Technical refers to the difficulty in the playing of the music whereas progressive music is supposed to be somewhat experimental (but now it typically means you're just copying other progressive bands)
The Progressive/Avantgarde Metal Thread
- Thread starter challenge_everything
- Start date
optionthree
Better than the first two
I generally consider technical metal to be a subset of progressive metal, as most technical metal bands (excluding some tech death) are already progressive and the technicality is just a facet of that. Spastic Ink and Psychotic Waltz are perfect examples of this.
Eligos
Problem Yet to be Solved
!!!!!!!! Excitement!!!!!!!
Yeah!!!! Also:
In the Woods...
Nocte Obducta
Agrypnie
Ne Obliviscaris
Nagelfar
Vulture Industries
Atrox
Lunar Aurora
Ephel Duath
Negator
mumblemumbleAkercockemumble
unknown
fuck ftagn
all fans of forward thinking black metal need to check out Ekpyrosis. Absolutely phenomenal band
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
Zero Hour's Dark Deceiver and The Towers of Avarice are modern technical prog at its best imo. I'm a Sun Caged fan too.
Canvas Solaris are maaaaajor hit or miss. Their debut was bad, Penumbra Diffuse is fucking awesome, Cortical Tectonics was incredibly bad overall and The Atomized Dream has a lot of strengths (particularly the fucking gorgeous opening track) but a lot of dumb shit too.
Canvas Solaris are maaaaajor hit or miss. Their debut was bad, Penumbra Diffuse is fucking awesome, Cortical Tectonics was incredibly bad overall and The Atomized Dream has a lot of strengths (particularly the fucking gorgeous opening track) but a lot of dumb shit too.
Something being progressive or not has nothing to with how technical it is, they're not the samething.
Einherjar86
Active Member
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
Srontgorrth
Member
unknown
fuck ftagn
indeed. definitely overlooked. it's a shame they've only been able to release S.A.D. and the EP...perhaps at some point they can get back together to finish things off
Eligos
Problem Yet to be Solved
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
I can't find shit about new Spiral Architect except the news on their site from LAST YEAR saying the album'd be done in the next few years...
unknown
fuck ftagn
click "Audio" and an audioplayer will pop up. Select Ekpyrosis and the song will start playing
Vegard Pompey
ALLY TO GOOD, NIGHTMARE TO YOU
I don't know, but the way I see it, 'progressive' has more to do with structure and arrangement while 'technical' is all about the wankery.
-CC-
Something in My Eye
- Jan 12, 2009
- 3,967
- 800
- 113
Here's the low down on prog vs tech
Progressive
-Neverending songs
-More rock than metal if anything (yeah i said it)
-Complex song structures, as in separate verses with different instrumentation in each etc
-Often influenced by jazz or classical..especially jazz
-Kind of tying in with song structure, the songs "progress"..in simple terms, you can cut a progressive song into three separate songs and no one would have ever known...because they keep fucking wanking off on their guitar thinking they are musically superior to anything out there by constantly adding shit to their songs (which is why they are so fucking long ---yeah I'm looking at you Opeth)
Technical
-Focuses more on complex riffs and rhythms as opposed to song structure (technical songs are often built like any other song, V1-Ch-V2-Bridge-Ch)
-Considered metal more than rock (mainly because once you go tech, you are a death metal band 80% of the time)
-Often much more fast paced than that of progressive
-Requires intense concentration on the musicians part
I tried writing a non-biased review, but I just can't stand most genres labeled progressive..just a bs term for music that doesn't know when to end. BTW when I say complex song structures for progressive, I was trying to be nice...in reality when you keep adding new and new and new and new song pieces that don't correlate to the entire song as a whole, you are just a poor musician.
Progressive
-Neverending songs
-More rock than metal if anything (yeah i said it)
-Complex song structures, as in separate verses with different instrumentation in each etc
-Often influenced by jazz or classical..especially jazz
-Kind of tying in with song structure, the songs "progress"..in simple terms, you can cut a progressive song into three separate songs and no one would have ever known...because they keep fucking wanking off on their guitar thinking they are musically superior to anything out there by constantly adding shit to their songs (which is why they are so fucking long ---yeah I'm looking at you Opeth)
Technical
-Focuses more on complex riffs and rhythms as opposed to song structure (technical songs are often built like any other song, V1-Ch-V2-Bridge-Ch)
-Considered metal more than rock (mainly because once you go tech, you are a death metal band 80% of the time)
-Often much more fast paced than that of progressive
-Requires intense concentration on the musicians part
I tried writing a non-biased review, but I just can't stand most genres labeled progressive..just a bs term for music that doesn't know when to end. BTW when I say complex song structures for progressive, I was trying to be nice...in reality when you keep adding new and new and new and new song pieces that don't correlate to the entire song as a whole, you are just a poor musician.
optionthree
Better than the first two
From the 'Status' thread on the Spiral Architect forum on UM:
A correction regarding SA: I just started up the computer (at 4.30 AM) to work on – surprise - new SA-material when I read this. How ironic. But of course, life is busy for all of us these days. Better reclaim the nights then
The following is taken from a recent update on my Myspace-site:
Spiral Architect
Forever my main-band, which appears laying ship wrecked… It may sound strange, but I feel that to be a better picture of the situation back in 2002 - when a follow up to A Sceptic’s Universe should have been released – than it is now. For two years now I’ve tried to find time and motivation for writing ‘my share’ of a new record. Finally, things slowly start to fall into place with regards to these matters. What about the music then? The “old” new material is to me still very inspiring (after all these years!), and so is the “new” new stuff – so I think all the SA-fans out there (from the feedback we’re receiving your number is legion!) are in for a treat. It’s too early to say quite when, however, but I promise not to let go of the momentum this time. OK?
