Why are there 3 Progressive Metal categories?

 

 

you are right---I missed that. its even worse than I thought. I will have to edit my thread title.

 

Still don't see why it can't fit under the umbrella Prog metal, with the other two as subcategories. I will go back and read the thread.

 

I am a big Porcupine Tree and Riverside fan, so its not like I don't like some hard driving progressive metal, if it carries with it the hallmarks of what progressive music is all about. But I hear too many pedestrian bands that do little more than shout, grunt and play almost unlistenable sludge thrash metal that has been done over and over, by many better bands, for a long time, being thrown into this "progressive metal' umbrella. If you aren't doing something beyond what Sabbath and their progeny etc already has done, I think we have to be careful about making this too much of a metal site and less of a progressive rock site.

 

 

 

But more importantly death metal can be progressive, given it isn't always but I find it hard to believe that simply because of a vocal style you find these bands not to be progressive. I understand how you may not like grunts but you should judge the music on its musical merits not on poorly formed steriotypes. After all at a certain point Yes just becomes high pitched meaningless jibberish singing and noodley playing, and that makes them all the better.

 

as for your last comment, NOT EVRY METAL BAND IS IN THE ARCHIVES! NOT EVRY BAND THAT IS SINGS ABOUT THE DEVIL! MOST DON'T! AND THOSE THAT DO, FINE YOU DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN. I SUGGEST YOU ACTUALLY HEAR THE LYRICS AND PLAYING AND DO  SOME REASEARCH BEFORE GIVING YOUR JUDGEMENT!!!!

 

 

I never said that every metal band is listed on PA. I have heard enough "progressive metal" or what is supposed to be "progressive metal", particularly in the death metal area, that I know when I hear it, I think to myself---what is progressive about that? A record shop I frequented carried a lot of progressive music and he hired a coworker that started turning the shop into more metal. He was particularly fond of death metal and was constantly playing it every time I was in there browsing. He too contended a lot of the stuff fit into "progressive". All I heard was a lot of grunting and thrashing away mindlessly with simple 3 chord riffs that was not in the least bit progressive. I even tried a few albums to see if I was missing something, and I either started laughing out loud, or headed for the Tylenol right away. Like I said, there is some melodic metal like Riverside and Opeth that is fine. For instance, the Riverside lead vocalist can actually sing and has a good voice. But way too much of what passes for Progressive metal is simply screaming and shouting with little talent at all, over the top of mindless three chord thrashing that isn't the least bit progressive. I need to hear some evidence of talent, some progression in the music, or some meaningful lyrics beyond Satan worship to even begin to consider it "progressive".

Isis - So did we:

Our skin worn thin
Our bones exposed
Life reduced to ticks
From forest caves and azure skies
We crashed upon this earth
The years they passed and so did we
But, resistance would be brought

 

Meshuggah - Future breed machine

mechanical thoughts i now concieve no
longer me always to see inanity millions
to be units like me eternally human
patterns copied dissected distorted
completed to fit the machine the nerve
fibres give in to cords to the unknown

dark? yes, but no satan refrences and much closer to Edgar Allen Poe than Alistar Crowley

while a band you do admit to liking (Opeth) does refrence satan

 

The four founding members(of which I am one)of the PMT got together to try to organize the sub-genre here that we are very passionate about.We spent over 2 months,on an almost daily basis,for hours and hours on end,talking on IM and we created 7 sub-genres of prog metal,then narrowed it down to five.We listened to EVERY PM band in the archives and placed them in these subs.The owners rejected our proposal because it was a little complicated.

 

After 2 years we decided to try again,this time with three subs that we thought we could fit all of the bands here in prog metal in.The reason behind this is bands like Opeth,Edge of Sanity,Age of Silence,Behold...the Arctopus,Between the Buried and Me,and Isis aren't all strictly prog metal in the traditional sense.We thought that people new to prog metal might be able to better explore the wide range of prog metal bands that we have added here if we re-organized prog metal.

 

You have to face it,there are progressive metal bands out there that don't sound anything like Dream Theater,but are widely accepted as progressive metal everywhere else.Like any genre of music,prog metal is constantly evolving and changing,and there are kids out there who grew up loving bands like DT that are now in bands and they are putting their own spin on things.

 

This was not a rash decision,this was the result of years of work and a ton of debate.The PMT alone have more than doubled the number of prog metal bands here since it's inception,a fact of which I take great pride in.We all do this in our spare time,and after an evening of devil worship,sacrificing virgins and drinking goats blood,I find it nice to come here and unwind by ruining the archives and the site itself.