As far as I can recall in those days, Fates Warning was the real first prog metal band, along with Queensryche a year or two later. Of course the term Prog wasn't used to describe it and we had Iron Maiden playing various rythm changes on their songs already, but Fates Warning kinda took the legacy from Rush's discography and adapted it to Metal, using some arabic or oriental influences on their first 3 or 4 albums. Things just started changing with the fourth album, "No Exit", and they "cleaned up" their sound, maybe a little too much for their sake, and then bands like Queensryche and Crimson Glory became huge and FW just stood in the shadow. But of course, that's the view from this side of the planet. Nevertheless, they are pioneers and worth listening to.
The Best Progressive Metal Bands
- Thread starter Detective Clarence Beauregard
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As far as I can recall in those days, Fates Warning was the real first prog metal band, along with Queensryche a year or two later. Of course the term Prog wasn't used to describe it and we had Iron Maiden playing various rythm changes on their songs already, but Fates Warning kinda took the legacy from Rush's discography and adapted it to Metal, using some arabic or oriental influences on their first 3 or 4 albums. Things just started changing with the fourth album, "No Exit", and they "cleaned up" their sound, maybe a little too much for their sake, and then bands like Queensryche and Crimson Glory became huge and FW just stood in the shadow. But of course, that's the view from this side of the planet. Nevertheless, they are pioneers and worth listening to.
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
- Jul 17, 2008
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I'm usually not really too into the extreme shades of prog metal, not because I dislike the heaviness or rough vocals, but because the arrangements tend to become very busy, which is a pet peeve of mine. BTBAM definitely falls into that trap for me - too much concern with how many elements can be running at once and not enough with how those elements interact. Might change my mind if I listen more, but I dunno.
J-Dubya 777
It NEVER ends
Haken rules, fuck the nay-sayers! :Smokedev:
I look forward to working with them, as well as hearing them at Prog Power USA... Comparing them to DT is like comparing apples to enema bags....
Kenneth R.
Cináed
I don't get the Haken comments, really. I love them, while I dislike pretty much everything DT has made since 1994. Like J-Dub said, the only connection I can make to DT is that it's tagged as progressive.
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
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I dunno, you'd have to be half asleep not to hear the DT rip-offs on the album. Definitely the dominant influence, to the point of annoyance. Of course, they rip off a little of everything. It's not bad, just unoriginal and boring.
That's my opinion, deal w/it
One of the best Kummeli sketches... Funny thing is, parts exactly like that joke piece really can be found in songs by all these modern "prog metal" bands.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
I think the key problem in "prog" is that there are musicians out there - GOOD, TALENTED musicians - who will create rhythms and melodies and complexities without giving a mind to how those things are meant to fit together and complement each other. This then gets passed off as some kind of progness or billed as a series of separate movements. These musicians were perhaps attempting the Jackson Pollock complexity + randomness = beauty. But unlike Pollock, their creations are not homogenous. They're neither able to emulate old master composers who so often are found listed as influences to prog bands like Bach and Beethoven. The absolute key is that even disparate elements of a song, even fractured movements and drastically different sections have a common thread that pulls together and drives forward the music. In prog more than any other genre, that tends to get forgotten. An excellent prog song will take one theme and twist it slowly into another. Or create sections which tell different parts of a story, but each recognizably on its own as part of the same story. If I'm reading The 1001 Nights, yes each story is explicitly different. But each tale unmistakably belongs to the Arabian Nights theme. I feel that the typical prog band will have someone writing "cool riffs" and having compiled a library of such, just paste them together in a certain order in maybe the same key and call it a "song". The verse riff has nothing to do with the chorus riff, not a common rhythmic or harmonic unit.
BARBAROUSSE
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IMHO probably one of the most , if not the most underrated prog band ....Andy Winter is one of my all-time favorite songwriters and lyricists .
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schenkadere
Obey my dog!
I think the term "prog" has over stayed its welcome...I don't hear anything truly progressive going on in the metal genre.
SymphonyXV
Member
_Gentleman of_the Snow_
Prog' Drummer
SymphonyXV
Member
I tried writing a prog song today and it sucked . Maybe I should just copy Circus Maximus like the rest of them! I mean think about it, Dreamscape, Cloudscape, Andromeda, The Mind's Eye, Pagan's Mind, Seventh Wonder, Suspyre, Kamelot...they all sound more or less the same.
. Maybe I should just copy Circus Maximus like the rest of them! I mean think about it, Dreamscape, Cloudscape, Andromeda, The Mind's Eye, Pagan's Mind, Seventh Wonder, Suspyre, Kamelot...they all sound more or less the same.Are you being sarcastic? Pagan's Mind, SW, and Kamelot in particular sound extremely different to me!
I thought this was the progressive band thread? Pagan's Mind are as powermetal and generic as they come. Like wise with Kamelot (though I love Kamelot, don't care for Pagan's Mind. Suspyre is Power Metal with a wankery twist. Seventh Wonder, have their own unique sound entirely. Though they sound samey through-out their own albums. Also the majority of these bands, have been releasing music since before Circus Maximus even released their first album. Cloudscape, and Dreamscape I don't know to well. I have heard there stuff. Have some of their stuff. But I can't form a fair opinion.
Other than some of these bands being terribly generic, they have nothing in common. The two most generic and power-metal bands in there are Kamleot, and Pagan's Mind. Kamelot knows how to write songs with far better hooks, and more atmosphere and life than Pagan's Mind. And even they sound nothing a like. You would never mistake a Pagan's Mind song for Kamelot. Or to more larger extremes, Seventh Wonder, or even Circus Maximus.
Other than some of these bands being terribly generic, they have nothing in common. The two most generic and power-metal bands in there are Kamleot, and Pagan's Mind. Kamelot knows how to write songs with far better hooks, and more atmosphere and life than Pagan's Mind. And even they sound nothing a like. You would never mistake a Pagan's Mind song for Kamelot. Or to more larger extremes, Seventh Wonder, or even Circus Maximus.
_Gentleman of_the Snow_
Prog' Drummer
Writing prog is my specialty... I can't write classical.
^ I agree. Those bands do not sound alike at all.
^ I agree. Those bands do not sound alike at all.
Postulate
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Andy Winter is great! I have a big gripe with Winds, though, and that's because of the drummer - Hellhammer is great, but he does not fit that band.
Sort of agreed. Mind's Eye and Suspyre are pretty much prototypical heavy prog/prog metal and power-prog metal bands, respectively. Seventh Wonder is also generic but like I've said I actually can enjoy them from time to time.
SymphonyXV
Member
I was being sarcastic, although I admit Walking on H20 is the absolute worst album I have ever heard.
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