Uhmm. Could someone recommend me Progressive Metal along the lines of Jester's March's Beyond, Mercury Rising's Building Rome or Xerxes's Falling Leaves. You know.. Melodic and riffy stuff but a tad more progressive than late 80s USPM. Just to make it clear I'm not looking for the keyboard-heavy, "seven solos in one song" stuff like Dream Theater. It doesn't come off as very progressive or interesting to me most of the time.

Secrecy for the Jester's March-esque stuff (thrashy power/prog), Manitou, Vauxdvihl, Mayfair, and Annon Vin for the more progressive but non-indulgent style of the latter two.

Thank you! Secrecy and Vauxdvihl I already know of but I've been meaning to check out Mayfair for quite a long time and Manitou and Annon Vin are completely new names for me. All of them sound promising based on those youtube clips.

Could someone recommend me some vocal driven progressive metal? I like passionate/emotiv vocals like Fish from Marillion, Neal Morse from Spocks Beard, and the singers Pagans Mind and Seventh Wonder.

Thing is, I think Daniel Gildenlow is awesome, but I think Pain of Salvation are really boring.

Is there a progressive metal band that instead of using harsh death growls or shiny-clean super-high vocals (the first = Opeth, the second = a lot of power metal, DragonForce, while not progressive, comes to mind) uses more thrashy or heavy metal style vocals? Basically, anything from a Tom Araya bark to a Accept/AC/DC screech.

Wow that Mayfair album is some stunning progressive metal! Not an easy listen because it gets under my skin a little bit but a real treat anyway. I can see it growing on me a lot.

Looking for more progressive metal, prefer with higher/aggressive vocals and some heavy guitarwork on it. What time it came out does't matter for me. Currently I know and enjoy;

old Dream Theater; they've got some amazing songs such as ''The Killing Hand', ''pull me Under'', ''Scarred'', ect.

Fates Warning; I love Perfect Symmetry. The album really shows mature and varied songwriting.

I also enjoy some Outworld songs such as ''City of the Dead'' and ''I, Thanatos'' (a masterpiece!) same counts for Queensryche; I really dig ''Spreading the Disease'' and ''Eyes of a Stranger''.

Thanks in advance.

Colin, have you heard Kingsbane from Canada?

You've probably heard of them already but you could give Psychotic Waltz's debut album a go.

To Dimension Logic by Vaudeville/Vauxdvihl sounds somewhat similar to Fates Warning's Perfect Symmetry and Psychotic Waltz's A Social Grace so you should check out that one too. Wicked Maraya, Annon Vin and Mayfair fits in the request as well.

colin, have you heard MERCURY RISING - "Upon Deaf Ears" or MYSTIC FORCE - "Man vs. Machine"?

colin, go and listen to Circus Maximus or Seventh Wonder, that if you don't know them already

EDIT: Guys, can you recommend me some progressive metal bands that use 7 string guitars? I don't mind the vocals as long they are clean only.

Thanks!

I think this describes what the OP is looking for?

Theophagy - Prog/Symph/DM
As far as the death metal, it's as mix of traditional and modern styles
http://www.mediafire.com/?z7vd198j486rrnw

That Mercury Rising album is great but I think Building Rome is even better! Really a top notch progressive metal band. I've heard only Shipwrecked with the Wicked from Mystic Force and while it's enjoyable proggy power metal I wasn't overly impressed with it, might have to revisit it though. Would you still recommend Man vs. Machine?

So yeah, I'm trying to revigorate the prog thread, a bit for my own reasons though, as I'm looking to into a new prog phase (I was a big prog fan some years ago). Just discovered the band Gazpacho and I'm looking for similar stuff. Think of a more progressive Radiohead mixed with post rock.

While they don't have post-rock influences that I'm aware of, Hogarth-era Marillion might be your best bet; they served as a huge inspiration to Gazpacho's sound. A few of the songs from Marbles, have a Radiohead-esque sort of feel to them. You might also want to give Brave a try, for the hell of it. It's a concept album, however, and might take a while to sink in -- but once it does, it's an incredible experience.

Yeah, thanks. I'm familiar with Marillion early albums, I heard Marbles some years ago, I need to check it out again.

Anyone else here that's into Dan Swano's Nightingale project?

Im looking for some prog metal with good double bass drums. Thanks.

Maybe Triosphere?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JC3CAV1Kks
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Triosphere/80086

Nightingale is very cool. I like how instead of being metal with influences from Prog, it is more like Prog with influences from metal.

