LavagesOfTime
evangelist of Threshold
Looks like you have never heard Altura, a prog metal band from the 90s. Some parts are EMBARASSINGLY cloned from Images and Words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WJSg_WMC4o
The Best Progressive Metal Bands
- Thread starter Detective Clarence Beauregard
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Looks like you have never heard Altura, a prog metal band from the 90s. Some parts are EMBARASSINGLY cloned from Images and Words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WJSg_WMC4o
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
- Jul 17, 2008
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If you seriously want to expand into different things related to prog metal, I'd recommend looking into some of the musicians who have one foot in prog metal and the other foot in more experimental instrumental projects.
A great gateway album for that sort of thing is the one Jordan Rudess did with Tony Levin and Marco Minnemann. I think any DT fan would be able to enjoy it, but at the same time, it's far more "out there" than DT is. From there it's a skip and a hop to a whole world of innovative, but still very heavy, music. Guys like Alex Machacek, Robert Fripp and Allan Holdsworth are ones that I think prog metal fans could really appreciate, and they'll make you never want to listen to John Petrucci again.
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
- Jul 17, 2008
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This is true but much of what sounds like mere DT imitation is actually just sharing common roots with lots of DT's influences: Keith Emerson, Kerry Livgren, Ron Jarzombek, Alex Lifeson, Jim Matheos, etc. The "DT" sound is not really "theirs" to begin with.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
The entire "prog metal" genre copies Dream Theater, and most of it is unremarkably boring. Dream Theater, in turn, rips on so many great 70s and 80s acts it isn't funny. Especially when they lift not just tones, but riffs and melodies wholesale.
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
- Jul 17, 2008
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That depends on what you call prog metal. Of you limit it only to DT clone bands then of course it will seem that way.
Even the clone bands are not that bad -- the third-rate 'crap' from prog metal is often pretty listenable and even good. Wander around some third-rate 'crap' jazz or pop music and you'll want to off yourself.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
I don't know about that. "crap" Jazz is more interesting to me.
Watching paint dry is more exciting than listening to bands that do the following only because they've decided it's a recipe for awesum muzak:
-odd time signatures (to sound complex, and don't contribute to the song)
-polyrhythm (see odd time signatures)
-philosophical lyrical themes (with glaringly obvious indication that the writer doesn't know a damned thing about what they wrote)
-orchestration (because it's more epic right?!)
-every band member gets a solo, every song
It's not that any of these things are intrinsically bad. But there's a recipe for disaster when they are all used together in try-hard-to-be-impressive ways. It smacks of the ignorance of music as an art form, where negative space can be just as important as all the cacophony on the canvas. These bands just don't get that.
Watching paint dry is more exciting than listening to bands that do the following only because they've decided it's a recipe for awesum muzak:
-odd time signatures (to sound complex, and don't contribute to the song)
-polyrhythm (see odd time signatures)
-philosophical lyrical themes (with glaringly obvious indication that the writer doesn't know a damned thing about what they wrote)
-orchestration (because it's more epic right?!)
-every band member gets a solo, every song
It's not that any of these things are intrinsically bad. But there's a recipe for disaster when they are all used together in try-hard-to-be-impressive ways. It smacks of the ignorance of music as an art form, where negative space can be just as important as all the cacophony on the canvas. These bands just don't get that.
I almost never listen to any kind of metal music anymore. Weird how things change. When I joined this forum in 2007 I listened almost exclusively to metal music. But then I was fifteen. It's been a slow process, but I guess I became one of those old people who used to listen to metal as a kid.
Now where's the ultimate pop forum?
Now where's the ultimate pop forum?
uhhhhmmmm4
Jesus Machine
Postulate
Have a nice day! :)
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Well, if you veer too far away from the 'safe' labels like Blue Note, let me assure you that you will encounter some pretty shitty jazz.
Prog metal is a pretty niche genre -- there's really only one label that consistently supports it as a 'home base,' which is Inside Out. Maybe also The End, or Mellow Records??, if you consider that prog metal. So you don't have hundreds of terrible acts to wade through. Sure, Redemption is not the most exciting band in the world, but let's be realistic here, their music is not trash. Nor is Vanden Plas and Threshold and Seventh Wonder and Circus Maximus -- they're not great but they're not that bad, either. And each of them actually does innovate, in very small ways. Well, except maybe Redemption.
Bashing on prog metal in particular is just ridiculous. You can't fault it for being derivative more than any other well-established sound. Honestly I think a lot of the more vocal critics of prog metal just don't like hearing lots of notes.
Are there any cutting edge, amazing prog metal bands left? That depends on how you define the boundaries. Much of the sound has migrated to new territory. You want some of the best fucking complex heavy music you've ever heard in your life? Listen to Virgil Donati's In This Life, right now. I would say that's prog metal, in its own way. And it's really, really good.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
IMO, what happened to Prog Metal is this:
Lots of bands sound like Redemption, and a couple bands sound like Leprous. I'd like to see more of the latter. Not more sound-alikes, more innovators.
Lots of bands sound like Redemption, and a couple bands sound like Leprous. I'd like to see more of the latter. Not more sound-alikes, more innovators.
Durakonis
Zudviz
- Nov 17, 2013
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Vanden Plas' last album is one of the best prog albums ever IMO. If you approach a new album with prejudices, or if your mind suddenly concludes that its sound is not innovative, you limit your ways of enjoying music I think. The music is just not sound, and if i have to comment about "originality, i wouldn't count Anathema's new album as original in no way, other than the sound maybe. But i won't bash them, because they make music for the soul, not the mind. Jus as Vanden Plas does for the last 3 albums. The only difference is their drawn influences and genre.
Kenneth R.
Cináed
Indeed I limit my options. There's simply too much output to hear it all or even a significant portion of it in one lifetime. So I limit what I listen to based on criteria of my interests - originality, adeptness of execution, and production level. More of the same can be good once in a while, but mostly I'm interested in bands that change the rules when they release a new album.
Durakonis
Zudviz
- Nov 17, 2013
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Ok I understand. Yet, if changing the rules is applied just for the sake of changing the rules, I generally find it shallow in another way. It is a plus if a music has innovation, but also has integrity and intensity. I can easily bash the bands that "try" to be original. It is as negative as the bands that make music with certain formulas as you put it. Instead, I listen to an album, and then decide whether it is for me, or not.
ABQShredHead
©1970
I'm glad to see y'all could come to an agreement on that.
For me, I use those keys with arrows on them. They help me skip over stuff I don't like or don't want to hear.
For me, I use those keys with arrows on them. They help me skip over stuff I don't like or don't want to hear.
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