new drummer, and a few weeks later he received a call from Greg Saenz, who would become the fourth member of the band. They recorded 3 more demos between 1985 and 1986, editing their first studio album in 1987, the second one in 1989, and a tour in Netherlands the same year with that line-up. Between January and February 1989 Dan recorded together Greg Saenz the background vocals for the fourth studio album by thrash metal bandKreator, titled Extreme Aggression. In 1990 Adam left Excel to join Infectious Grooves, so Dan decided to split the band until he returned. In 1992 Adam came back to record the last Excel demo: Third album demos, then he left the band definitely together Saenz to form the power-trio My Head. The band remained silent for three years until Dan and Shaun joined together to release the last Excel album, Seeking Refuge, with Brandon Rudley on guitar and "Max" on drums. Then they broke up for good. In 2001 he joined the band Supervillain, with which he still performs live in some tours. In May 2006 Dan returned to the studios with Grant Estes, Amery Smith, Louiche Mayorga and Kevin Guercio to record a sequel to the split albumWelcome to Venice, titled Welcome 2 Venice under the name Against. After the release of the album there were rumors about a possible Excel reunion, however Clements said he had no intentions of reforming the band and did not want anyone to take Against as a return of the group.
