Plug your favorite obscure avant-rock/metal bands
I know Elysium's already got a very nice thread on free music from unsigned bands, but I thought it would be fun to make a thread specifically for the crazy avant/progressive/metal/rock drifting around out there on the intarwebs. Keep your crappy emo/techno/garage rock out of this thread, this is for strictly for stuff that is aggressively mind-bending, musically challenging, and occasionally borderline unlistenable! 
I'll start out my plugging some friends of mine:
Canvas Solaris
Instrumental experimental metal from this Georgia 3-piece. Tech metal assaults contrast with splashes of world rhythms, electric piano and synth, and acoustic guitar. In addition to their myspace tunes, a track from their upcoming album can be downloaded from their label here.
Another instrumental act:
Blotted Science
Crazy shred-tacular prog/tech metal from Spastic Ink guitar virtuoso Ron Jarzombek, featuring the bass player of Cannibal Corpse (really!) and the drummer of Behold...The Arctopus. The album's not out yet, but I predict that it will totally slay.
And speaking of Behold...The Arctopus...
More absolutely insane instumental technical metal courtesy of this Brooklyn trio. These guys are so over the top it's hilarious. And their songs are short, so if you don't like them they're over quickly!
And one more just for variety's sake:
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Non-instrumental, so avant-garde-it-hurts progressive rock. You may recognize singer/violinist/guitarist Carla Kihlstedt as the violinist from Mr. Bungle's brilliant California, and that will give you an inkling of what to expect from this band/traveling sideshow. Start your listening with the brilliant Sleep is Wrong and go from there.
That should be enough to hurt your brain for now. 
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
There's a little known metal band called "Iron Maiden" that is really good. They're Brits and, some would argue, somewhat derivative but if you give them a chance you might dig them. They have a surprisingly large catalog for an "undiscovered."
EDIT: They're probably on iTunes if you want to check them out.
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Check out the Alex Skolnick Trio if you like rock and you like jazz. Skolnick is the lead guitarist for Testament, and he went back to school in the late 90's and got seriously involved in jazz guitar. He put his trio together, and they created jazz versions of some great rock and metal tunes (War Pigs, Pinball Wizard) mixed in with some original songs.
They're on iTunes if you want to give it a listen. As a disclaimer, I've been friends with the drummer since high school, and Alex is awesome to hang out with.
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Skolnick is totally cool. I've been meaning to check out his trio stuff.
If you like Skolnick, his work with Attention Deficit is very much worth checking out. It's him on guitar, Tim "Herb" Alexander (Primus) on drums and Michael Manring on bass. I get the sense that both albums are kind of a "spend a couple days jamming in the studio, splice some songs together in Pro Tools" kind of thing, but it's fun to hear Skolnick improvise and the Manring/Alexander rhythm section is absolutely sick. I like The Idiot King better than the self-titled release, but they're both pretty good.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
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I vote for Sleep. Best stoner metal band evar. They split up, and part of the band went on form OM, which is damn good too.
OM is more droney than stoney, and they have been collaborating with some really interesting people recently, like Current 93.
EDIT: Erm, I re-read the original post. OM is probably the more experimental of the two, by far.
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Do Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor count?
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I'll plug some of my friends, The American Tragedy is one of the best modern rock groups I've heard in a long time. They're no longer together, but their music crosses my playlists very frequently.
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Beer For Ben
As avant? Sure.
As obscure? Not really.
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Yeah, but it's nice to have some mellow, pleasant listening to balance out all the mind-f*cking of the other bands.
I dunno, bennard, that's awful mainstream-sounding for our avant-garde snobfest thread.
Cool-sounding band though, with some tasteful riffing. I checked out most of the samples on that CDBaby page. The heavier stuff is somewhat Tool/APC-esque, in a good way.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
An all maiden metal band? Sheesh, we already had Vixen!
bada bing!
my vote cancels out yours
Godspeed probably does. Explosions in the Sky as well.
Not really the hard thrashing type of music but I love to go to the music archive and listen to the live shows. They have tons to offer. One of my favorites is Perpetual Groove. Long guitar solos, trippy keys, and great light show if you ever get to see them live.
Here is a great show of their's that you can listen to online, some highlights:
9. Gone 'round the twist. - The vocals of a Band of Brothers show over the song from 300/Nine Inch Nails.
2. Orange Wedge - Great guitar with heavy electronica in the background.
19. Speed Queen - Just all out great Southern rock guitar thrashing.
Edit: Sorry, should of read Elysium's post before posting. The Archive is just that great!
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I'd throw in the James Blast Orchester, and probably Type O Negative, because I always do recommend them.
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I don't know, that is awfully Lacuna Coil.
Listen to more of the SGM material. They're really not even in the same genre as Lacuna Coil.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
The greatest rock band ever is of course Tenacious D. Sorry, couldn't resist. Guitar Hero introduced me to Freezepop and The Slip, their respective albums Forever and Eisenhower are a really good listen.
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They're probably a lot more on the heavy side than the other bands mentioned here, but Dødheimsgård is a band that begs plugging at every given occation. Eventhough you're convinced black metal isn't your bag, give "Apocalypticism" a listen. I guarrantee it won't be what you expect.
Other than that, Elend is the only avant band that comes to mind. It's Neoclassical darkwave, which translates to simplistic classical composition, akin to those of the modern movie theme writers, with some very dark undertones.
This might not be what you had in mind for this thread, but it's all I can contribute with, if I refrain from references to Alexisonfire and other not very obscure acts.
The Ditch Pigs while now defunct, are THE definitive "it's summer and we're driving to the beach and the windows are rolled down and there are hot chicks all over and I want to listen to some f*cking punk rock" band.
Not sophisticated, but pure, unadulterated grrrrr. And they're a Nova-Scotian band, so I 100% guarantee you that nobody's heard of them, and you can be the cool guy who knows obscure music. 
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Blotted Science is now on my must buy list.
Quintin_Stone wrote:
lunabean wrote:Band of the day:
miRthkon
Vaguely Zappa-esque experimental jazz metal from Oakland, CA. I haven't heard the full album yet, but the tunes on Myspace are a blast.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Just got around to checking this out. Generally, black metal isn't my bag, but these guys are head and shoulders above anything else I've heard that bears that label. Thanks for the heads-up, these guys are pretty damn cool.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Their Myspace page blows me away.
Not the music (which is good), but the influences list.
Univers Zero, Anglagard, Present, Il Balleto Di Bronzo, Koenjihyakkei? That's prog geek there, and not "I dug stuff up from Daddy's record collection" or "I love Rush!" prog geek either. And listing them alongside groups like Enslaved? Awesome.
EDIT: Sensory Records. Ken Golden's label. No f--king wonder.
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You totally sold me with that description and I'm listening to their page right now. Grrr!
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Ditch Pigs and Canvas Solaris are the run away winners from the set so far, in my opinion.
They're not exactly obscure, but I'm sure that plenty of non-Canadians have never heard of I Mother Earth.
Too bad they broke up after their last release.
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I wouldn't call I Mother Earth obscure, but I'll give them a huge endorsement anyway.
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Yeah, that whole album just kicks ass.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Pretty nifty little groove they have going on here. Check out the Tetris song.
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Quintin_Stone wrote:
lunabean wrote:Just a little update:
The Canvas Solaris disc has been out for a while now and it's quite good.
Also, the Blotted Science album is due out on September 8th:
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