Need some buying suggestions for prog metal

[adaher]

I've bought just about every power metal release out there in recent years, while buying prog only sparingly and mainly sticking to the biggest names in the genre. I also have bought albums from bands in Progpower V and VI, so I already have or am planning to buy Circus Maximus and Dreamscape(End of Silence last year, adding Very this year).

I like my prog metal with hooks and heaviness. Nothing too weird, like Pain of Salvation, and nothing too soft, like Spock's Beard. Oh, and I can also do without the 70s Pink Floyd references that I hear in Ayreon's music.

I like Dream Theater, Dreamscape, Symphony X, and Circus Maximus. I've had Vanden Plas and Pagan's Mind recommended to me on that basis. Any other recommendations, since I plan to drop a huge wad of cash at ProgPower on CDs?

 

[Ascension]

Pick up anything by Empty Tremors, Andromeda, Poverty's No Crime, Atmosfear, Ivanhoe, and Ark and you're good to go.

 

[adaher]

Okay, I've listened to Empty Tremor, didn't like it.

Andromeda, I got their first album, but didn't buy the second because I heard it was awful. The first one was decent.

Poverty's No Crime I've heard good things about, never listened. I'll pick one of theirs up for sure then.

Ditto for Atmosfear. Another I should pick up.

Ivanhoe-Got enough Andy Franck for the time being.

Ark- I kept wanting to pick them up because of Jorn Lande and Tore Ostby, but I heard the music was really weird.

 

[adaher]

Oh wow, listening to soundbytes from Chemical Chaos and I'm blown away! Awesome! Definitely on my list. Might not be able to wait for ProgPower to pick that one up. Sounds very different from DT clones.

Atmosfear sounds decent, I'll tentatively add that one to my list.

 

[Pellaz]

Superior, behind (c. 1992 I think)

 

[The Invisible Guest]

Here's a few that to me are proggy, but not so complex that the songs sound like a mess.

Ark - Burn The Sun -- One of my favorite prog discs. Jorn's best performance ever perhaps, and the guitar playing of Tore Ostby is quite interesting. I think this one is much more straigh forward than their first one. I took to it well, and I don't exactly like the real wanky proggy stuff.

DGM - Hidden Places -- they remind a bit of DT and Symphony X, but they kind of have their own thing going on. From my experience this is their best disc, and it's fairly recent too (2003). I didn't like their latest near as much as this.

Orphaned Land - Mabool -- I take it you might be familiar with this one. Proggy music, with clean and death vox. I found it utterly interesting.

Dead Soul Tribe - A Murder Of Crows -- I don't think they are all that proggy, but they kind of have a Tool-ish kind of thing going on. DST gets considered as prog more often than not. I think this is their best disc.

Shadow Gallery - Tyranny -- I bet you are familiar with these guys .. perhaps not. Well anyone, Tyranny is clearly my favorite. Their new one Room V which is just coming out now is basically Tyranny Part 2. Maybe buying those two might be a good score for you.

Superior - Ultima Ratio, and Behind -- Both of these are killer. Behind was their debut from the mid 90's, and Ultima Ratio was their latest studio release.

Conception - Flow, and In Your Multitude. Both are great, but quite a bit different. Parallel Minds is also a really strong disc.

If I think of any others I'll post them. Just about all of these that I posted are fairly straight forward prog, and not the real technical, wanky, noodling crap. With any prog their will be some noodling around, but I find it tolerable with all of these releases.

Britt

 

[Bryan316]

If you're getting any Vanden Plas, get Beyond Daylight. GREAT catchy hooks, excellent sound and studio work and heavy as hell, great riffage and shredding, very very passionate singing, and a KILLER bonus track cover of an old Kansas classic.

 

[booB]

actually, I'd say if you're getting any Vanden Plas, get The God Thing. The rest of their discography is power metal/AOR, at least to my ears.

more excellent prog that's not TOO wanky:

Divine Regale - Ocean Mind
Leviathan - any, but especially Scoring the Chapters
Divided Multitude - Inner Self, or Falling to Pieces
Sanvoisen - Soul Seasons (Queensryche-y prog)
Mayadome - Paranormal Activity, or Near Life Experience
Lemur Voice - Insights, or Divided
Dali's Dilemma - Manifesto For Futurism (may have too much wankery, though)

and if you can handle death vocals, check out any Opeth cd, Into Eternity - Buried in Oblivion, and/or Edge of Sanity - Crimson.

 

[J-Man]

Try these:

Lee Z "Shadowland"
Lemur Voice "Insight"
Loch Vostok "Dark Logic"
Empty Tremors "Alien Inside"
and last but by no means least in fact one of the best Prog CDs i have heard is from a band from Baton Rouge La called CEA SERIN and the Cd is called "Where memories Combine". You will be surprised and pleased with this one it is awesome beyond expectations. All of these are available at www.CDINZANE.com

 

[FatesFan]

Try these:

Lee Z "Shadowland"
Lemur Voice "Insight"
Loch Vostok "Dark Logic"
Empty Tremors "Alien Inside"
and last but by no means least in fact one of the best Prog CDs i have heard is from a band from Baton Rouge La called CEA SERIN and the Cd is called "Where memories Combine". You will be surprised and pleased with this one it is awesome beyond expectations. All of these are available at www.CDINZANE.com

CEA SERIN IS A KILLER BAND. "GREAT PICK"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AngraRULES]

Magnitude 9
Dead Nature
Poverty's No Crime
Ark
You're probably gonna like a lot of Angra, since they could be called a progressive power metal band.

 

[DarkOne]

I've got three for you to look into:

Threshold - Amazing band. Some progressive, but nothing too deep. Great hooks, catchy music. Check out "Hypothetical"

Lana Lane - If you like female vocals, she's a great one to check out. "Curious Goods" or "Secrets of Astrology" is good place to start.

