The State of Prog

[NegativeVolume]

Hey Gang,

So I'm a very intermittent poster here - VERY intermittent, lol.

But I found my way back here after a small rediscovery of Sym X. I popped on Paradise Lost on my new car stereo, and I was a happy fuckin camper

But this got me to thinking - I don't really actively seek prog bands anymore. I have my dozen or so prog bands I love - but that's it. I tried to find a few new ones, but I can't seem to find any. I feel like the mid 90's through to the mid 2000's was the prog rock/prog metal glory days. Bands were just spewing forth randomly, and most of it was at least halfway decent. Are the days of prog over? Or am I just blind (well...deaf)?

 

[Liquid Tension]

Leprous and Diablo Swing Orchestra are two bands putting out great releases these past few years that you might not have heard of...

 

[Phanto]

Leprous and Diablo Swing Orchestra are two bands putting out great releases these past few years that you might not have heard of...

haken is another recently celebrated band.

there's some good prog, but there's no more of that "neoclassical" type of progmetal smyphony x once mastered.

 

[donKyle]

now it's all that djent stuff

 

[Phanto]

everything's shit nowadays

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Now prog seems to be geared more towards "djent" with a technical solo here and there. Its a sad thing really. Who actually wants to listen to a band like Periphery? No one.

 

[Drahcir]

Asystole

 

[Durakonis]

I'm recently more interested in prog metal bands that blend their national and cultural musical character with the generic or traditional prog metal sound and understanding, and create something fresh. Alogia (Serbian band), and Vanden Plas are among them. But most bands just tend to contribute and strengthen a sector, in that most bands adapt to a certain musical core and create -if not totally- repetitive music with little versatility. That core evolves slowly, which makes nowadays' scene quite boring and disappointing. There are good attempts that synthesize different genres, like Prospekt's "The Colourless Sunrise". But the ones that succeed in doing that right are little in number.

 

[Liquid Tension]

now it's all that djent stuff

Way too many djent bands now...

 

[Kenneth R.]

now it's all that djent stuff

everything's shit nowadays

Now prog seems to be geared more towards "djent" with a technical solo here and there. Its a sad thing really. Who actually wants to listen to a band like Periphery? No one.

Nope nope and nope.

That shit IS prevalent. But it's not all there is. While nu-metally trash and dream theater knockoffs (why would you want to do this, bands? why?) are all the rage, one can still find progressive music.

Prog is a genre like any other and is full of the same stereotypes, tropes, and ruts that other genres have. There are molds that are hard to break.

But as it always has been, if you look, you will find.

 

[Phanto]

my first post said there's some good prog out there. I wasn't really being fully serious saying "everything is shit"

 

[Durakonis]

Nope nope and nope.

That shit IS prevalent. But it's not all there is. While nu-metally trash and dream theater knockoffs (why would you want to do this, bands? why?) are all the rage, one can still find progressive music.

Prog is a genre like any other and is full of the same stereotypes, tropes, and ruts that other genres have. There are molds that are hard to break.

But as it always has been, if you look, you will find.

Agreed, but in about the year 2005-2007, a really good prog album was promoted by the fans of the music in forums and so. Thus, you weren't missing much. But after the social media thing, only "looking" is not enough to find. There are some people that use the social media very effectively in that regard, but i refuse to spend so much time and read too many junk in the hope to find a hidden gem. It isn't worth it. Similarly on the general internet, you have to improve your searching skills which also takes too much time, even then some may be missed. And no matter what, if a band doesn't have a name, you may easily miss their impressive work. It is something like "I don't have a job because I'm inexperienced because I don't have a job" vicious cycle. But there's a good side in these years; which is, most bands give the hint of what kind of an album you're gonna listen with just looking at their cover art. It doesn't give much idea about its quality generally, but at least it is in harmony with the music of the album. In the past, a very good cover could easily fool me expecting to find something to my taste, and end in disappointment. (I sometimes used to curse the bands when that happened.)

 

[Postulate]

There's good prog, but it's becoming more and more pushed into niches, and it doesn't resemble classic prog so much anymore.

A couple camps that come to mind.

First are the Italian and American instrumental prog/metal/jazz fusion bands and collaborations (Derek Sherinian, Virgil Donati, Alessandro Bertoni, Alex Argento, Marco Sfogli, all those guys) that do a lot of stuff together, and the loosely associated group of musicians that have ties to King Crimson (Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Marco Minnemann, etc. etc.). The former tend to make jazzier stuff and more traditional instrumental rock/metal, while the latter have a lot of industrial and experimental tendencies. There's also some related acts surrounding these guys that are straight up avant-garde, jazz, and even New Age (especially with Robert Fripp) that couldn't even be properly called prog.

It's good stuff but it's really "musician's music" that will never have any popular appeal and is mostly distributed through little-known labels dedicated to prog or random independent acts. And as I said, it's becoming less and less like prog.

The stuff that does sound like classic prog isn't very good. The American bands are really bland and annoying (Spock's Beard), and the Scandanavian ones give me earache (Flower Kings, Magic Pie, yechh). Once in a while Kaipa still does something neat, but overall they've become lame too. The closest thing to modern traditional prog that's really good are the neo prog bands (Mindgames, Knight Area, IQ, Pendragon, Galahad, Pallas), but in recent years they have taken a different turn too, and are beginning to carve out a unique sound that again goes away from traditional prog.

If you look hard enough, there are still Zeuhl/Canterbury/symphonic bands that make hardcore old school prog, like Deluge Grandeur, Kotobel, Amoeba Split, etc., and there are acts like Univers Zero and Premiata Forneria Marconi that are alive and well. Also, there's been a recent resurgence of decent traditional Italian prog, ala Il Tempio delle Clessidre (dunno if I spelled that right).

 

[Kenneth R.]

Agreed, but in about the year 2005-2007, a really good prog album was promoted by the fans of the music in forums and so. Thus, you weren't missing much. But after the social media thing, only "looking" is not enough to find. There are some people that use the social media very effectively in that regard, but i refuse to spend so much time and read too many junk in the hope to find a hidden gem. It isn't worth it. Similarly on the general internet, you have to improve your searching skills which also takes too much time, even then some may be missed. And no matter what, if a band doesn't have a name, you may easily miss their impressive work. It is something like "I don't have a job because I'm inexperienced because I don't have a job" vicious cycle. But there's a good side in these years; which is, most bands give the hint of what kind of an album you're gonna listen with just looking at their cover art. It doesn't give much idea about its quality generally, but at least it is in harmony with the music of the album. In the past, a very good cover could easily fool me expecting to find something to my taste, and end in disappointment. (I sometimes used to curse the bands when that happened.)

Very good points, I agree.

Postulate - I never liked many of the Italian bands, or their US counterparts. Knight Area's first album was great, and IQ has been good for a long time. But you're right about the change in direction.

 

[Postulate]

There's some slightly SX-ish instrumental stuff out there too.

Just one example...