• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Prog metal...where do I start?

#143
mainiam
myspace.com/mainiam
full disclosure: this is my band... this is not meant to be shameless self promotion, i really think that some of you may you'll dig it based on some bands that are mentioned in this thread.
the recordings are from live shows through crummy stereo mics... better fidelity to come in the future, sorry.
 
#144
King Crimson is the obvious suggestion but I would venture to add....

Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is a Dead Scene E.P. (with Mike Patton)
Fantomas - everything they've done
My Bungle - everything.....
Laundry - Blacktongue (do a search online, all of their stuff is free if you can find it to download).

Mmmm... a bit of a Mike Patton thing going on there !!!!
 
#147
Ram-Zet is pretty damn cool band, it's Norwegian prog'ish industrial-influenced black metal with male and female vocals and I like it a lot. Their second album Intra blows heads. It's just so awesome. All the other great bands (such as Tool, Opeth etc.) are already mentioned so many times that I'm not getting into them :)

Velcra also has a couple long prog'ish songs (White Knuckle Mountains & We Must Start Again) on their latest album Hadal (their 3rd one) - worth checking out IMO. It's not metal really unlike the first two albums which were industrial nu-metal with pop melodies and hooks. Hadal is mostly electronic "dark pop" but really awesome despite that. Might want to check it out even though it's really not progressive metal :) At least the song "We Must Start Again".

Well, I COULD be rude and advertise my band (check my sig) too so check it out if you like... We have a bit non-standard song structures and a few "standard" non-standard time signatures (mostly 7/8 or 5/4) here and there. Not as prog as Tool or Opeth but not AC/DC either :D
 
#150
agreatheight said:
Has anyone suggested Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche?

And not to stir up the whole Dream Theater thing, but you may want to try on their first record, When Dream and Day Unite. Different singer, interesting stuff (imo).
Click to expand...

I was just about to mention Mindcrime. For the sake of comparison, The Warning by Queensryche is also interesting. It was their first full-length album, and they were very young (IIRC the drummer was 19 when they recorded it), so even though some of it comes off as, I don't know, immature maybe(?) it makes a good counterpoint to the heavy stuff (lyrically and conceptually) on Mindcrime. Not that The Warning is bad, you just get to see how they grew as songwriters during the period between those two albums.

And just to add my 2 cents to the DT discussion, there seem to be some people who on the one hand say DT are overblown wankers, but like Liquid Tension Experiment. For those who may not know (not pointing fingers or making accusations, just information :smug:) LTE is DT with a different bassist (Tony Levin) and no singer. I do know people who like LTE better because of this, as a lot of people just don't like James LaBrie's voice.
 
#151
43% burnt said:
figured i'd give this thread a bump...might be interesting to the DT alternative thread.

Anyways, I was listening to Cynic's "Focus" this morning...holy moly what an album. I was blown away years ago when I first heard it, and am still blown away now. I can't believe its almost 12yrs old. :eek: Still sounds ahead of its time by today's standards. :bassist:
Click to expand...
Anyone heard the new Cynic album yet (Traced In Air)? I've ordered a copy, but curious for other's impressions.
 
#152
Progressive metal or not...

Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Red Fang, Baroness, Mastodon, Neurosis, Atomic Bitchwax (I'm a big fan of "So Come On" but everything else is so-so), Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Blotted Science (very good from a bassist's point of view!), Katatonia, Isis, My Dying Bride

Actually...most of the ones I'm listing are coming from www.bnrmetal.com - check under Genres and you'll get a very good listing.
 
#153
I've become a huge fan of Porcupine Tree, and I've only seen the name in this thread once or twice... (Open Car rocks harder than Blackest Eyes, IMO :bassist:) Everyone's cutoff between "prog rock" and "prog metal" is different, but I definitely include them in the metal category.

I'm surprised I haven't seen Coheed & Cambria mentioned yet - very prog, if more mainstream, and not as metal. Also surprising is that no one included Mudvayne - far more going on there than the typical "nu-metal" riffing.

