The Quintessential Progressive Metal Band - Queensryche or Dream Theater?

General Music Discussion
#21

Bounced this question off my buddy with the 'Ryche tattoo, and after pausing for a moment to lament the band that died in a horrible bus accident not long after recording Empire, his take is that they’re a hard rock band, that he wouldn’t really call them either prog or metal, and that the prog elements they may have incorporated were mostly in their fondness for concept albums and some unique songwriting. Similar to Savatage, in his mind, as another band that wasn’t really all that prog but loved concept albums.

So, yeah, definitions get super arbitrary… But the biggest 'Ryche fan I know doesn’t consider them a prog metal band, which that and a couple bucks will get you a cup of coffee, but there’s that. :+1:

#22

I think there’s a case to be made that ‘prog’ is a particular genre (it means ‘sounds like Pink Floyd at least some of the time’) and ‘progressive’ appended to a genre means ‘like that genre normally sounds plus some elements that aren’t what that genre sounds like’ or ‘that genre but not as dumb as it usually is’.

Hence Porcupine Tree are definitely Prog and Cynic are definitely Progressive Death Metal, but Cynic are definitely not Prog.

Likewise AJFA, MOP and maybe even RTL are progressive but not Prog, and so on and so on.

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#23

Yeah, this is kind of how I see it too, though I might go as far as to say “progressive” would also mean incorporating elements of the prog genre, plus whatever it’s being appended to. So, cynic defintely have some prog elements, but calling them prog would be a mistake since it leaves out a lot. Even DT probably couldn’t be called prog without the metal tag attached to them. PT, depending on which album, started off as fairly straight prog WAY back in the day but veer between prog metal and prog rock on their last few albums (with Fear of a Blank Planet being on the more metal side, while Deadwing being more rock).

#24

Hi all! I’ve never posted here before. But this topic got me. The greatest prog metal band is def Fates Warning. Perfect Symmetry is pretty perfect. It doesn’t have perfect musicianship. Zonder builds the songs. It’s a perfectly made album. Cold , antiseptic, clinical and lyrical.

#25

I’m definitely more of a 'Ryche guy (and Fates Warning–all eras) than Dream Theater. And Savatage too. I’m sorta in a similar camp to @Drew’s homie in that I don’t really consider 'Tage or 'Ryche full-on progressive metal bands but they were very forward-thinking and ambitious in their ideas and execution and influenced for a lot of other bands who would take those ideas to another level.

@Acecrusher Have you heard the more recent John Arch albums? He did a record with the current Fates Warning lineup in like 2012 that was pretty cool and they have a new one coming out this year. Here’s the single–it might be the most straightforward song that Arch has sung since the first Fates record.

#26

Ctrl+F “Haken”: No results found. “Devin”: No results found. Oh well. :laughing: Tho’ I’ll admit I’m pleasantly suprised Angra and Plini got a passing mention…

I’d most likely pick Dream Theater over Fates Warning… even if I don’t care about most things post Octavarium (minus Train of Thought that I did not care about). I’ll gladly admit I have a soft spot for concept/thematic albums, which is why Octavarium gets quoted: it may not have a huge single, but it feels very cohesive to me thematically, even if it’s not an out-and-out concept album.

I liked their last effort, Distance Over Time more than anything since Octavarium. While I don’t like it as much as some of their other efforts, it felt a lot more “unapologetic” in a way, embracing what they are at the moment a lot more instead of going through a check list of things they must add to an album, even though it still has some shades of it: it’s more than time to make James sign a good fourth lower, if not more. :kissing:

I liked what I’ve listened to from Fates Warning, but the band didn’t catch me as much when I listened to their discography as other bands in the genre, even less well known ones such as Dreamscape (despite being very much dead at this point and having some cheesy 90’s prog vibes), Subsignal (more Prog Rock than Metal to be fair), Votum or Seventh Wonder (whose latest effort I did NOT care about, to my disappointment).

I honestly enjoyed listening to Fates Warning, but I simply fail to quote something from them, and that’s a shame. They fall in the category of artists I’ve enjoyed listening to, but wouldn’t necessarily have in my music collection. To mention another Prog act, there’s also Pain of Salvation that enters this category… although the music video of Meaningless still left a pretty good mark on me, with how disturbing it plays.