What bands sound like Suspyre?

batmura

Sea of Tranquility
Nov 1, 2001
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www.seaoftranquility.org
I realize Suspyre is carving their own niche within the progressive metal realm, but what other bands do you 'hear' when listening to them? In what ways, do they or Suspyre remind you of each other? If not, how do you think does Suspyre differ from other groups?

Discuss.
 
The lack of a response to this question makes me wonder if I'm going to ruffle feathers by throwing out an answer, but damn the torpedoes. Symphony X was the first band that came to mind when I read this question, especially when Suspyre is in thrash mode. While Symphony X doesn't have as many jazz/fusion elements, some of the symphonic components are also in a similar vein.
 
You were probably all influenced by similar bands. Dream Theater, Symphony X with some Pink Floyd and Fates Warning thrown in seems to be the standard. I find it fascinating how you've been playing prog metal for many years and I'm just an 18 year old and I know about all these bands you've never heard of!
 
You were probably all influenced by similar bands. Dream Theater, Symphony X with some Pink Floyd and Fates Warning thrown in seems to be the standard. I find it fascinating how you've been playing prog metal for many years and I'm just an 18 year old and I know about all these bands you've never heard of!

I'd cite Dream Theater as an influence, but that's about it out of the ones you've mentioned. I didn't hear of Symphony X until I saw them open for Blind Guardian in 2002, and started getting their CDs after that. Haven't listened to them in years though. Metal fatigue, I guess!

I actually am not influenced by nor listen to a lot of prog metal. My musical interests lie in classical music (mostly 20th/21st century), jazz/fusion, funk, and 70's art rock; metal bands are hit-or-miss for me. Of course I went through a big metal phase years ago, which along with video game music, was my first big influence.

Our musical tastes have a lot to do with what we heard as children; watching old home movies proves that my parents were always spinning Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, ELP, Boston, Genesis, Yes, etc. That music, along with video games, school band music, and Metallica (the most popular "cool" band when I was growing up) is what I think gave birth to my taste and influenced my composition.
 
It must be something to do with how I've always had the internet as my main source of finding new music since I was 9. Before that, you had magazines, the radio, MTV and that's pretty much it. The music I like just keeps getting more and more obscure.
 
It must be something to do with how I've always had the internet as my main source of finding new music since I was 9. Before that, you had magazines, the radio, MTV and that's pretty much it. The music I like just keeps getting more and more obscure.

Exactly! The internet is amazing for discovering new music, and it's what help me expand my tastes.

I listen to a lot of obscure stuff too, but most of it I discovered in college and graduate school. It was an awesome experience not only being able to learn about Harry Partch's music, but to play on his instruments as well. Talk about obscure!
 
Seventh Wonder is an amazing band but I would hardly say they sound similar to Suspyre (opinion only, of course) SW is a lot less aggressive, and more prog rock than metal. Minds Eye is also a very good band and is a decent comparison.
 
Our musical tastes have a lot to do with what we heard as children; watching old home movies proves that my parents were always spinning Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, ELP, Boston, Genesis, Yes, etc. That music, along with video games, school band music, and Metallica (the most popular "cool" band when I was growing up) is what I think gave birth to my taste and influenced my composition.

That's an interesting statement, imo. Especially the part about where our musical tastes are influenced by what our parents were spinning. I largely and almost completely agree with that with the sidenote that influences after that play a large part as well. Otherwise we'd all still be listening to Floyd, Queen, Deep Purple, etc. My dad used to play a lot of those, but I found that I used that as a starting point to explore my own musical tastes. And I'm pretty sure that's what you guys meant as well with that.

I, for one, am glad Gregg's musical journey took him the way it did. It's interesting to hear what the influences of the classics of old and the newer classical music, along with the metal influences, brought together and put out in the direction of the way Suspyre is going :D

That said, and coming back on topic, I would say that if you'd include the new vids and new material I would compare Suspyre to a mix of Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Meshuggah (largely due to Gabe's influences) and Fear Factory (due to Clay's sound, kinda). Imo you can kinda compare Clay's raw sound to Burton Bell, with the footnote that Clay can do all that without vocal effects.
 
Yeah, I forgot about Circus Maximus, but I'm not too impressed with that band. Seventh Wonder are the closest that comes to my mind, Dream Theater and Symphony X being too obvious. I'd say later Fates Warning and Eternity X too.

I had a very unusual approach to music. When I was 8, my aunt took me to a theater to see an opera in a professional theater and that pretty much changed my life. Then when I was 12, a friend at school let me borrow his Dream Theater collection and I pretty much converted over to progressive rock and metal. I was never into Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple or any of those bands. My mom only listens to the top 40 station, so I surely don't get my musical tastes from her! I doubt she even knows what prog is.
 
