Help me find some Prog Metal i'll actually enjoy

I am a long time fan of both Prog Rock and Metal (mostly the more extreme forms)... but, for some reason, when the two genres are fused together I just can't get into it.

I despise Dream Theatre and bands with that kind of sound. I don't like Opeth except for their most NON-METAL album Damnation (which is excellent) and i enjoy their acoustic passages. I checked out Unexpect and found it almost unlistenable, heh...

I am a big fan of "Brutal" and some "Technical" Death Metal (Nile, later Morbid Angel, Necrophagist, Immolation) and i don't know if any of it could be considered 'Prog', but a lot of it is very progressive in my view (more so than a lot of Prog Rock bands).

The ONLY band i've found so far that is widely considered "Prog Metal" that i actually enjoy is Cynic... so, i'm looking for recommendations on other bands to check out. So far most bands haven't delivered what i'm looking for.

I am NOT a fan of "Power Metal" or most 80's-sounding Metal at all (which most prog-metal sounds like to me, heh)... i want to find the most brutal, deathly Prog in the universe. .

help?!

If you're familiar with Cynic, you probably know about their connections with Atheist and Death? Pestilence is another band that is said to have been in that vein, though I've never heard them.

If you like black metal, there was a thread about progressive black metal not long ago.

Havn't been into prog metal for a long time, but still...

Opeth - Orchid, Blackwater Park, Deliverance, Ghost Reveries
Atheist - Piece of Time, Unquestionable Presence, Elements
Death - Spiritual Healing, Human, Individual Thought patterns, Symbolic
Judas Priest - Jugulator
Dark Angel - Time does not Heal

These are pretty heavy, dark & Brutal! There might be some melodic stuff here and there, though

Dark Suns
In the Woods...
Green Carnation
Arcturus
The Pax Cecilia
Virgin Black
Sieges Even
Zero Hour
To-Mera
maudlin of the Well
Psychotic Waltz
Anathema
Orphand Land
Drawn
Lesbian
Enslaved
Wastefall
Yakuza

HughesJB4 wrote: One thing to bear in mind, bands like Pelican, Isis, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna are more atmosphere focused and aren't about virtuosity and technical riffing at all.

Aye, i do know of those bands... what i've heard is pretty close to atmospheric Doom Metal (which i like). I never really thought of any of them as Proggy before... some Neurosis songs have always reminded me of Pink Floyd though. I quite like the album with the Wolf head on the cover... whatever that one was called. Havn't listened to it since the 90's probably.

I know some 'Meshuggah'... in the past their music didn't have much impact on me, but i may check them out again now. They seemed almost too un-melodic, heh... i couldn't find anything memorable in the riffs that hooked me in. Thier riffs seemed to be all about rhythmic complexity and there wasn't much to the songs beyond that... not that there's anything wrong with that really, just not exactly my cup of tea. I like a pinch of melody in my riffs.

I shall give 'Between the Buried and Me' an ear as well.

If you like Cryptopsy, then you might like Gorguts.

AdamHearst wrote: What do you guys think of extremely technical Death Metal bands like Cryptopsy or (more recently) Beneath the Massacre? Should they be included in the Prog Archives? The more bands i check out in the 'Tech/Extreme Prog Metal' category the less hope i have for ever getting into the genre in a major way. A lot of the bands are more in the extreme Metalcore camp it seems, and i'm more of an old-fashioned Death Metal fan I guess, hehe.... that 'Arctopus' band is pretty interesting though, i must admit.

pinkpork wrote: Gojira's amazing.

The man speaks the truth.

I've been listening to them obsessively over the last two days.
They absolute crush faces.

'proginess' is my new favorite word 

it's a fine line i suppose... the endless timing and tempo shifts Cryptopsy employ approaches proggy in my book... but i guess it would open the floodgates and every technical death metal band would then have to be included if they were in.

Are there any Extreme Prog Metal bands that heavily use typical "Symphonic Prog Rock" instruments like mellotrons, moogs or even flutes and other classical-type instuments as main elements of their music? I'd love to hear something like this.... something that sounds like Cryptopsy but with long intricate moog synth solos ha... that would be mad. If no one else is doing that, i'm going to start. 




Edited by AdamHearst - December 07 2008 at 02:59

Avalanchemaster's list is fairly comprehensive, but a band called Blast Muzungu is missing. Progressive grind, for want of a better word.