Megadeth - Prog Related

The thing is, Rust In Peace is the only album of theirs that I would consider to be close to progressive metal, whereas Metallica had 2 full blown proggy albums (Puppets and Justice).  Ride The Lighting is debatable.  The remainder of Megadeth's discography is either thrash metal (The first 3 and most recent albums) or mainstream metal (Countdown, Youthanasia, Cryptic, Risk).  I'm really not certain that this is enough for inclusion.

Yeah I was thinking about Practice What You Preach as well when someone mentioned Testament. That one could easily be called prog-related as well ( and just for the record I don´t think Testament belong on PA). There´s the danger right there.

Eh, I'll put in my 2 cents, since you guys are probably expecting me too anyway (at least the longer term members that know me, heh).
Megadeth has what it takes to be put under a "Proto Prog Metal" category if it ever existed, but we know that isn't happening any time soo. Megadeth has been massively influential on prog metal and dare I say to it's development.
Better musicianship? Easily. When Kirk Hammett is in your band, you lose about 1000 musicianship points.
Sorry Kirk, but your solos are disgustingly sh*t for the most part. No sense of rhythm, horribly phrasing most of the time, some really horrible note choice at times and the worst vibrato in heavy metal lead guitar, period.
Even Dave Mustaine actually has decent vibrato, although I don't think he's a great soloist anyway.
Megadeth had Marty Friedman, Chris Poland and now Chris Broderick, Metallica were not going to be able to compete with that lead guitar wise, those guys are leagues ahead of Kirk.
Riff wise, I learnt my thrash metal chops playing both Metallica and Megadeth. The Megadeth riffs were harder to play on average, easily.
So in terms of technicality, it's easy Megadeth is way ahead.

Composition? Sorry guys, but I gotta hand it to Metallica for being more instrumental in the development of progressive metal composition.
Metallica had 3 albums, to my mind, that feature material that shows clear links to the development of prog metal. I just don't think Megadeth's material is proggy enough to make the cut, even if it is better to listen to for me personally.
Megadeth only had one in terms of the composition side of things, that being Rust In Peace and even then less than half the songs are really prog related-metal songs.
In My Darkest Hour and Tornado of Souls always struck me as the two most defining "prog metal" pieces from Megadeth. The way the riffs develop are done in a prog metal style to me.


Edited by Petrovsk Mizinski - August 11 2009 at 06:17

As an outside observer (I don't care at all about the suggestion, or the music we're talking about), I can only say: Wow! That "don't suggest Y just because X is here" rule sure works. At full capacity. 

TheProgtologist wrote: With the addition of Metallica I think Megadeth definitely belong here.Rust in Peace is a classic and is just as "proto-proggy" as Master of Puppets and And Justice For All.

Agreed. While I still think that Master of Puppets was much more important/influential for Prog Metal than Rust in Peace, I think that they should be here - if only for the sake of completion. I don't think that we should add all metal bands that got a bit more technical in the 80s ... but the most important ones in relation to Prog Metal, and IMO  Megadeth are easily in the top 5.

BTW: It's not too late to create a "Proto Prog Metal" category ...


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - August 11 2009 at 01:31

I tend to think of the early music of bands like Iron Maiden,Metallica,Megadeth etc. more like Proto Prog Metal than Prog Related.But that's just me.

TheSubhuman wrote: And what about the many, many PROG bands who would need this site's support, and are kept out by people who seem to worry about adding as many prog-related bands as they can think of? Do any of you realize that other prog sites have already added and reviewed those bands, while on the 'ultimate prog source' people are tearing each other apart over The Stranglers, Angel, Megadeth, and even Dragonforce?

This is going to get niiiice and bloody

*prepares a splatter tarp*

^^ Agreed!

Edited by AmericanProgster - August 10 2009 at 16:44

And what about the many, many PROG bands who would need this site's support, and are kept out by people who seem to worry about adding as many prog-related bands as they can think of? Do any of you realize that other prog sites have already added and reviewed those bands, while on the 'ultimate prog source' people are tearing each other apart over The Stranglers, Angel, Megadeth, and even Dragonforce?

Edited by TheSubhuman - August 10 2009 at 16:36