The Prog ThreadMusic

[Diego440]

Alright, here's the gist on

Symphonic Progressive Metal

Close to Neo-Prog

Ayreon: Excellent heavy symphonic band from Holland. Album after album the band keeps consistent musical creativity always topped off with sci-fi oriented lyrics. Keyboard work is outstanding and the vocals are performed by several different people, including Fish, Neil Morse and Damian Wilson. Key albums: The Human Equation (2004) and Into the Electric Castle (1998). A couple of GTP users, namely RoadDogg33J and Speedy_Samurai have also suggested Universal Migrator and Star One, this last one, a side project, I believe.


The Black Mages: These guys created the soundtracks for the Final Fantasy series, and their self-titled 2004 album is basically Final Fantasy battle music arranged in rock style. The music is very good, even if you’re not a FF fan.


Chrome Shift: This Danish outfit uses musical vocabulary of giants like Kings’ X, Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation, delivering a very personal style of prog metal. Although they’re fairly young in age, the five musicians manage to avoid beginners’ traps and use dynamics in a rather effective way, increasing and decreasing the tension evenly… even the rare ballads are devoid of cheesiness. If you like song-oriented metal and are a fan of Dream Theater, Pan if Salvation, Rush and Arena, you’ll probably like them. Key album: Ripples in Time (2003).

Dali’s Dilemma: This quintet from California delivers a technically demanding, high-speed prog metal. Although some people label them as another DT clone, they do stand apart in both compositional and lyrical viewpoints. Maybe they could improve in the melodic department and put a bit more feeling into their music, but technically speaking, they’re flawless. If you like Dream Theater circa Images and Words and Awake, check Dali’s Dilemma. Key album: Manifesto for Futurism (1999).

Enchant: This is one of my favourite bands in the genre, although their inclusion into this genre could be debated. They use a lot of guitar riffs, but their overall music can be compared to Rush or Marillion. Maybe one of the best American prog bands to come out of the 90s. Key albums: A Blueprint of the World (1995), Blink of an Eye (2002), Tug of War (2003), and Juggling 9 or Dropping 10 (2000).

Event: This band from Boston plays a soft kind of prog metal. They are semi-technical, complex and even add some nice techno, acid jazz, fusion and rock to their music. Clear voiced (sometimes harmonized). Check out Human Condition (2001)

Hourglass: This quintet from Utah mixes ingredients from DT, Fates Warning, Metallica and Rush. Despite being a bit light (as in not overly complex), they balance old school prog with metal pretty nicely. Their album Subconscious (2004) is made up of three epic tracks and two shorter ones in between, featuring purely progressive passages with metal tinges. Their material moves through many musical styles with complex rhythms. The vocals are a bit mild for this type of music, though. Not absolutely essential, but it could appeal to you if you like Clockwork, Enchant, Kansas, Magellan or Shadow Gallery.

Ivanhoe: This German band’s work is full of feel and techniques, since the members are quite virtuosos. Although their style could be similar to Angra or Queensrÿche, theirs is much more personal, particularly because of the great voice of the vocalist; his way of singing contributes to create a particular atmosphere. In short, it’s a great group, if you like this style of singing. If like me, you don’t, then scratch it out. Key album: Walk in Mindfields (2005).

Mayadome: This is a fantastic Swedish prog metal band. Their music is song-oriented with an abundance of time changes. There are some DT influences, Yes and Rush too in their use of rhythm, but it’s nonetheless impressive. Although they have the same style as DT, they’re not a DT-Clone, since they’ve surpassed everything DT has done in the last few years. Key albums: Paranormal Activity (1996) and Near Life Experience (1999).

Mind’s Eye: This is a progressive band with a strong sense of melody. Although making their own blend of heavy metal and prog rock, you can still hear influences from bands like Rush, Yes, Enchant and Genesis. The vocals, the acid guitar, the various rhythm changes and the climate with some spacy typically German crescendos. Key album: A Work of Art (2002).


A Balanced Mix of Everything

Andromeda: This band is multi-faceted, going from full blast to more mellow moments, augmented by great keyboard tinkling. Add guitar solos from outer space and the end result is simply stunning. Prog metal at its best, for fans of Arena and DT; what Rush fans have been waiting for since Moving Pictures. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the heavy side of prog, but if you’re a metalhead with no interest in the technical side of the music, you might be bored. Key album: Extension of the Wish (2001).


Circus Maximus: The sound is impeccable, with a great mix of classic hard rock anthems and progressive technical bits and pieces. Influenced by pop/rock and death metal. Key album: The 1st Chapter (2005).

Clockwork: Five-piece set from Philadelphia, who play a mix between symphonic prog and complex technical metal (think Yes vs. DT). Their material features lush keyboards that provide the backdrop for dual lead guitars. The voice is slightly high pitched, but not shrill. They disbanded after the release of their first album in 1999, called Surface Tension. Get it? Tension? Ah, nevermind.

Dream Theater: ‘nuff said.


