Discovering more obscure prog rock

All,

Thanks to this site and progressiveears I have discovered a lot of new prog music, and I've become a bit addicted to seeking out new music. I've started this thread to share a bit about my prog rock discoveries to find folks with similar tastes who can recommend me some of the more obscure groups that I might like.

Sounds pretty selfish? Yes, but hopefully sharing what I have discovered and talking about them in this thread will help others make new discoveries as well! After all that is what social sites like prog archives are all about, connecting and sharing.

A little about my musical tastes:
- I grew up with the 70's prog bands but apart from Pink Floyd I don't listen to them anymore, much preferring modern prog with the occasional Camel or Genesis song. I would say Pink Floyd had a pretty profound influence on my current music tastes, as anything similar I tend to like.
- My interest in prog rock (in any depth) has only been in the last 3 years, but I do listen to a fair variety (eg. iamthemorning through to Opeth).
- I tend to like darker/moodier/melodic artists.

It's hard to describe tastes, probably easier if I outline the bands that get the most listening in my favourites playlist:
- Anathema. I have all of their CDs from Alternative 4 onwards, I like the direction this group is evolving to (especially given their roots) (*)
- Airbag (clear Floyd influence here) (*)
- Anekdoten
- Antimatter
- Aeon Zen
- Big Big Train (*)
- The black noodle project
- Blackfield/steve Wilson
- Children of Nova
- Coheed and Cambria
- Collage / Satellite (underrated IMO) (*)
- Comedy of Errors
- Crippled Black Phoenix
- The deer hunter
- Demians
- Devin Townsend (Ki)
- Disperse (*)
- Dream theatre (only a few songs, like wait for sleep from images and words)
- Edison's children (looking forward to the new CD) (*)
- Enochian Theory (*)
- Gazpacho (*)
- Genesis
- Ghost Brigade
- Green Carnation
- Haken
- iamthemorning (*)
- ioearth (* first album)
- IZZ
- Kamelot
- Karcius
- Karnivool
- Katatonia (I have most of their albums) (*)
- Leprous
- Long distance calling (*)
- Marillion (*)
- The Mars Volta (deloused at the comatorium especially)
- Maudlin of the well (without the growling songs)
- Mystery
- Nine Stones Close (*)
- Not a good sign
- Oceansize
- Opeth (their lighter songs) (*)
- Pain of Salvation (*)
- Pendragon
- Peter Gabriel (*)
- Phildeaux (*)
- The Pineapple Thief (excellent band, very underrated IMO) (*)
- Pink Floyd (*)
- Porcupine Tree (*)
- Pure Reason Revolution (another underrated and quite unique band) (*)
- Quidam
- The Reasoning
- Riversea (*)
- Riverside/Lunatic soul (probably my biggest progrock discovery) (*)
- RPWL
- Sieges Even / subsignal (*)
- Sound of Contact
- Spock's Beard
- Storm corrosion
- Sylvan (Posthumous Silence is a very emotional CD, top 10 prog album IMO) (*)
- TesseracT
- Unitopia (*)
- Vanden Plas
- Votum (this is another big discovery for me, similar to Riverside and a must to check out for Riverside fans) (*)
- Yes (the latest album is surprisingly good and fresh)

I have put a stars next to the artists that if you like the majority of the bands in the list above and have not heard the ones with the star then I recommend give them a listen!

Almost all these bands I have discovered from this site, progressiveears and discovery apps like Spotify. However its been harder lately to make new discoveries, so I'm hoping this thread will give me some pointers to more obscure bands (or even more mainstream groups I may have overlooked) so I can discover new music!

Hi Neo-Romantic.

Haven't given VDGG much thought having put them in the 70's progr rock bracket and I much prefer modern prog, but given your recommendation after seeing my list I will give them a closer listen.

I have 1 song from Discipline in my favourites - Before the Storm Part 1 (unfolded like Staircase) so I'll need to check them out further.

Likewise Anglagard, they aren't on Spotify (where I do most of my music discovery) so I'll have to hunt them down elsewhere.