That's an interesting statement, imo. Especially the part about where our musical tastes are influenced by what our parents were spinning. I largely and almost completely agree with that with the sidenote that influences after that play a large part as well. Otherwise we'd all still be listening to Floyd, Queen, Deep Purple, etc. My dad used to play a lot of those, but I found that I used that as a starting point to explore my own musical tastes. And I'm pretty sure that's what you guys meant as well with that.

I, for one, am glad Gregg's musical journey took him the way it did. It's interesting to hear what the influences of the classics of old and the newer classical music, along with the metal influences, brought together and put out in the direction of the way Suspyre is going :D

That said, and coming back on topic, I would say that if you'd include the new vids and new material I would compare Suspyre to a mix of Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Meshuggah (largely due to Gabe's influences) and Fear Factory (due to Clay's sound, kinda). Imo you can kinda compare Clay's raw sound to Burton Bell, with the footnote that Clay can do all that without vocal effects.

The origin of our tastes is a fascinating subject. I can't wait to finally get my doctorate and be able to teach classes on this stuff.

Actually, the Meshuggah-ness in our music came from my desire to incorporate some of their ideas (they're pretty much the only metal band I still listen to!) for years now. You can hear snipets of their stylistic syncopated, aggressive, growly riffs on our other albums, but it seems their influence is more apparent in this album. Gabe's Meshuggah chops are great to work with, but his funky ghost-notes and dynamics are what is making this album different from the rest.
 
I would honestly say the only thing that led me to this music, that came from my parents, would be Metallica. My Dad has always kind of enjoyed Metallica...but I really picked it up from my brother. My brother is about as far from Metal as it gets though...so that's about it as far as metal goes in my family. My parents listened to more Beatles (mostly my dad - which granted had some early metal type material) and more easy listening/pop.

I have always enjoyed the sound of guitar distortion...and the power behind it. I started listening to Metallica and Megadeth in middle school since I was jonesing for something harder than Motley Crue. When I started high school I found my group of friends that really understood the kind of music I was looking for (Sam was part of that group). I actually didn't start listening to progressive material (Dream Theater) until Senior year of High School. I loved it, but didn't have a clue about that genre or where to find more of it. Then one of my friends introduced me to Demons and Wizards...and I found Hansi. It was a crazy road of trying and find out how many bands I could discover that had similar vocals and guitar work from there on. But it is sad to say though that I did not really get into this type of music until about 10 years ago. I was still very much a novice when I joined Suspyre. I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on it now though :)
 
I would honestly say the only thing that led me to this music, that came from my parents, would be Metallica. My Dad has always kind of enjoyed Metallica...but I really picked it up from my brother. My brother is about as far from Metal as it gets though...so that's about it as far as metal goes in my family. My parents listened to more Beatles (mostly my dad - which granted had some early metal type material) and more easy listening/pop.

I have always enjoyed the sound of guitar distortion...and the power behind it. I started listening to Metallica and Megadeth in middle school since I was jonesing for something harder than Motley Crue. When I started high school I found my group of friends that really understood the kind of music I was looking for (Sam was part of that group). I actually didn't start listening to progressive material (Dream Theater) until Senior year of High School. I loved it, but didn't have a clue about that genre or where to find more of it. Then one of my friends introduced me to Demons and Wizards...and I found Hansi. It was a crazy road of trying and find out how many bands I could discover that had similar vocals and guitar work from there on. But it is sad to say though that I did not really get into this type of music until about 10 years ago. I was still very much a novice when I joined Suspyre. I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on it now though :)


One reason I didn't start really getting into progressive stuff until college was because it was so much harder to find music when the internet wasn't quite as developed. It's a piece of cake now because of youtube, iTunes, facebook... even myspace. I remember it used to be a huge deal to discover a new band that you really loved, and you typically had to go to a festival to get exposed to new stuff. Or just blindly buy a CD at the record store.
 
I hear a lot of Symphony X... Lot's of classical music in their also though.
 
i know that this is an old thread (sort off), but i wanted to share another band that i like a lot and find that has similar traits to suspyre, you know a progressive band with some neo classical, symphonic and jazz elements with really interesting lyrics, the name of the band is Adagio, they are a french band that has the same traits, though the sound its more dark, if i had to say it in some way
btw their guitarist (Stephan Forte) released a solo instrumental album the last year the name is The Shadows Compendium wich imo, if you love suspyre, you probably would also love tthem 2

about the subject of how what we heard when we were young, and how our fathers can be a very strong influence, i have to say that its usually true from what i have seen from my friends, but in my case its a little bit different, perhaps the only real influence of my parents in my musical taste is that they teached me to try listen different genres, the things that they like however, differ vastly from what i hear, lol
they actually like some metal songs (as long as they arent anything heavier like death or black), and maybe some forms of jazz that i hear, sadly they dont like anything related to Zeuhl, its like no one does