Can anyone recommend me some good obscure neo-prog? I'm already familiar with the bigger names like Spock's Beard, IQ, early Marillion, Magenta and Pendragon, along with some lesser ones like Cyan, Triangle and Gerald, Just none who mimic the aforementioned bands, please; I don't mind if they're influenced by them, but I truly dislike it when a band worships another.

Thanks.

As you are already familiar with Pendragon, the only thing I can think of is Arena. The original Marillion drummer from the first album resurfaced after years with that band, so it's more than just Marillion "worship". Another band that I know is highly regarded in neo-prog circles is Twelfth Night, though I've personally never heard them. And have you checked out http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=18?

BTW, I don't think you'll easily find any neo-prog that is very different from what you already know. The original neo-prog is basically Genesis worship with some 80s elements. Sure, some of the originators have moved away from that sound over time, newer Marillion for example is not neo-prog at all if you ask me (though still very good).

Edit: And you might like Anyone's Daughter. I don't, at least not very much, but they're also highly regarded.

Yeah, newer Marillion leans more towards crossover prog than anything.

I've heard of Arena, though have listened to very little of their material. Never heard of Twelfth Night. I'll give them a go a little bit later.

I've already looked through the ProgArchives page for more obscure releases; that's how I found out about Triangle and Cyan. However, some of the users there tend to be a bit biased against neo-prog -- or in rarer cases, prog that does something different than the usual Yes or Genesis worship, which makes the ratings system there unreliable. Hence why I'm asking here, to narrow down my search a little more.

Yeah, neo-prog is like the glam metal or mallcore of prog.

And just in case you've missed my edit:

I'll be sure to check them out, too. Much obliged!

You might want to check out Outworld, Rusty Cooley is one of the best seven-string players I know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfQL1aFQ9pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtNF-90aqyg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl2g9kdBO64

Cool, like this band my self. The guitarist lives in my building:D.

Don't know if anyone has mentioned these before, cause I can't be bothered to go through all the pages, I'd recommend following when it comes to prog:

Green Carnation
Dead Soul Tribe
Symphony X
Pain of Salvation
Pagan's Mind
Porcupine Tree


Hope this was helpful.

I'm slowly starting to listen to some progressive rock, mainly Uriah heep. Can you guys name a couple of other bands to start with?

You probably know Pink Floyd, so them. Jethro Tull is really good, King Crimson too but not for someone just getting into the style, some people like Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer (I find them extremely shitty but some people call them a classic) and Genesis.

Definitely Pink Floyd and Genesis. If you like the latter, I'd consider giving Steve Hackett's solo work a try, mainly Voyage of the Acolyte, which sounds very Genesis-like. Other bands worth checking out are Van der Graaf Generator, Marillion (either era, though I largely prefer Hogarth as their singer), Camel, IQ, Renaissance, Yezda Urfa and Rush. Also, if you're alright with bands singing in different languages, I'd consider investigating the prog scenes from Italy and France. Carpe Diem, Atoll, Ange, Locanda delle Fate, Premiata Forneria Marconi and Le Orme are all excellent bands.

Stay away from Gentle Giant, Magma and the RiO/zeuhl genres in general, until you've grown comfortable with the less freaky stuff. Trust me on this one.

Let me recommend my favorite band from Québec, Harmonium. Their first album is folk, but their 2 others are symphonic prog. I consider L'heptade to be the best album ever written from my native province.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTC7WgR-gcw

Great band^ , didn't know you were a fan man. I haven't heard them in quite a while, saw a documentary about them a few years back.

I'm a complete blank slate when it comes to Dream Theater. Anyone want to help me out and name me the three or four best albums to get started with and I'll explore the rest on my own? Thanks

Start with Images And Words or Awake, then follow a straight line. I quite like Falling Into Infinity which is probably more "prog hard rock" than metal but still... Then you have Scenes From A Memory which is also somewhat of an highlight. Those should give you an idea of what you're up against!

Great! Just what I needed, a starting point. Thank You

Dead Soul Tribe


Thats all I have to say. Sorry if they have been mentioned allready......but I have a strange intuition they have'nt...ha..

I'm looking into more albums that consist of one track per side (e.g. Mike Oldfield's first three works, Thick as a Brick, etc). Although I mostly listen to music on my iPod or laptop, I do love the format of such albums. I'll keep the options open and look into anything both from prog rock and prog metal so shoot away anything that springs to mind.