Conor Fynes 'Huxwhukw' - Serious Beak (5/10)

Austrailian tech metal act Serious Beak is new to the scene, but they have already been sparking some waves amongst the progressive metal community. Being a major fan of bands like Blotted Science and Canvas Solaris, I often jump at the opportunity to hear a band that takes the aggression of metal and channels it through precise composition and instrumental fury. 'Huxwhukw' was released in 2011, and while only now coming to my attention, it is clear that the band's more dissonance-centric style has plenty of potential. That being said, 'Huxwhukw' has not stirred me in a way tech metal has not already done many times over.

Serious Beak is much like fellow tech metallers Dysrhythmia in the sense that they channel their musical skills into creating slightly jarring compositions, as opposed to the sort of virtuosity that flows over the listener. Serious Beak does not innovate anything in their sound that comes across as being entirely fresh, but 'Huxwhukw' is a different breed of animal than a lot of technical metal you may have heard. There is a stark post-rock feel to Serious Beak whenever they are exercising dynamic, and when they are heavy, they convey the sort of chaotic energy I normally expect from mathcore. There is not much middle ground for Serious Beak; they are either tweaking out and chucking ideas into a listener's ear at a hundred miles a minute, or they are gently letting their instruments whisper softly to each other. More than often, the transitions between these two aspects is sudden and jarring, and although the first few times is a bit of a shock, the rocky switches become ironically predictable.

Serious Beak have plenty of energy to them, but their sound comes off as feeling a little plain. Although this is more a cause of the recording rather than the musicians' performance itself, I found that 'Huxwhukw's fairly dry recording and slant of 'predictable chaos' ran the music into the depths of monotony within a few listens. Although 'Huxwhukw's mathy angle does not fit my tastes however, the band's energy is enough for me to say that Serious Beak could go somewhere very cool with their sound in the future. I'm just not quite feeling their sound at the moment.

Time Signature Errr....

Genre: instrumental eclectic metal/rock

One of the interesting things about instrumental rock is that there is room for a lot of interesting experimentation with texture, melody, structure and so on. I must say that the Australian progressive band Serious Beak take full advantage of the lack of of any restrictions having a vocalist might impose on music.

A work of true eclecticism, "Huxwhukw" takes the listener through a lot of different musical expressions from the mellow gentleness of clean guitar sections (slightly akin to early Yes' softer works) over the oppressiveness of heavy sludge riff to the fury of all out chaotic grindcore blastbeating. The opener 'Baxwbakwalanuksiwé' is soft and pleasing to the ear, and the following track 'Han' seems to follow the same patter but suddenly shifts into a heavy chaotic sludge metal song and, after an atmospheric, but noise-infused, passage, an uptempo odd metered frantic riff kicks in and challenged the listener for the remainder of the song (with the exception of a coda that reprises the sludgy parts). In 'Swagger', Serious Beak further explore the darker aspects of music, as they incorporate grindcore blasting, death metal riffing, and even a bit of hardcore punk into their sound. After the more atmospheric 'Gödel !Xun', which is mellow, yet dark, (which also applies to 'Fljóta'), Serious Beak moves on to exploring rhythmic ambiguities, grooves, and sludge in 'Tuī / Tuō', while 'Anhrefn' is a flurry of riffs and dissonant chords (and features an insane Latin breakdown). 'Sporãs' continues down the same road, drawing on death metal, thrash metal, and sludge metal, and also features some King Crimson-esque breakdowns and interludes, while 'Lähendama' is an all out grindcore attack, and the closer 'Taheu Nadryvy, Taheu!' shares features with Blood Mountain-era Mastodon at their maddest.

The production is unpolished, but it suits the dynamics of this album very well - the music is quite eclectic and the compositions very dynamic in structure, so an organic production fits very well into the picture.

"Huxwhukw" is definitely a challenging listen, and prog fans who also like extreme music are probably more likely to be able to appreciate the album than prog fans who are not into extreme metal. In any case, if you are into progressive rock along the lines of Yes and King Crimson, and also like sludge metal, death metal and grindcore - and don't mind experimental music, then you are in for a treat here.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)