Ice Age: One of the most promising bands in the genre. The music is very creative and refreshing with many rockers and ballads. Their influences range from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath to the likes of Rush, Genesis and Pink Floyd. Key album: The Great Divide (1999).

Pagan’s Mind: This band will remind you of traditional prog power metal, with influences of Conception, DT, Queensrÿche, contemporary jazz, neoclassical elements and some Norwegian black metal bands. When you put it all together, it becomes the insane formula that is Pagan’s Mind. Check out Celestial Entrance (2002).


Riverside: On of my favourite bands at the moment. Poland may never be known as a hotbed for prog rock, but this band is making it big quickly. It’s a combination of metal, symphonic and psychedelic prog. One of the best prog albums in this decade. I find it to be a mixture between Opeth and Pink Floyd, containing long, ethereal keyboard-laden passages with heavy metal riffs. Key album: Out of Myself (2003) and Second Life Syndrome (2005).

Shadow Gallery: The music is sometimes hard with great guitar solos influenced by DT. Other tracks are much softer with interesting keyboard lines and orchestral movements. Check out Room V (2005) and Tyranny (1998).

Zero Hour: This band has changed a bit throughout their three albums. They started out as pretty average, DT clones but have recently become far darker, with a heavier edge and little or no keyboards. The music is heavy and quite complex, though repetition is an issue at times. Highly recommended if you can tolerate very heavy guitar work. Key albums: The Towers of Avarice (2001) and A Fragile Mind (2005).


Experimental / Avant-Garde

Archetype: Prog metal from Ohio, with strong influence of early Fates Warning. Some heavier moments and good musicianship in general. The full range melodic vocals are a plus. Key album: Dawning (2002).

Lemur Voice: This Dutch band consisted of five members who created a musical landscape greater than the sum of its parts. With very diverse influences they created their own style going from classical music to DT to Sting. They played a sort of neo prog hard rock combined with metal-ish guitars. Key albums: Divided (1999) and Insights (1996).


Mindflow: This Brazilian’s band musical style was born in 1999 after creating technically complex songs yet available to everyone. Linked with all types of artistic expressions, from literature to plastic arts, the band is able to project a film from its soundtrack. Influences include Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes and Megadet. Their debut album is quite impressive to say the least: Just The Two Of Us Me and Them (2004).

Pain of Salvation: The sound of this Swedish band is characterized by power, accentuated guitar work between heavy and calm passages, with lots of experimentation. The band was started by one Daniel Gildenlow, who really doesn’t ring many bells, but he started his first band at the age of 11! And kept it for seven years! Still, PoS is a band that always pushes the limits of Prog metal with gothic tendencies. They also show influences from progressive and classic rock to jazz to industrial, creating some of the best and most distinctive music in the prog metal genre. Key albums: The Perfect Element Part 1 (2001), Remedy Lane (2002) and Be (2004).


Sieges Even: Still underrated after their great Rush-inspired album, the band has a unique and well done compilation of albums, mostly tending to be technical prog rock. Key albums: A Sense of Change (1991) and The Art of Navigating by the Stars (2005).

Sun Caged: An impressive Dutch band, among which are ex-members of Lemur Voice and Within Temptation. Their music has some prog metal-oriented music (influenced by DT and Iron Maiden) but also some jazz and fusion elements. Most of their music have nice shifting moods with tasteful keyboard play, heavy guitar work and powerful vocals. Their latest work is good, but their previous work is not. Key album: Sun Caged (2003).

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Riverside: On of my favourite bands at the moment. Poland may never be known as a hotbed for prog rock, but this band is making it big quickly. It’s a combination of metal, symphonic and psychedelic prog. One of the best prog albums in this decade. I find it to be a mixture between Opeth and Pink Floyd, containing long, ethereal keyboard-laden passages with heavy metal riffs. Key album: Out of Myself (2003) and Second Life Syndrome (2005).

How are the vocals? I checked into a different Polish prog. metal band and the accent ruined it.


Is this the 2nd out of 6 categories?

 

[Diego440]

How are the vocals? I checked into a different Polish prog. metal band and the accent ruined it.


Is this the 2nd out of 6 categories?

The accent is British-inclined... not strong at all. But then again, they sing very little.

Yes, this is the 2nd one.

 

[Diego440]

Experimental / Technical Prog Metal

Ethnic / Crossover / Technical

Azazello: Formerly a thrash-death metal band; the members of this Russian band have almost abandoned the metal genre for some truly progressive acts. Despite the songs’ titles in English, the sing in Russian (although 90% of their music is instrumental), influences by DT and Hawkwind. Their first album (Black Day, 2000) sounds kind of rough, but the quality has improved in their last two (Upstairs, 2001; and Seventh Heaven, 2004). In these last albums the DT influence has almost completely disappeared as well, replaced by more experimental and even jazz-funky sounds. Although their music isn’t wimpy at all, there’s virtually no trace if their death metal days.