There is so much to choose from so it's hard to spend the time listening to somewhat random bands hoping to find one that warrants further time listening. So thanks for the more direct recommendations!

If anyone is interested I have about 1500 prog tracks in a Spotify playlist, can be accessed here:
http://open.spotify.com/user/1241861938/playlist/0VK2eKF32wOjb1mgUijXQd

I noticed you enjoy mostly vocal-oriented stuff. How are you with instrumental music?

Edited by HolyMoly - December 13 2013 at 19:56

deandob wrote: Hi Neo-Romantic. Haven't given VDGG much thought having put them in the 70's progr rock bracket and I much prefer modern prog, but given your recommendation after seeing my list I will give them a closer listen. I have 1 song from Discipline in my favourites - Before the Storm Part 1 (unfolded like Staircase) so I'll need to check them out further. Likewise Anglagard, they aren't on Spotify (where I do most of my music discovery) so I'll have to hunt them down elsewhere. There is so much to choose from so it's hard to spend the time listening to somewhat random bands hoping to find one that warrants further time listening. So thanks for the more direct recommendations! If anyone is interested I have about 1500 prog tracks in a Spotify playlist, can be accessed here: http://open.spotify.com/user/1241861938/playlist/0VK2eKF32wOjb1mgUijXQd

So glad I could be of service! I definitely hope you like all of them  And let me know what you think!

And Anglagard is a little tough to track down. I had to get the actual CDs from amazon.com. I listened to Hybris on youtube a couple times before I bought the album last year so I knew it would be a worthy purchase. Viljans Oga was a sound-unheard purchase, but I was really pleased with it. Always a great feeling when a gamble pays off like that 

HolyMoly, The Tangent do sound interesting, have marked a couple of their tracks for repeat listening. Rainbow Danger Club I'm not so sure yet.

Terima kasih Jelly Sucker. Birth Control is a little too 70's classic prog for my liking (I much prefer modern prog).

I'm going to add posts to this thread of some of my thoughts about bands I like that might be of interest to others.

1st up is Votum. They are a Polish progressive metal group who have been around for about 10 years. Their music is similar to Riverside (who are also Polish) and will definitely be of interest to Riverside and Opeth fans. They also remind me of a couple of Australian bands, in particular The Butterfly Effect (from my home town of Brisbane but now disbanded). Like Riverside I prefer their softer tracks, and have been pretty much on the top of my playlist for the last few weeks.

They have a polished sound, produced well, smooth guitar work, good lyrics and strong vocals (English with no accent). They have released 3 albums, all good, but the last two are more polished. The current album Harvest Moon would be in my top 3 albums released this year. They don't seem to get a lot of coverage though, which is a little surprising.

Here are a couple of tracks to give you a taste.






Great stuff! This is the type of band I'd like to find more like.

Edited by deandob - December 13 2013 at 23:04

Thanks Infocat! Quite a range to explore. Will keep me busy for the weekend checking these out & will report back.

deandob wrote: Yes, mostly vocal but I do like some post rock.

Edited by zravkapt - December 14 2013 at 08:12

deandob wrote: OK, spent a bit of time sampling a number of the artists recommended. The following artists appeal and will get deeper listen: - via obscura - Tangled thoughts of Leaving - The safety fire - A liquid landscape - Giant squid (vocals a bit suspect though) - Frames - Vultress - Aborea - Hejira - The tangent - ISIS - Nektar - Tortoise Infocat, I have most of the artists you starred (although not in my most played list) so your suggestions are pretty spot on! I'll post later about another favourite prog artist.

Our tastes seem scarily similar.  I see that I included a few in my list that you had also included; didn't mean to do that.

For Giant Squid I recommend The Ichthyologist over Cenotes.  Less metal (both vocally and instrumentally).  And some wonderful singing by the female vocalist.

Disperse's Living Mirrors is one I'm not so fond of.  Too much generic metal.

I keep seeing some Metal Mind Productions double CD releases from Collage and Satellite at the local store.  I think I will have to pick up a couple!