UNSIGNED AND UNHOLY: SERIOUS BEAK, AVISHAY MIZRAV, APOLLYON

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.