Let's see... how about the Mars Volta? Haven't seen them mentioned yet either. "De-Loused in the Comatorium" is an awesome album, start to finish.
 
#154
neurotictim said:
I've become a huge fan of Porcupine Tree, and I've only seen the name in this thread once or twice... (Open Car rocks harder than Blackest Eyes, IMO :bassist:) Everyone's cutoff between "prog rock" and "prog metal" is different, but I definitely include them in the metal category.
Click to expand...

Open Car is one of my favorite PT songs as well, and Deadwing is my favorite album of theirs.

I haven't looked through this thread in a while, but I recommend Ihsahn's latest album, angL, for some prog-ish metal. In case you don't know, he is Emperor's vocalist/guitarist.
 
#156
Anyone heard the new Cynic album yet (Traced In Air)? I've ordered a copy, but curious for other's impressions.
Click to expand...

Yup, it's quite an album! You can see how the band has matured since Focus in this one. They've kept both the death metal growls and the vocoder vocals and incorporated it into a more refined style of writing. All in all, imo, it's a wonderful album but I, however, prefer Focus.

Back to topic!

Here's a few suggestions from me, sorry if they've already been mentioned.
Invalid Link Removed IS YOUR FRIEND.

Title:Album

Arcturus: The Sham Mirrors
Atheist: Unquestionable Presence
Behold... the Arctopus: Nano-nucleonic Cyborg Summoning
Beneath the Massacre: Mechanics of Dysfunction
Between the Buried and Me: Colors
Cynic: Focus and Traced in Air
Dead Soul Tribe: A Murder of Crows
Death: The Sound of Perserverance
Devin Townsend: Terria or Ziltoid The Omniscient
The Dillinger Escape Plan: Miss Machine or Ire Works
Any Dream Theater album.
Dredg: Leitmotif
Evergrey: Recreation Day
The Fall of Troy: Doppelganger
Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects: Sol Niger Within
Gojira: From Mars to Sirius
Gordian Knot: Emergent and Gordian Knot
Green Carnation: Light of Day, Day of Darkness (the entire album is a single song!)
Guthrie Govan: Erotic Cakes
Into the Moat: Means By Which The End Is Justified or The Design
Ion Dissonance: Minus the Herd (groove based) or Breathing is Irrelevant (tech based)
Any The Mars Volta album.
Mastodon: Blood Mountain or Leviathan
Meshuggah: Catch 33, Destroy Erase Improve or Nothing
Misery Signals: Controller
Necrophagist: Epitaph or Onset of Putrefaction
Any Opeth
Oceansize: Everyone Into Position or Frames
Orphaned Land: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven
OSI: Office of Strategic Influence
Any Pain of Salvation, I particularly like BE.
Porcupine Tree: In Absentia, Deadwing or Fear of a Blank Planet
Protest the Hero: Kezia
Psychotic Waltz: Into the Everflow
Pyramaze: Melancholy Beast
Riverside: Second Life Syndrome
Shining: Grindstone
Any Strapping Young Lad album
Any Symphony X Album
Textures: Drawing Circles
PsyOpus: Our Puzzling Encounters Considered.
Sikth: Death of a Dead Day or The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out, Wait for Something Wild.
Spastic Ink: Ink Complete
Thought Chamber: Angular Perceptions
Tool: Lateralus
Unexpect: In A Flesh Aquarium
Vanden Plas: Christ 0
Watchtower: Control and Resistance
What's He Building In There?: What's He Building In There?

...I had way too much fun picking that list.
 
#159
Dream Theater
Symphony X
Circus Maximus
Opeth
King's X
King Crimson
Liquid Tension Experiment

Not a self-promotion, but you can check out my band 'Tetrafusion' at Link Removed or www.tetrafusion.net -- our EP was released this summer, so we have about 5 songs from our upcoming CD so far on the MySpace and all that. Our first CD is instrumental..but we are using vocals for any future material..just a side note.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back