Who is "etc"?

 

 

 

 

Any 80's prog metal band or symphony X. 

 

I like that within the joke is a genuine question.

 

 

 

Fate's Warning or Watch Tower are two that should be on this list IMHO!

you mean Fates Warning and Watchtower (one word) ,  yeah, they should have

also Savatage, Crimson Glory, Heir Apparent, Psychotic waltz, Sieges Even, so overlooked, it hurts 

While I agree that half of these bands are not progressive metal, calling the forum a joke is harsh and uncalled for. The prog metal crowd is gone, there are very few left, there are no conversations on this genre, I wish there was. But then again the DT fanboys were rather annoying back in the day  (and i do like many DT albums), so some people have had it I guess.

I got no problem with Evergrey being called progressive metal. They are also classified as dark heavy metal (whatever that means, I don't know), power metal and modern metal. 

But Crapsody, Nightwish and Blind Guardian are not progressive metal in my opinion. Angra and Royal Hunt are at least proggish in places, so i don't mind them being called prog-power. 

I thought the two primary purposes for the internet was cat memes and overreactions? 

My first thoughts exactly! AND Psychotic Waltz AND Voivod AND Crimson Glory and even Mekong Delta

Did you miss the part where I said no 80's bands? Otherwise I would have to include Dream Theater, Queensryche, Savatage, Voivoid and maybe a few others and with DT and QR in particular it wouldn't be fair. Although Ayreon may very well be the clear winner here I nonetheless feel it's a more equal balance between bands.

Yup 

After that, the line-up split into two bands; they lost their keyboardist, and Eternity X went back to being a power metal band.

Also another one I'd like to mention is Black jester "the Divine Comedy' it is also a masterpiece worth checking out if you don't mind vocals being sung in English by an italian with a fairly strong italian accent, the vocals take a little of getting use to but it's a great great prog metal album. Black Jester have Dream theater chops with a fish Marillion artistic approach ... theatrical  prog metal worth checking out, I think most prog metal and neo prog rock likers will be impressed with "The Divine Comedy' especially the musicality Black jester is capable of . 

Dream Theater is an 80s band like Yes is a 60s band. 

The popularity cutoff is is understandable, but determining the exact level of popularity that is acceptable is arbitrary and subjective. In trying to cut off bands that are "too popular", everyone would agree that'd push DT off the poll, but Pain of Salvation and even Ayeron could be argued. Nightwish is obviously too popular, most of that came after the 90s, but I don't consider them a prog metal band. They've made a few individual prog songs, arguably Imaginareum is a whole prog album, but their 90s stuff is straight power metal. 

For some bands it was more about them being a big name band(ie "too popular") and for some it was more about being around in the 80's. I disagree with Nightwish being too popular at least among prog fans on here otherwise they would have at least one vote. My reasoning is if a band is on this site it's usually for a reason even if not everything they did was full blown prog/prog metal. As you say it is arbitrary and subjective but being I'm the one who started this poll how I do things is my decision. If anyone doesn't like it they can start their own poll. It's as simple as that.

Ayreon, by a mile.

Nightwish would win in the Symphonic Metal category!