Canvas Solaris: This band began playing an experimental form of extreme death/thrash metal, influenced mainly by Voivod, Carcass and Godflesh. Nowadays they’re more experimental instrumental and technical, playing jazz-inspired progressive music. I’d recommend it if you’re a fan of complex, instrumental technical music. Check: Spatial/Design (2003) and Penumbra Diffuse (2006).

Cynic: This is one of those bands that were too good to be true. In fact, they only recorded one album (Focus, 1993). They started out as technical metal before moving to a highly complex for on jazz-fusion influenced by experimental death metal. I believe it’s safe to say Cynic set the first step in technical death metal / prog death. Their ex-members moved on to other projects like Portal, Aeon Spoke, Aghora and Gordian Knot, so if you like Cynic, you might want to check out those bands as well.


Ephel Duath: This band started out as a duo, in which both members created the band when they were 18 years old. The music was extreme metal with symphonic traits, which compared it very much with Emperor. Nowadays they still play extreme music, with a touch of jazz; they rarely repeat a riff and the songs resemble a long musical suite in which the instruments and the voice support each other, constructing a solid sound. Key album: The Painter’s Palette (2003).


Ron Jarzombek: This guy is one of those guitar virtuosos who can’t settle in just one band. He’s the founding member of Watchtower, has a solo project called Spastic Ink, played in Gordian Knot and is a guitar teacher. His playing technique is best described as a crossover between Satriani-esque shreds and extreme metal. The tiles of his songs and albums are quite humorous.

Liquid Tension Experiment: This is an instrumental rock project consisting of Dream Theater members (John Petrucci, [guitar], Jordan Rudess [keyboards] and Mike Portnoy [drums]) as well as prog rock icon Tony Levin (from Chapman Stick, on bass). The music is fusion-based, similar to DT, if somewhat more jazzy and devoid of vocals.


Orphaned Land: This Israeli band blends doom/death metal with Jewish folk music. Needless to say, the music is very unique, but the level of musical competency in the heavy layering and orchestration combined with the conceptual nature of the album’s lyrics as a whole lend a very strong progressive feel to their work. Key album: Mabool (2004).


Psychotic Waltz: By combining their technical skills with psychedelic moments, this band made one of the most unique prog metal acts around. The sound is quite melodic, heavy, complex and a bit murky. Key album: Into the Everflow (1992) and A Social Grace (1990).


Spiral Architect: This quintet from Norway play more notes in 30 seconds than some rock bands play in their entire career. The riffs are intricate and layered, often with guitar harmonies. The sound is a mix of guitar-based melodic, technical metal to the extreme and classic prog vocals. The music seems to me as a mix between heavy metal and improv jazz, with a power metal singer. Vocals are densely harmonized in the style of Yes. Key album: A Sceptic’s Universe (2000).


Thordendal’s Special Defects (aka Special Defects): This side project of Meshuggah’s guitarist Fredrik Thordendal features the same kind of polyrhythmic guitar assault as his main band but with a far greater inclination towards jazz fusion. Also features Meshuggah’s drummer Tomas Haake on vocals and jazz saxophonist Jonas Knutsson. Key album: Sol Niger Within (1996).

Watchtower: Often considered the ultimate prog technical thrash band, Watchtower ushered in a new era of extreme metal in 1985. Featuring an array of chaotic time changes, aggressive vocals and what could possibly be one of the most accomplished rhythm sections in metal, this band was one of the highlights of the 80s. They are considered the fathers of the progressive/technical metal movements and have been cited as influences on bands like Dream Theater. Key albums: Energetic Disassembly (1985) and Control and Resistance (1989).



Metal Fusion

Indukti: Another of these new metal bands from Poland. Incidentally, the singer from Riverside did some guest vocals here. Their latest album, although recorded in a studio, maintains much of the same essence of a live show, especially because all instruments were recorded together. I don’t have much more to say about them, save that I really like this band. Key album: S.U.S.A.R. (2005).

Magic Elf: This is an instrumental rock, prog, fusion trio, based in New York. Their style is often compared to Steve Morse, Rush, Joe Satriani and King Crimson. Their latest album (Heavy Meddle, 2003) is packed with intense instrumental prog hard rock, ranging from fusion to metal. If you’re into fusion, check this band out.

Planet X: Keyboardist Derek Sherinian, guitarist Tony MacAlpine, drummer Virgil Donati and many guest musicians. This is a traditional hard rock band with influences of the 60s and 70s music, but their music is truly original, with their own blend of heavy metal meets prog rock meets jazz rock. The songs are all instrumental, save for the occasional spoken word. Key albums: MoonBabies (2002) and Universe (2000).



Progressive Shred

This genre includes most instrument virtuosos. Since many of them have been often discussed before (some in threads dedicated solely to them), I won’t go into much detail, so I’ll just name them.
- Jason Becker

- Buckethead

- Mattias Eklundh

- Steve Morse

- Michael Romeo

- Jordan Rudess

- Derek Sherinian
- Steve Vai

 

[Diego440]

Avant / Post Prog Metal

Space / Electronic / Post

Agalloch: Their music is a combination of cold, dark sorrow with natural beauty. Although their music features an intricate layering of vocal tracks and instruments (some of which are not common in traditional metal), the music is often described as atmospheric because of its melancholic, slow and doom-ish feel. In fact, Agalloch usually gets filed under doom metal, but their style has a lot of neofolk, dark ambient, post-industrial and post-rock music. The band has cited their influences as being Katatonia and Ulver. Key album: The Mantle (2002).


