Prog Metal definition

I enjoy King's X a great deal; they're on InsideOut, a prog label, and have commonly been discussed as a progressive band. Doug Pinnick of King's X (vocals, bass) has a guest appearance on an epic-length Dream Theater track as a vocalist, and in their side projects, they generally work with prog musicians.

I haven't heard enough of their output to take a firm stance, but I've always considered them to be on the more commercial/poppy end of prog.
    
...of course, I'm just interjecting my opinion, I'm not even a collaborator anymore...   

Edited by Man Overboard - January 19 2007 at 14:41

Mike, were King's X rejected by the PMT? I seem to remember they were in the list of artists to be discussed... Perhaps we could bring the subject back?

The definition is outdated ... it was taken from wikipedia, and the current version is much better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_metal

They no longer mention Spock's Beard, which were obviously included by mistake. King's X ... well, they are considered to be a progressive band by some people, but their support in the archives wasn't strong enough. The new version mentions them as a prog metal band being on the soft, mainstream-oriented end of the spectrum ... in my own opinion they're not a metal band, and as a whole, taking into account all the albums, not a prog band. They're also too soft to be called metal, although I remember some CD stickers which labeled them "metal" - but these stickers are written by marketing people, not music experts. I guess that mistakes like these just sneak into reviews and biographies and are then simply carried on.


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - January 19 2007 at 12:16

What exactly about Spock's Beard makes them metal is my question. Sure they have some heavy sections, but for the most part, their time with Morse (I haven't heard any Post-Morse Beard albums to be honest) was pretty symphonic overall.

i see, thanks for your attention then !