Prog Metal Advice

^ absolutely essential band for me

Posted on MMA :

Hey prog metal fans, anyone heard the russian band Mechanical Poet. On the fabulous french website guts of darkness their music is described as a cross between 'Harry Potter' and Pain Of Salvation, which is quite fair as they have a strong symphonic side on one hand and the vocalist switches easily from "quiet' to "harsh" and the "metal" music (as opposed to the symphonic one) bears some similarities with PoS on the other hand. I quite enjoy their album 'woodland prattlers' (I listened to it twice during my jogging)







Not sure their other albums are on par with this one.

Very good recommendations above but I will have to second in particular

Enchant and Tiles for heavy prog (metal-ish)

I hope you are not missing Conception from your list (explore the whole catalogue)
Also I have not seen any mention of Crimson Glory and Heir Apparent - legendary bands

One of my favourite PM bands, very little known:



^ this one that doesn't embed is my favourite








Edited by harmonium.ro - September 07 2010 at 17:14

Well, I quite like a lot of Prog Metal, and I can give some suggestions:

Between the Buried and Me (start with The Great Misdirect - definitely their most accesible album. Give them a chance also, it took me a listen or two to get into them)

Shadow Gallery (I recommend "Legacy". An amazing album with an absolutely fantastic opener!)

Amaran's Plight (A one-time supergroup. It's a great album though)

Beyond Twilight (listen to Section X. Very interesting music, but quite catchy as well)

Blotted Science (Amazing avant-death-prog-fusion-awesomeness)

Diablo Swing Orchestra (Listen to "A Tap-Dancers Dilemna". Very interesting fusion of prog-metal and jazz)

Ephrat (An amazing new-ish band! They make really great music. Definitely not DT clones though they do have a fetish with 7/8!)

Mind's Eye (Get "A Gentleman's Hurricane". Very good and consistent music with very complex time signature usage)

Protest the Hero (Listen to Fortress. Extremely frantic but really spellbinding prog with LOADS of different sections per song)

Savatage (Gutter Ballet. Not really proggy but pioneers of the genre with great usuage of acoustic piano)

Scale the Summit (Very different instrumental band. Very tight and organized.)

Well, that's all I can think of for now, but check them out. Some great bands there!

What's your opinion on growly vocals and such?  If they don't bother you too badly, and if you want something a bit "avant-garde", then you might not do too poorly by checking out Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

SaltyJon wrote: I'm assuming you know Liquid Tension Experiment?

If you like Green Carnation you might want to try In the Woods... and Drawn, same sort of thing as the first two GC albums (Journey to the End of the Night and Light of Day, Day of Darkness) but better.

My biggest recommendation to you (knowing your tastes) is Savatage's albums such as Streets or Dead Winter Dead.

Also, if you're okay with death metal somewhat in the vein of Opeth, Edge of Sanity's Crimson is an essential masterpiece.