Age of Silence: This project band includes members from Solefald, Mayhem, Khun and Arcturus. They are very keyboard-oriented, and their music is some sort of epic dark metal. Key album: Acceleration (2004).

Anathema: This band, together with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, helped develop the doom death genre. Despite being a bit more gothic than My Dying Bride, they’ve gone into many experimentation techniques, giving them a varied array of descriptions in many genres of the prog scale. Key albums: Alternative 4 (1998), A Fine Day to Exit (2001), Judgement (1999), Eternity (1996) and A Natural Disaster (2004).


The Gathering: Beware of this band, since their earlier work is a nice blend of prog with gothic metal, but their latest work is just plain alternative rock. Their 1992 album (Always) and 1993 (Almost a Dance) played a big part in the formation of gothic metal. But their 1995 album (Mandylion) was the first one in which the current singer sang, making the album one of the first to have a female-fronted band, and it’s still considered one of the main albums for this kind of music.


Isis: This band began as a fairly straightforward sludge/stoner metal band. Their first couple of works presented a brutal and loud form of heavy metal. They later began adding intense guitar grooves and mellow, spacey segments, to become what they are now: a mixture of post-rock with slow metal. If you’re a fan of the out-there regions of metal, you’ll probably like Isis. Key albums: Panopticon (2004) and Oceanic (2002).

Kayo Dot: The music of Kayo Dot bridges several genres, from heavy metal to classical music, involving complex instrumentation, generally without refrain. Key albums: Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue (2006) and Choirs of the Eye (2003).

Maudlin of the Well: This avant garde metal band from Boston mixes elements from doom metal, indie rock, prog metal and new age. Their music, lyrics and atmosphere deal mostly with astral projection. The band was later renamed Kayo Dot and changed their music a bit. Key album: Bath (2001).

OSI: This band could be called a ‘supergroup;’ consisting of members from Fates Warning, Chroma Key, Dream Theater, Gordian Knot and Translatlantic. Key album: Office of Strategic Influence (2003).


Pelican: This quartet from Chicago is known for their dense combinations of different melodies, ranging from doom metal to post-rock. With sounds that alternate between dreamy soundscapes and crushing riffs this band leads the era of instrumental progressive metal. Key albums: March into the Sea (2005) and The Fire in Our Throats will Beckon the Thaw (2005).

Devin Townsend: This guitarist’s influences range from jazz, blues and prog rock to industrial and classical music. He’s played as guest musician for many bands, including Frontline Assembly, Steve Vai, Stuck Mojo, Skinny Puppy, Paradise Lost, Soilwork, Lamb of God, Paradise Lost and Ayreon. He’s also part of the project band Strapping Young Lad. Key albums: Synchestra (2006) and Infinity (1998).


Tool: read Dream Theater’s review.



Doom / Dark

3rd and the Mortal: Often described as “unclassifiable”, this Norwegian band was thrown into the Prog Doom genre because of their first releases, but would soon introduce more folk influences, becoming a candidate for the sub-sub-sub-genre Nordic Prog Metal. Their later recordings were predominantly acoustic, shedding more of their metal roots. Key album: Painting on Glass (1996).


Lacrimosa: This duo’s music was originally darkwave with occasional metal elements. Since their album Inferno, their style has shifted more towards gothic metal. Their musical style mixes heavy metal and gotchi rock with violin, trumpet, piano and more classical instruments. Their lyrics are almost exclusively written in German, although again, since Inferno, every album has featured at least two songsin English. Lyrics are mainly about loneliness, sadness, darkness, despair and love… happy thoughts. Key albums: Inferno (1995), Elodia (2000) and Lichtgestalt (2005).


Noekk: This band’s only album (The Water Sprite, 2005) is full of atmospheric doom yet strangely alluring. It opens with soft piano arpeggios that herald a peaceful walk through nature, and then suddenly delivers a sonic blow in an avalanche of instrumental frenzy. Extremely moody, with appropriately serious lyrics. Sound is not unlike Anglagard or Landberk and, to a certain extent, King Crimson for the keyboard work.

Novembre: These guys have toured with Opeth and Katatonia! Although you can probably guess where their influences comes from, the group’s sound is often compared to My Dying Bride and the previous two bands I mentioned. They emphasize their music on the mellow side of these bands, with extremely powerful and brilliantly written songs. Key albums: Novembrine Waltz (2001) and Materia (2006).


Gothic / Orchestral

Aina: This Dutch band containing members from all strands of metal and hard rock, many of which played with Luca Turilli, created what they considered one of the first metal operas. In total, Aina is the reunion of over 30 highly skilled musicians and performers brought together for the sole purpose of creating a metal opera. Think of this band as a ‘Who’s Who’ of Prog Metal. Key album: Days of Rising Doom (2003).