Pyramaze - Excellent vocals on this one.

Actually, Pyramaze made me think of Balance of Power (Pyra's vocalist Lance King left BoP). They are a bit like Threshold, and worth a listen.

Steve in Philly

 

[adaher]

Ark- Burn the Sun- added to my list.

DGM-Hidden Places- The only DGM album I don't have. Maybe I'll get it, I don't know.

Orphaned Land-Mabool- Got it because they are in the lineup.

Dead Soul Tribe - A Murder Of Crows- Not into the Tool thing, so I don't know.

Shadow Gallery - Tyranny - Got it in 1998, one of the best albums ever! Getting Room V on Tuesday.

Superior - Ultima Ratio, and Behind -Heard good things about Superior, but went to their site and listened to soundbytes and they didn't do anything for me.

Conception - Flow, and In Your Multitude.-Got Flow, it's okay, might get In Your Multitude since they are in the lineup.

If you're getting any Vanden Plas, get Beyond Daylight.

Is that newer than Far Off Grace, or older?

Divine Regale - Ocean Mind- I wanted this one back in 1999, but never got around to it. I probably should start looking for it again, assuming it's easy to find.

Same with all these:
Divided Multitude - Inner Self, or Falling to Pieces
Sanvoisen - Soul Seasons (Queensryche-y prog)
Mayadome - Paranormal Activity, or Near Life Experience
Lemur Voice - Insights, or Divided

All albums I considered a few years ago, but never got around to getting. I've got renewed interest in Lemur Voice because of Sun Caged.

Dali's Dilemma - Manifesto For Futurism - Got it, not too wanky at all. How come these guys never recorded a followup?

Lee Z, Loch Vostok, and Cea Serin are bands I've never heard of before. I'll definitely look into these guys. You seem pretty enthusiastic about Cea Serin.

Magnitude 9- Got one album, it's good. Not sure if I'm motivated to buy a second with all the other great picks suggested so far.

Dead Nature -Don't know this one, I'll check them out.

You're probably gonna like a lot of Angra, since they could be called a progressive power metal band.

Got every Angra album, including the Freedom Call EP. All right, it's not EVERYTHING, but it's everything the casual fan can get hold of easily. Oops, don't have Holy Live or Hunters and Prey. Maybe I'm not as good a fan as I thought. Still, I know of these guys and they were what sold me on ProgPower this year.

Threshold-Got Subsurface a couple of months ago. Not bad.

Lana Lane-Have Secrets of Astrology. Very good, but haven't really been motivated to get another, although I've considered getting Lady MacBeth.

Pyramaze- Just didn't work for me. I can tell quality when I hear it, but for some reason it hasn't clicked with me despite about a dozen listens. I realize I'm a minority here. I know the buzz around this band has been pretty hot.

Hey, just thought of two more bands that have already played ProgPower: Zero Hour and Reading Zero. Are they good?

 

[booB]

Superior - Ultima Ratio, and Behind -Heard good things about Superior, but went to their site and listened to soundbytes and they didn't do anything for me.

then you're automatically a freak. that is, if the samples you heard were from Behind... the rest of their discography leaves a bit to be desired.

Conception - Flow, and In Your Multitude.-Got Flow, it's okay, might get In Your Multitude since they are in the lineup.

In Your Multitude IS the definitive Conception disc. Flow is much different; it's much more laid back, whereas IYM is more complex and more energetic. I really think IYM could be just what you're looking for.

Magnitude 9- Got one album, it's good. Not sure if I'm motivated to buy a second with all the other great picks suggested so far.

I don't like them too much, with the exception of their debut, Chaos to Control, which was more power than prog. Their later material sounds more like AOR/prog rock, to me, than prog metal -- or metal, period.

Hey, just thought of two more bands that have already played ProgPower: Zero Hour and Reading Zero. Are they good?

yes. Both Zero Hour albums are amazing, as are both Reading Zero albums (though The Actual is considerably heavier; Satellite Sessions is a bit lacking in the heaviness department).

 

[Wkdchylde]

Boob - I'm with you - Zero Hour is an amazing band-
Adaher - cool you mentioned that band cause I was thinking they should be listed here-you should check out Zero Hour man I still cant put my cds down.


Wkd

 

[Bryant]

If you're getting any Vanden Plas, get Beyond Daylight. GREAT catchy hooks, excellent sound and studio work and heavy as hell, great riffage and shredding, very very passionate singing, and a KILLER bonus track cover of an old Kansas classic.

oooohhh !! Casa frackin casa likin (and other Ysemite Sam cursing) I was going to suggest bottoming out the Vanden Plas collection. They seem to have the perfect marriage of musicianship and songwriting. You can't go wrong with any of their releases.
Another suggestion is Fates Warning. For some reason, their last release was rarely talked about though I thought it was outstanding.


Bryant

 

[adaher]

I own their best of collection, Chasing Time I believe. Bought it back in 1998. The only other album I ever got was Parallel Minds, which was okay.

 

[BlindPanzer]

Okay, I've listened to Empty Tremor, didn't like it.

Andromeda, I got their first album, but didn't buy the second because I heard it was awful. The first one was decent.
.

I actually think the second album was better and i see myself listening to it more. The first one was less original, there a plenty of bands that sound like that. II=I is a more bold step in progression, and the better album IMO. sorry if i sound redundant.

 

[FatesFan]

I own their best of collection, Chasing Time I believe. Bought it back in 1998. The only other album I ever got was Parallel Minds, which was okay.

Get "A PLEASENT SHADE OF GREY" from Fates Warning. It's the only album you'll ever need.

 

[J-Man]

Check out a new band called Sinisthra. Very Very Very nice surprise.