Written by Lars in April. With any luck they're making real progress.
A correction regarding SA: I just started up the computer (at 4.30 AM) to work on – surprise - new SA-material when I read this. How ironic. But of course, life is busy for all of us these days. Better reclaim the nights then
The following is taken from a recent update on my Myspace-site:
Spiral Architect
Forever my main-band, which appears laying ship wrecked… It may sound strange, but I feel that to be a better picture of the situation back in 2002 - when a follow up to A Sceptic’s Universe should have been released – than it is now. For two years now I’ve tried to find time and motivation for writing ‘my share’ of a new record. Finally, things slowly start to fall into place with regards to these matters. What about the music then? The “old” new material is to me still very inspiring (after all these years!), and so is the “new” new stuff – so I think all the SA-fans out there (from the feedback we’re receiving your number is legion!) are in for a treat. It’s too early to say quite when, however, but I promise not to let go of the momentum this time. OK?
Written by Lars in April. With any luck they're making real progress.
A lot of avantgarde, progressive, psychadelic, or technical stuff is good, but I can't stand fans that fap to the sheer progressiveness/etc. of a band. You get so many people that just try to get into more progressive bands just to make themselves feel/look all sophisticated, I can't stand it. Some people can't even tell you what's progressive about a band but are rather just reading the last.fm tags, i.e. people that go read some bio on Nachtmystium and then go post comments about how amazingly trippy the music is or some other complete bullshit.
the phoenix
Member
- Mar 25, 2004
- 142
- 0
- 16
It seems to me that progressive metal compromises melodic continuity for the sake or harmonic complexity and compositional elegance (ex: Vintersorg's "Visiosn From the Spiral Generator" album). Avantgarde metal can also have harmonic complexity and compositional elegance but of a different variety as it doesn't sacrifice melodic continuity as much (ex: Borknagar's "Epic" album). Avantgarde really pushes the artistic envelope in new emotional, thematic, and conceptual directions, and it's not uncommon for avantgarde metal to possess fusion influences (ex: Arcturus' "La Masquerade Infernale" album). But where fusion influences can push an original sound all the way into the category of avantgarde, I don't see how fusion would factor into the definition of a sound as progressive.
But I think that in contrast to metal in the genre of rock there is usually little distinction between progressive and avantgarde and in fact the term avantgarde typically isn't used, it's all called progressive... at least, this is something a rock person told me recently, I don't listen to rock myself.
Now technical metal it seems to me is sort of like symphonic metal in that there are a few bands that could be labeled purely symphonic but usually symphonic is a descriptive attribution like if you say a sound is symphonic blackened death metal or symphonic folk power metal. And obviously technical metal often happens to be progressive and vice-versa, but progressive metal doesn't necessarily have to be excessively difficult to play instrumentally speaking (ex: Ephel Duath's "Rephormula" album) and as well it can possess minimalistic influence.
Outstanding avantgarde bands that I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread are:
Solefald
Age of Silence
Transcending Bizarre?
Peccatum
Diablo Swing Orchestra
Arcturus.
Plus I enjoy a couple songs from Korova, Cronian, and Chaostar.
But I think that in contrast to metal in the genre of rock there is usually little distinction between progressive and avantgarde and in fact the term avantgarde typically isn't used, it's all called progressive... at least, this is something a rock person told me recently, I don't listen to rock myself.
Now technical metal it seems to me is sort of like symphonic metal in that there are a few bands that could be labeled purely symphonic but usually symphonic is a descriptive attribution like if you say a sound is symphonic blackened death metal or symphonic folk power metal. And obviously technical metal often happens to be progressive and vice-versa, but progressive metal doesn't necessarily have to be excessively difficult to play instrumentally speaking (ex: Ephel Duath's "Rephormula" album) and as well it can possess minimalistic influence.
Outstanding avantgarde bands that I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread are:
Solefald
Age of Silence
Transcending Bizarre?
Peccatum
Diablo Swing Orchestra
Arcturus.
Plus I enjoy a couple songs from Korova, Cronian, and Chaostar.
cannibal corpse
Member
In practice they are pretty much synonymous most of the time... in theory the difference is pretty vast. Technical means something pertaining to technique, as in instrumental technique, and progression means taking elements of a certain genre of music and experimenting with them, often introducing elements from other genres to create something truly original, something that progresses that genre forward. More often than not, the bands just imitate Dream Theater which is a real shame because some bands have done some very creative things with their music, which I'm always open to hearing. So I guess that progressive has more to do with the actual musical aesthetics and all that and technical has to do with technique. You don't have to actually play all the weird scales that the bands seem to use, you could just as well play in the blues pentatonic or something, as long as it requires a lot of technique to pull off.
Avigrus
Member
Similar threads