Haggard: This 16-member outfit from Munich has as much roots in death metal as it does in classical/medieval music. Their music combines some fine classical moments (cello, flute, oboe, harp, violin) with the iron riffs, growling male vocals and raw violence of death metal bands. If you like Therion, you might want to check them out. Key albums: And Thou Shalt Trust… The Seer (1997) and Eppur Si Move (2004).


Saviour Machine: I can only say this is a truly, unique and amazing progressive band. Their music mixes Middle Eastern sounds with industrial, doom, classical and choir music. Key albums: Legend, parts I (1997), II (1998) and III (2001).

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Saviour Machine[/B]: I can only say this is a truly, unique and amazing progressive band. Their music mixes Middle Eastern sounds with industrial, doom, classical and choir music. Key albums: Legend, parts I (1997), II (1998) and III (2001).

And for those that don't know, they are a christian band. Their trilogy of albums deals with the Book of Revelations and was also a big theme in their original album (which is their best )

 

[Diego440]

and finally, the last of the sub-genres. I've eliminated the Unknown one, since there aren't any bands which admit themselves to be unknown genre, and usually just belong to more than one. I might add a few more bands to each genre, but probably without a lengthy explanation of each.

Extreme Prog Metal

Progressive Death

Death: This band founded by Chuck Schuldiner in the early 80s is an extreme metal band, celebrated by many as the band which created the Death Metal genre. During the early years the line-up changed constantly, making the band a constant project, with guest musicians usually being the best of the best in the extreme metal genre. During the 90s their music got more and more complex, being the ultimate reason for their inclusion in the prog genre; and it influenced other bands into further exploring the possibilities of this kind of music. In the late 90s, Schuldiner formed the band Control Denied, which was very similar to Death. During the same year he was diagnosed brain-stem cancer, which put both bands on hold. In 2001, Schuldiner succumbed to his illness. Key albums: Symbolic (1995), Individual Thought Patterns (1993), Human (1991) and The Sound of Perseverance (1998).


Disillusion: This German band blends a unique combination of black, death, progressive and thrash metal. They have become one of the most promising bands of the genre with the release of their 2004 album (Back to Times of Splendor), already considered to be one of the trademarks of the genre. The band could be compared to Opeth, Death, Meshuggah and My Dying Bride.


Edge of Sanity: Originally started as a straightforward Swedish death metal band, their first few albums gained them a following in the metal circles. They gradually began to incorporate progressive influences into their music. Their epic concept album (Crimson, 1996) consisted of one 40-minute song, now widely regarded as the band’s greatest accomplishment. They started falling apart shortly after the release, which produced another album (Infernal, 1997) and later disbanded.


Into Eternity: This Canadian band fuses progressive and melodic elements of bands such as DT and brutal death metal like Deicide, providing a sound that is professionally executed, yet rather difficult to describe. Best described through listening: Dead or Dreaming (2001) and Buried in Oblivion (2004).


Opeth: These four guys from Stockholm feature a lot of elements in their albums. There’s aggressive death metal with much growling (not harmonized, mind you), with lots of breaks, mostly acoustic, with the same singer’s cleared voice. Oddly enough, the singer is quite modest, admitting he is a novice at this kind of singing, but his clear voice is really nice. The whole music is guitar-oriented. On one hand you have great riffing for the aggressive parts, awesome melodic solos and on the other hand, the acoustic breaks with admirable melodies. There’s no ‘best’ album for this band, I’d recommend you find their complete discography, since all their albums are equally good!


Pestilence: This Dutch band started out in 1986 as death/speed metal. In later works they included more jazz and fusion influences, collaborating with people like Chick Corea. Key albums: Spheres (1993), Mind Reflections (Best Of, 1994).



Progressive Thrash / Metalcore

Alarum: This Australian metal band mixes jazz-fusion with thrash. They are stylistically quite similar to 90s band Cynic. Key album: Eventuality… (2004).


Anacrusis: Like many American kids of their generation, this metal quartet found a common liking for Kiss, Black Sabbath and similar bands. Although their sound was good, they never made it big. They remain one of the first bands to blend thrash metal with progressive rock. All four of their albums can be downloaded for free at their site, which is located here


Atheist: This band plays an extremely complex death-jazz. Could be compared to Death and Cynic (even when they shared bassists for a while), playing a highly invented fusion-oriented, breakneck speed metal. Key album: Unquestionable Presence (1991).

Control Denied: Formed in 1996 by Death frontman, Chuck Schuldiner, the band was a conscious attempt to pursue Chuck’s increasing musical ambition. Progressive influence had arisen on the last few Death albums, but what set Control Denied apart from their predecessor was the use of a clear vocalist. Essentially, the band is the same line-up as Death, save for the vocalist. In fact, Control Denied features the most progressive compositions Schuldiner made in his life, and is a worthwhile investment for any prog metal fan who thought that maybe they could get into Death if it weren’t for the vocal style. After Chuck’s death in 2001, the band was broken up. Key album: The Fragile Art of Existence (1999).

