Prog Punk?

Subhumans' From The Cradle to the Grave might be of interest; British 80's Anarcho-Punk anger, filtered though Symphonic Prog movements, especially the side long title track.

There's also Zolar X. Their youtube videos wouldn't play in here though but will if you look them up on youtube.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 18 2025 at 00:08

From the late 1970's/early 1980's my best example is Spizzenergy/Athletico Spizz 80 /The Spizzies... I think changing their bandname on a yearly basis haven't helped their popularity. As Spizzenergy they actually had a hit song with the awesome Where's Capain Kirk? They've managed to combine a punkish attitude with... I don't know - how I wish Cardiacs sounded. The song I wanted to share here, New Species isn't even available on Youtube* or Spotify.

-but it's available here, check out:

Do A Runner - the full Athletico Spizz 80, 1980-album here on Bandcamp. I really like the whole album, but the ten bonus track were unknown to me until today. Some of them are pretty great as well (but not all).

Their 'hit song' is perhaps plainly Punk Rock/New Wave and a bit of a novelty. I love it though. And you can easily hear that even here their inventiveness and tight, precise performance differs quite a bit from regular three chords Punk Rock. This song was actually the first ever to top the UK Indie Charts, where it remained for seven weeks:



*there is a nice Peel Sessions performance of it available though, but it doesn't have the same punch or impact as the studio version.

Of course this can't not be mentioned in a prog punk thread:

Can't really get past The Stranglers. Dave Greenfield (RIP) and Jean Jacques Burnel were the 'proggers' in the band. Their version of Walk On By still sounds as glorious today as it did back in the day and it amuses me that a song extolling the virtues of heroin is still getting plays on mainstream radio (Golden Brown). 

Finnforest wrote: I've always said that Minutemen (and even Firehose/Mike Watt) could be considered for a grouping like this. Some of the stuff Minutemen did in their brief career took punk to a different place. One of California's greatest!

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Probably better to listen to Best Before. Some great stuff on there

I remember somone lending me a Crass album back in the 80's and it was unlistenable. Definitely punk for sure. I leant them PIL's Compact Disc in return which was much better!

Crass were the ultimate prog-punk band.  Just listen to tracks such as Nagasaki Nightmare, Reality Asylum and Bloody Revolutions