Into the Everflow: The Progressive Metal Thread



Former member of Timeghoul posted this on Facebook and asked to share it around, a roughly 30 minute progressive metal track.
 
I kinda hate the term "progressive" as a genre label, not just because I associate it with a level of originality which is rare by definition, but also because the vast majority of bands in the "genre" seem really terrible. In other genres most bands can be inoffensively mediocre by following a formula; with prog the closest thing to a formula is to just be nauseatingly bombastic and overwrought.

Anyway, I was looking for something similar to Therion on Spotify tonight and discovered a fairly proggy band, Morpheus' Dreams. I'm quite impressed:



Other than that, I have to admit I missed out on Psychotic Waltz for years - finally gave them a hard listen recently and was amazed.
 
Decided to give Psychotic Waltz another shot and all 4 of their albums are on Amazon Prime so I just listened to all of them today. Surprisingly, there is no bad album from these dudes. I liked Bleeding the most out of all of them. Some crazy riffing in all of it.
 
Decided to give Psychotic Waltz another shot and all 4 of their albums are on Amazon Prime so I just listened to all of them today. Surprisingly, there is no bad album from these dudes. I liked Bleeding the most out of all of them. Some crazy riffing in all of it.
And all four have their own unique flavors. Bleeding is great, but my favorite will always be A Social Grace.
 
Good to see some new activity from them, though I'm not feeling that song. Basic groove metal riff, fairly ordinary structure, flute solo sounded kind of obligatory, only gets going towards the end, and Lackey sounds rough. Still a solid 6/10 song I guess but they're a band with only a couple 6/10's among their first four albums. But I'm more interested in seeing them live than hearing a new album anyways tbh.

EDIT: Another new song here



Eh
 
I believe I'm turning a corner with Fates Warning's Inside Out. I remember it ranking pretty high around here but it was near the bottom of my list. I've always felt like I was missing something with it, that it sort of disrupted the flow of brilliance from Spectre to Parallels. Right now though, it's sounding pretty good. It's not really much of a departure from the Parallels sound. Even more melodic. It's all very pleasant.
 
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Inside Out is one of my favorites. It is similar to Parallels in some ways, but overall it doesn't have as much of an AOR-ish sheen and it's a bit more rhythmic and heavy overall. The second half of the album is particularly excellent.
 
Bought my copy of Psychotic Waltz' "The God-Shaped Void" yesterday and after the first two spins - the first with earphones and the second one without - I'd say that while I doubt I'll ever like it as much as the first two albums, I like it definitely better than "Mosquito" and "Bleeding". I especially like the beautiful guitar solos. Of course, none comes anywhere close to the beauty of the solo parts of the title track of "Into the Everflow", but considering how picky I am, I'm happy I like the album as much as I do.

On another note, Mekong Delta posted this on their facebook-page 11 days ago:
Yesterday the CD artwork was approved and ordered. The vinyl has been cut and awaiting the test pressings. As soon as these test pressings are thoroughly and carefully listened to and approved, we can go ahead and start producing the vinyl as well. Hopefully a release date can be decided upon by the end of this month or early March.
 
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Revisited Awaken the Guardian by Fates Warning, one of those albums I seem obligated to like given my prog leanings. I enjoy and respect it, but relative to the praise it gets I'm still underwhelmed. Doesn't seem to have much dynamic range or something. Maybe it's too subtle for me. I don't find it memorable at all. Oh well.

I did listen to Variation on Inductive Theories btw @CiG. Pretty intriguing. The vocals are annoying, but the overall sound has an air of underlying mystery that draws me in toward something deep and out of reach.