Dillinger Escape Plan: Although this band is essentially one of my most disgusted styles, metalcore, they include jazz-fusion elements into their music. Their music displays the energy of technical metal, the readiness to experiments and epicness of their songs, which can be attributed to their likes of prog rock, and the dissonant chords and breakdowns found in jazz. They have been dubbed “The World’s Most Dangerous Band” (by NME) and “The Best Live Band on the Planet” (by Kerrang!). They’ve recently recorded a series of covers for an iTunes exclusive EP entitled Plagiarism, including songs by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Soundgarden and Justin Timberlake. Key album: Under the Running Board (1998) and Irony is a Dead Scene (2002).


Mastodon: This “mammoth metal” from Atlanta are usually classified as heavy metal, but their real genre is progressive sludge metal. The band is essentially metalcore with some complex jazz-influenced drumming and long. Melodic instrumental interludes inspired by the band’s love for prog rock. Key albums: Leviathan (2004) and Remission (2002).


Neurosis: First starting as a hardcore band, they gradually incorporated a more progressive approach in their compositions. The music they create is one of a king. A typical aspect of their music is the experimentation with different musical styles. It seems the band’s main goal is to create depressing atmospheric metal, complete with raw, tortured-sounding vocals. Heavy metal pieces with dense riffing and impressive drumming are contrasted with sections that only exist of samples and gentle instrumentation. Their music is widely considered sludge metal, a form of heavy metal regarded to be a fusion between doom metal and hardcore, but because of their experimentation with lengthy atmospheric pieces, they seem to have progressed beyond the boundaries of that genre. Key albums: Souls at Zero (1992).


Meshuggah: This Swedish band stands out from other heavy metal bands by having quite unique complexities that make their riffs and styles extra interesting. The band is famous for their strong use of unusual time signatures, often relating to jazz complexities. Sometimes described as Math Metal, the band will go down well with fans of heavier DT tracks and bands like Tool for their unique complexities. Key albums: Chaosphere (1998), Catch 33 (2005) and Nothing (2002).



Progressive Black Metal

Arcturus: This band has experimented with all kinds of music, extracting influences and incorporating elements from all over the spectrum of music, such as black metal, classical music, pop, electronica, metal and trip-hop. Their sound alternates the dark and the luminous, creating an esoteric and psychedelic atmosphere. Key albums: La Masquerade Infernale (1997) and The Sham Mirrors (2002).


Diabolical Masquerade: This one-man musical project, written and played by Katatonia guitarist Anders Nyström, leans heavily on avant-garde melodic black metal with some death metal influences. Experimenting more with song structure, theme and composition, the latest work is conceived as a soundtrack to a non-existent horror movie, with 61 tracks broken into 20 movements. Key album: Death’s Design (2001) and Nightwork (1999).

Pan-Thy-Monium: This Swedish band formed with several members from Edge of Sanity. The music is quite strange and complex, with structure and legth of songs recalling the classic prog metal songs. Other features include unconventional use of saxophone and violin, cryptic song names, various noises and bizarre sounds. The lyrics are supposed to tell about life and death of a chaos god called Raagoonshinnaah; but actually sound like incomprehensible gibberish sung in harsh, death metal-style growling. Although some songs include clean or digitized vocals. Key albums: Khaooos and Dream II

Solefald: Being one of the best sounds of Viking Metal, they also include violin, beautiful female vocals, saxophone and heavy guitar playing. Their albums are very different one from the other, though. An overall description would take too long. Check out: In Harmonia Universalis (2003) and Red for Fire (part 1 of An Icelandic Odyssey, 2005 [part 2 is recorded but not yet released]).

Ulver: This Norwegian trio started out as black metal in 1993. They have gradually developed into experimental progressive metal and their avant-garde sound is seen to best effect in their latest releases. Combining influences as disparate as jazz, trip-hop, pop, glitch, classical and metal into a fearsome concoction, few artists have been able to combine so many sounds without sounding comical or fragmented. Key albums: Perdition City (2000) and Bergtatt (1994).


Vintersorg: Starting as a more traditional black metal project with a folk music-loving composer and ending as a perfect mixture of folk, symphonic rock and black metal featuring lots of melodies and a wide variety of different vocal styles. The themes of their music are often gloomy and the lyrics are a lot about nature and the role humans play on earth. Two of their albums have featured the assistance of ex- Death and Control Denied bassist, Steve di Giorgio. Key albums: The Focusing Blur (2004) and Cosmic Genesis (2000).

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Mastodon: This “mammoth metal” from Atlanta are usually classified as heavy metal, but their real genre is progressive sludge metal.

Progressive sludge metal? Whatever happened to the days of just 'metal'?


"What do you listen to?"
"I listen to metal. YEAAAH! Metal up your A$$!! Whoooh!" (waves devil horn fist)


Now, it's more like..

