Is Queensryche progressive metal?

I'll dust off an oldie for you.  http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16003&KW=queensryche&PN=2. 

I think that yes, they were progressive for their time.  They were one of the originators of what would become  progressive metal, as they had progressive elements that weren't generally found in metal bands.  That being said, they won't sound very progressive in comparison to what happened in progressive metal afterwards.  To a certain extent, their progressiveness is kind of in the category of "you had to be there to notice it". 

I was listening to Queensryche right from the 4 song EP. My neighbor introduced me to it and we both thought it was very Iron Maiden-esque. 

twalsh wrote: As a teen, I started listening to them because of that same sound.  A couple albums later, they were completely different.

Queensrŷche are progressive metal. They may be a bit less progressive and a bit more metal than Dream Theater, but the difference is not so great.
 

One of my favorite QR songs. Kinda proggy.

Seen them a few times here in Seattle, just saw them again open up for Scorpions this past October. I would consider them metal based with prog attributes.

verslibre wrote: Btw, the new album's really good, the best one they've released since Empire.

Wow! That's high praise indeed!

I would say that Queensryche is a lot like Iron Maiden meaning that they are both progressive and non-progressive usually on the same release. The first EP was very much of an early 80s metal sound although a very well done effort. The Warning continued their sound but entered prog metal territory with their last track Roads To Madness. They really started experimenting more on Rage For Order but probably not what i'd call progressive in the traditional sense. More like experimental but still if you take the meaning of progressive as something that advances a genre then certainly it was. Operation Mindcrime is where they really became semi-progressive both as an overall concept album theme and as an album that hosted true progressive metal tracks such as Suite Sister Mary. Although they were getting their feet wet with progressive metal they jumped ship with Empire and slightly picked it up on Promised Land. Nothing after that album was progressive in the least IMHO. Overall i'd say that they are not progressive metal compared to what came after and they share many traits with Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath where they are in that blurry crossover territory. I'd probably classify them as prog related more than fully fledged prog metal but since they were pioneers in popularizing the tendency of metal to become more progressive they will always hold a special place in that first wave of releases. They certainly weren't no Watchtower though. I consider them the first TRUE prog metal