Any Progressive Metal fans out there?

When I mention "Progressive Metal" it is "a subgenre of both progressive rock and heavy metal, originating in the United Kingdom and the United States In the 1970s." Bands that are involved in this form of music are:

Periphery

Monuments

Meshuggah

As you can see, the genre can vary much like other subgenres of rock. However if you delve deeper you can see that it can sort of add other influences into it. Things like jazz, opera, and a full orchestra are things that aren't shy to the genre.

So yeah, has anyone ever heard of this genre before? If so, what band do you like/dislike?

If you're new, what are your thoughts on it? If you like it, do you want more links to it?

If you dislike it, what are the reasons besides the "screaming"?

Because I can show you "clean" progressive metal.

edited 2nd Jan '15 5:18:15 PM by GrimSabatoni

"Baka baka baka, teme teme teme, baka baka, teme baka."

I personally don't really classify Periphery and Monuments as really progressive or in some ways not even metal as much as an off shoot of late hardcore that took small snippets of metal but focused less so on the expansive structures of prog and more on the "devil in the details" approach picked up from what we call tech-metal nowadays.

Like, these are bands that at best exist at the very outer edges of prog metal. I'd be thinking something more like (easy example) Dream Theater, Symphony X, Queensryche, Watchtower, Fates Warning, Oracle/Prodigy, late 80's Voivod and so on for the really archetypical versions of the genre.

edited 2nd Jan '15 7:12:53 PM by StillbirthMachine

Only Death Is Real

Well, to each their own I believe. Don't get me wrong, I agree with some of your views and that those bands you listed are very much progressive metal as well, but I'd like to say that Monuments and Periphery are a part of the genre as well.

I can understand your indifference toward's Periphery's spot in prog due, but disqualifying them and Monuments from metal as whole and calling them an offshoot? I'm sorry but my understanding of metal is that theres a certain brutality in each of the songs due to the heaviness of guitars, bass, drums, and song structure. That is what I think classifies bands as "metal". Taking these all into thought, it can't be denied that Periphery and Monuments are metal due to the heaviness and song structure.

But getting back to the point, I agree with the bands you listed except for Symphony X. I do agree that they're very technical, but I always thought that they were death-metal. I haven't listened to them much recently, so I apologize if my guess is wrong. But hell, I'm happy that there's another metalhead on here that knows these bands. m/

edited 2nd Jan '15 7:37:11 PM by GrimSabatoni

"Baka baka baka, teme teme teme, baka baka, teme baka."

Dream Theater is one of my favorite bands, and I like at lot Queensrÿche's earlier stuff, but I've never gotten around to fully exploring this genre. I also like Porcupine Tree, but from what I can gather they only sort of count.

Symphony X definitely aren't death metal. Are you confusing them with some other band?

edited 2nd Jan '15 8:31:11 PM by djbj

There's a lot of metal that is pretty far removed from anything particularly brutal. Release by Revelation is perfect chill out Rush influenced doom and classic Helloween is more soaring and uplifting than "brutal". That's a very vague and relatively defined term as well; if we went with brutality determining how metal something was, only death, black, and more extreme thrash would count.

edited 2nd Jan '15 9:48:00 PM by StillbirthMachine

Only Death Is Real

I don't care much for prog metal. This is most likely over generalizing, but almost every prog metal band I come across puts showmanship over songcraft. One of my favourite bands of all time is King Crimson because they were/are prog but can still write amazing songs. I like Tool, early Queensryche, Fates Warning, Rush...that's about it.

Knowing your tastes, I'm surprised to see Tool there, whom I've always associated with popularizing many of the more regrettable elements of blunter modern prog. What do you think of prog power bands like Archetype, Oracle, and Adramelch? They all seem to take quite a bit of Fates Warning/Crimson Glory influence.

Only Death Is Real

Most of the bands mentioned so far are good (and some are great), IMO, though I'm not very familiar with Monuments. I'd say Periphery are Metal, though maybe not Prog-Metal, per se. At least, not in the same way that Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, Fates Warning or Savatage are...

Also, Porcupine Tree started as a Neo-Prog / Neo-Psych band and then became Prog-Metal later on, or that's how I perceive it based on my listening to their albums chronologically (I did it a while back)... And I've always thought of tool as a Progressively-inclined / more experimental Alternative Metal band. Not a bad thing to be, IMO- I'm rather fond of 'em, to be honest, and I don't share the purist's animosity towards Alt-Metal...

Yeah, prog metal. Overall, just like every other genre, there are good and bad examples, but overall it's a genre whose traits and characteristics generally appeal to me. I particularly like some of the second wave black metal bands that slowly started incorporating progressive elements into their music. (Enslaved and Emperor are possibly two of the most famous examples

Separate to that whole scene, Communic and early Fates Warning

edited 3rd Jan '15 11:27:39 PM by CardsOfWar

"I thought Djent was just a band" -Physical Stamina

Aha, Enslaved (I made their page, you know- one of my favorite bands of any genre) and Emperor- both absolutely brilliant bands, IMO. Isa and In The Nightside Eclipse are absolute masterpieces, and their other albums are all good to great, too...

Also, Fates Warning rule too, they sorely need a page here. Never heard the other one, sounds promising though...

Yeah, Enslaveed and Emperor are both amazing bands. Enslaved's discography is consistently great. They're sort of like King Crimson, in that each album is different and uniquely inspired, but a distinctive identity of their own permeates all of their work. As for Emperor, my favourite album of theirs is Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise. It's so chaotic and seemingly unfocused, but also so victorious and triumphant.

"I thought Djent was just a band" -Physical Stamina

Good to see another Enslaved fan on here, I love all their work. I agree completely, they're almost the King Crimson of Black Metal.

That IS a good one, though it took me a few listens to digest it / make it click- but when it clicks, it DOES, and you kinda have no choice but to say "DAMMMMNNN!". It's pretty sweet.

Those bands OP cited are more related to groove metal than progressive, I guess. Meshuggah, in particular, is totally groove with complex signatures.

As for me, I don't tend to like progressive metal much. Most prog metal I like is prog death, like Scar Symmetry and pre-2011 Opeth. Also, Devin Townsend might count as prog as well (mostly), so there's that.

No regret shall pass over the threshold!

Yay people responses!

Yeah, I was. Sorry. >.<

For some reason when I thought of the name I thought of Persephone, the Progressive-esque Death-ish metal band. Woops.

Because of this I actually got back to listening to Symphony X, and wow. I fucking love them all over again.

I guess you're right. Relating older Prog metal to Periphery and the others I listed, you're mostly right. I haven't listened to much of Messhuggah, due to how repetitive they got, but with Periphery they have a wide variety of music and some of it can be Progressive if you look at it with a.

Have A Blast! It's not like older progmetal, but it isn't mostly groove. //shrug// I'm not that savvy with genre names, but I guess to each their own.

Not exactly.

Between the Buried and Me are a good example of a band that doesn't put thier showmanship over their music.

edited 5th Jan '15 11:58:11 AM by GrimSabatoni

"Baka baka baka, teme teme teme, baka baka, teme baka."