"What do you listen to?"
"Sometimes some progressive sludge metal, really depends on my mood. Occasionally I can get into some progressive death, or progressive slash. I do have some metal fusion in my collection, as well as some space prog metal. Just the other day I bought a disc by a new prog doom metal band and enjoyed it quite a bit... ...and ABBA."


BTW, saw Mastodon live and it was a great show.

 

[CDailey]

If anyone asks me what I listen to I just tell them metal. I still get weird looks without having to explain about genres.

 

[Diego440]

I usually have to resort to saying "whatever you don't like, I love"

 

[CDailey]

Hmm, I'm really liking Novembre. 👍

 

[Pottseh]

Woohoo, prog. Love the thread. The technical metal section needs a bit of adding to, though.

Good to see Ron Jarzombek is there. He's got a new project in the works called Blotted Science with Hate Eternal's ex-drummer, Derek Roddy, and Alex Webster, who does bass for Cannibal Corpse. His site has some of the guitar work that's going to be on it - it's going to be insane, as per his standard.

 

[Diego440]

Woohoo, prog. Love the thread. The technical metal section needs a bit of adding to, though.

meh... it's just as an intro... further reading could be done in wikipedia and the sites that branch from there

Thanks 👍

 

[Master_Yoda]

I love you Diego! I have a good since in music.

 

[Diego440]

a good what?

 

[Speedy Samurai]

The new Andromeda CD, Chimera, is good.

(that's all I have to say.)

 

[Ev0]

Heh, I stop visiting these forums, and a great prog thread pops up. Excellent posts Diego, you've given me a lot of bands to check out now.

Lately, I've been trying to find some Italian prog, but its very difficult to find, whether in a store or otherwise (I've only found one store in Toronto that had PFM in stock, and the albums were around $40 each since they were all imports!).

These past few months I have been listening to more prog bands. I've been a huge Rush fan for many years (by far my favourite band), and I've been a fan of Dream Theater and Pink Floyd for quite a while now, but recently I've found myself listening to tons of Yes and Genesis. I've also been getting into lots of Zappa's work too; both his fusion and his somewhat more mainstream work (like Overnite Sensation, and Sheik Yerbouti).

 

[Diego440]

Yeah, Italian Prog isn't easy to find. I've never seen a PFM album, tbh.

Can't say I like Zappa... he's too 'out there' for my taste. Check out Stanley Clarke, although more towards jazz, his fusion with rock is really nice. I think he's played at some point with Zappa too.

 

[Touring Mars]

Has anyone mentioned Gong yet? They are more 'psychedelic' than Prog, but I think they still qualify... I have three albums, "Angel's Egg", "Camembert Electrique" and "Live Etc.", the latter I've had for donkeys years and is highly recommended as a good sampler of their stuff... "Camembert Electrique" is also well worth a listen...

edit: I see you have Gong covered already 👍 Hadn't heard of the 'Canterbury Scene' before..

Incidentally, a good way to discover some new music is to go to myspace.com and do some searches through their Music pages... you can add one song to your own page (I currently have a Gong song called 'Isle Of Everywhere' (live version on Live Etc. is actually better IMO - the original studio version starts off sounding a bit like dodgy 70's porn music - not that I'd know what that sounded like, you understand... ahem... )

 

[Diego440]

have you heard of pandora.com? It works really nicely. You type in a band/song you like and they'll play similar music to it... a good way to discover new bands.

If you like Gong you may also like Caravan, although more hippie-ish and perhaps a bit older, I think they're closely related. On the 70s porn music, I actually have an album called "70s Porn Music"... in fact, the music is really funny... My last.fm page (link in my sig) usually has a lot of prog bands in the recently played list, some known, some obscure. Although lately I haven't been home much, so it's gone from displaying 300 songs per week to close to 20.

I'm still supposed to suggest other bands to you.

 

[Touring Mars]

Yeh, someone on GTP already suggested pandora.com to me, and I think it's an excellent site aswell - although you can't listen to the exact track you want to hear, but as a legal music discovery site, it is definitely the best I've seen so far 👍

Why not set up a YouTube video jukebox in the Music forum (see the link in my sig ) of some prog stuff (if you can find any...)?

 

[Touring Mars]

I just bought my third Yes CD... for the second time After having bought most of their early stuff when I was first getting into rock music, I'm now in the process of updating my collection with some Remasters.... Rhino have done an excellent job on repackaging and remastering the classic Yes albums, of which I've now bought three, despite already owning the albums on CD. All I can say is that it was money well spent in each case... I first got 'Close To The Edge' and 'Going For The One' remasters, both for about £7 from Amazon, and have now added 'Relayer' (purchased from Fopp) for just £5... with it's replica cardboard gatefold sleeve and additional tracks, I can't believe it was such a good bargain.... for Yes officionados, it's a must have... the original 3 tracks sound fantastic, and is worth the price alone. The additional 3 tracks are a bit superfluous, basically 'Soon' (from 'Gates of Delirium') and a single version of 'Sound Chaser' are nothing more than edits chopped out of the full length versions (and I already have the 'Soon' edit on Yesyears anyway...) but there is also a full length studio run-through of 'Gates...' which is remarkable and an amazing insight into the creative process - which when applied to Yes, is really quite something to know...

