Been on a Prog Metal kick...

I was a HUGE Prog Metal Head back about 10 years ago...couldn't get enough of anything on the Inside Out or Magna Carta labels. Then I got kinda burnt, but have been going back and rediscovering a lot of stuff I hadn't thought about...CONCEPTION, VANDEN PLAS, DALI'S DILEMMA, ENCHANT, DREAM THEATER...some stuff I don't own anymore like LEMUR VOICE and SHADOW GALLERY...

I know of a couple of new bands like CIRCUS MAXIMUS and REDEMPTION, but what else is new that I could dig into?

Artension...awesome band, start with their debut "Into the eye of the storm".

Stender wrote:

Artension...awesome band, start with their debut "Into the eye of the storm".

Good band, a bit cheesy, though.

Didn't you review Zero Hour, Shawn? I have most of my prog rock/metal ripped to my PC (I love to write to it; keeps me focused for some reason). So how about a screenshot of what prog I have on my PC?



I recommend all of them.

Oh yeah! Lemur Voice, Enchant, Cairo, Altura, Divine Regale, Ice Age, Ivanhoe, Shadow Gallery, Threshold, and a three piece called Einstein.

Keep naming them! I want to build and build my prog collection.

That's an impressive list, Eyesore...

Yeah, ARTENSION was another one...I had thier first 3 albums at one time...I saw ALTURA live actually...good band...never heard CAIRO, but I remember the name.

ZERO HOUR is really good but can get a little cacophonous...Towers Of Avarice from them is amazing.

ICE AGE was good too...as was THRESHOLD (but I only had one of thiers)...DIVINE REGALE was boring from what I remember...had one of thier albums.

Does Green Carnation count as prog?

You got rid of Shadow Gallery? You should check out Communic if you haven't, kind of like Nevermore adding prog to the sound.

Yeah, I know COMMUNIC...good stuff.

I did get rid of SHADOW GALLERY...I know I'm in the minority when I say this, but I always felt the vocals could have been better...

Sounds like I need to check out some of these bands...

Tiles
Royal Hunt
Amarans Plight (Shadow Gallery's Gary Wehrkamp and D.C. Cooper on vox)
can't forget the mighty Ayreon
Dominici (former DT vocalist)
James LaBrie and Mullmuzzler
Evergrey

I'd say Cairo is more prog rock than prog metal.

DallasBlack wrote:

Dominici (former DT vocalist)

Beware of the first disc. It's all acoustic, nothing like the next two albums. It's pretty rare, though.

Here's one for Eyesore. A six song EP by a band called "The Chance" from about 1993. No idea what became of them, but the first track is melodic prog of the first order, and the rest ain't bad either. I think I got mine as a review demo back then. Fairly heavy too in a melodic way.

Tiles - Good band...like thier stuff...more Prog Rock, though...IMO

Royal Hunt - never liked them...don't know why...DC Cooper at the mic even...

Amarans Plight - need to hear/get this..

Ayreon - when they're on, they're ON!!! When they're not, zzzzzzz....

Dominici - only ever heard Part III of his music, but it was cool...

James LaBrie and Mullmuzzler - the 2 MULLMUZZLER discs are fantastic!!!!!!!!

Evergrey - hit and miss with me...I think they're a good band though...

Looking at Eyesore's list:

DIGITAL RUIN - Dwelling In The Out is a good album...

ENCHANT - one of my favorites!!!! More Prog Rock, though...like CAIRO or ECHOLYN or TILES...

EXPLORER'S CLUB - LOVED that first one...lost track after that...

FRAMESHIFT - need to hear both of these...LaBrie and Bach are 2 of my faves...

ICE AGE - good stuff!!!

LANA LANE - has it's moments...a little tame sounding...GREAT singer....

MAGNITUDE 9 - all 3 albums are great!!! Love the singer...

MIND'S EYE - good stuff from what I remember...

PAGAN'S MIND - awesome!

PLANET X - liked the first couple...lost track after that...I'm a Sherinian fan...

PORCUPINE TREE - LOVE them!!!!!!

PROTOTYPE - good from what I can remember...

SPOCK'S BEARD - Neal Morse era is AMAZING!!!!! Fall into the Prog Rock category for me...

STAR ONE - love it!

SYMPHONY X - Russell Allen makes the band....great stuff!!

THE FLOWER KINGS - great stuff...file under Prog Rock...

THRESHOLD - need to give them more attention...I remember them being good but I never gave them a lot of play time...





ARK is one too...both of thier albums are outstanding!!!!

Hmm, I agree on Royal Hunt. So much I hear makes me think I will love them but it never really hits.
Have you checked out Riverside? Kind of a Floydish feel on some of their songs.

RIVERSIDE was on my short-list at one time...need to bump them back up...

I recommend Orphaned Land, probably one of my top picks at the moment. It's very Israel influence.

Also, there's Pain Of Salvation, one of the most popular bands in the genre, they got some smooth, mellow stuff, as Eyesore was saying: great stuff to write to.

Another band worth checking out is Spheric Universe Experiment, very atmospheric stuff and great piano (a given).

I bought a cd of Myrath from someone on this board, and it's one of my favourite cd's in my collection. HUGE Symphony X influence.

I forgot about PAIN OF SALVATION...thier first 3 albums are amazing!!!

Thanks for the rec's...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

EXPLORER'S CLUB - LOVED that first one...lost track after that...

Raising The Mammoth is awesome stuff! I do hate how the CD is formated though. They separate the songs into 40something tracks when they could have easily made 4 or 5 tracks. I don't get it.

Eyesore wrote:

Keep naming them! I want to build and build my prog collection.

http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=19

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

James LaBrie and Mullmuzzler - the 2 MULLMUZZLER discs are fantastic!!!!!!!!

Have you heard LaBrie's Elements Of Pursuasion? One of my favorite prog metal albums, heavy as get out but not quite as pretentious as DT.

I'm new to the board and this is my first post.

I'd like to throw out some suggestions that haven't been mentioned.

Leviathan - The progressive metal band from the 90s from Colorado, not one of the various other Leviathans out there. To me, they have a Fates Warning vibe. Their 1st CD, Deepest Secrets Beneath, and EP are musically more metal and less progressive (like early Fates - though the vocalist doesn't compare to John Arch IMO). The 2nd CD, Riddles, Questions, Poetry, & Outrage, is my favorite and usually the album I reach for the most when wanting progressive metal. It's got a vocalist change (improvement IMO) and more use of keyboards/samples (though not in the noodly must have a keyboard solo way ). Their final album Scoring the Chapters is also very good.

Sieges Even - German band that's been around for awhile disbanded, re-emerged, and now just disbanded again. Probably closer to the rock than metal if you have to make the distinction, but cool music nonetheless. Steps is my favorite album. http://www.siegeseven.com/start.html

If your looking for something different for progressive metal a couple of older albums:
Payne's Gray - Kadeth Decoded. A site linked above has a sample at http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1169.
Stoenhaven - Outside the Sphere

A couple of new bands:
Prymary - http://www.prymary.com/
To-Mera - http://www.myspace.com/tomeraband

KG

Welcome Cagey, thanks!!!

You could always check out my couple of bands when we record some music PROFESSIONALLY that is. We got some 8-track recordings that don't sound that great. Look out for us, when we hit it big:

Astyanax

Sloppy Cheez-Whiz