Unsigned and Unholy

UNSIGNED AND UNHOLY: SERIOUS BEAK, AVISHAY MIZRAV, APOLLYON

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Serious Break - Huxwhukw

Just because the big boys on record labels have stopped releasing albums for 2011 doesn’t mean the unsigned world has come to any sort of slowdown whatsoever. Let’s take a look at three of my recent favorites after the jump.

  • Serious Beak: Kinda like Intronaut without vocals; proggy and stoner-y, complex yet raw and visceral all at once. I like the description of their new album Huxwhukw that a band member sent me, so I’m gonna roll with it: “an eccentric amalgamation of mind-melting, toe-tapping, psychedelic, progressive and poly-rhythmic discordant music, sure to please fans of Meshuggah, Mastodon, Botch, The Mars Volta and King Crimson.” Listen in full on their Bandcamp page, but skip the intro track.
  • Avishay Mizrav: Israeli guitarist Avishay Mizrav emailed us all the way back in April with an album download link as a .zip. Since he didn’t follow instructions by sending a streamable link it took me 7 months to get to listen to that album, but I’m glad I finally did; Mizrav is a cut off the “classic” shredder block — think Vai, Satriani, Petrucci — and he’s put together an album of bluesy instrumental tracks that do a good job of staying centered within each song. Stream a few of those tracks here.
  • Apollyon: One part djent, one part tech-death, one part melody, one part -core. These guys pretty much define Sumeriancore for me. In fact, Sumerian should really sign them; they’ve got just the right mix of brutality, mosh and hooks. They kind of remind me of Conducting From the Grave or even Son of Aurelius. They’re pretty good.
-VN
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