'Relayer' was considered to be quite a departure for Yes at the time, after the critical mauling of the lethargic 'Tales from Topographic Oceans', and the subsequent departure of Rick Wakeman... but now it stands up as a masterpiece of the Prog Rock genre.... on the broader topic of buying remastered editions of CD's you might already have, I can only say that if Rhino have anything to do with it, you'll probably be glad you reinvested...

 

[Diego440]

what year is Relayer from? I've always liked Topographic Oceans... I'm surprised it was mauled by the critics.

 

[Touring Mars]

'Relayer' is from 1974, 'Tales...' was just one year earlier - fans laps up 'Tales...' because it was on the back of 'Close To The Edge', but the critics we not so kind. Infact, the harshest criticism of all was from Rick Wakeman, who hated the album so much, he turned his copy of the album into an ashtray... (and left the band as well...)

edit: I just noticed that 'Gates of Delirium' has taken my official #1 spot of my 'most played song' of the year so far.... not in terms of number of plays, but in terms of no. of plays multiplied by the song length... I've now spent longer listening to this song than any other (only 6 full plays, but at 21'56 a throw, that's alot of 'Delirium'... )

 

[Touring Mars]

Just to illustrate how comprehensive these Prog reviews are, my Italian friend and workmate just gave me some Premiata Forneria Marconi (Italian Prog) and yes, Diego has it covered already I have to say I really like it... ("Impressioni Di Settembre" from 'Storia Di Un Minuto')

 

[Diego440]

once you get past the Italian lyrics, which sound extremely funny to me, it's really good; keeping in mind it's a mid-70s band... I'm amazed how ahead of their time they sound.

 

[Diego440]

Seeing as I'm not doing much (except taking Photoshop courses, playing golf and tennis and the occasional job), I've decided to review a bit of what I've been acquiring lately.

So another boring week for me, and a perfect occasion to listen to some good prog. Hence, I came across a band called Don Caballero. I acquired their albums some time ago and even went ahead and listened to some of their songs, but didn't really "concentrate" on them. How foolish have I been!

Before going any further, who would you say is the best drummer in Prog Rock? Who in your opinion is the most competent, unique and skilled percussionist? Many names come to mind: Bill Bruford (Yes), Danny Carey (Tool), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater); none of which are who I'm looking for. Take 2: Pierre Moerlen (Gong), Christian Vander (Magma). They are all good, but they're good because you haven't heard Damon Che. Drummer for the American (Pennsilvanians, actually) instrumental math-rock band Don Caballero.

I was listening to What Burns Never Returns, their third album. Their music is experimental and innovative, with a strong influence of post-rock. The music is exptremely complex and appealing, based in the tradition of jazz fusion. Metal influences can be heard often, reminding of bands such as Pelican and Red Sparrows, both in sound and mood.

The song that opens the album is called "Don Caballero 3", because it's the third album... ah whatever. A short percussion intro with other instruments joining in create a chaotic feel. At first it seems random but as you listen, it becomes perfectly constructed with admirable accuracy. The "chaos" stops and the band goes into the complex instrumentation which has been their trademark with very inspiring drumming, dual guitars and a pefectly audible bass. The sound is dominated by unusual rhythm and harmonies. Whoever enjoys the complex side of prog will appreciate this band.

I read somewhere that the music is composed around Che's drumming, but reality is that every instrument plays a great role here. They are all instrumental, and to some people they are too complex to sit through. If you are keen on King Crimson's albums from the 80s and Rush, you'll find Don Caballero appealing. Their sound is extremely unique, creative and innovative. One of my favourite Prog bands.

A bit more about them, here

 

[Touring Mars]

I just got The Mars Volta, "De-loused in the Comatorium" - after a friend managed to sneak the album on to the CD player in our old staff bar, I;ve been tempted to buy the album, and I took the plunge late last week. Very very impressive stuff, and I didn't realise that The Mars Volta consisted of the chaps from At The Drive In, who I've never got into in a big way, but really like the stuff that I have heard from them. Anyway, typically for me, I'm about 4 years off the pulse, but "De-loused in the Comatorium" is a strong contender for my favourite album (discovery) of the year... 👍

 

[Muzaffar]

I should have posted on this thread a long time ago (oh wait! I didn't registered yet at that time ) Oh well,good to see someone revived an old thread. Well i kinda like the Prog genre recently especially the New Prog genre. I really like bands such as Mew,Muse,Bloc Party,The Fall of Troy and Doves a whole lot (and somehow,i can't stop listening to Mew.Oh someone help me!!!!) well i do like Mogwai as well. Might as well be explore more about the Prog culture.

Who knows what song could catch my ears and become addicted to the song like i am now....

 

[Diego440]

The Mars Volta for me is a band I like to listen for short periods of time. If I listen to it too much, I get the feeling they sound like Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

It's a great band, I'll give you that, but not one I'm very much into. Although their contributions to Prog are immense. Glad you liked it.