Progressive Metal Music

Who else loves odd time signatures, expansive tonality, tasteful virtuosity and vocal fry? I'm trying to work some new-to-me albums into my rotation, so drop a link with your recommendation!

Me: I grew up as a scene kid (Norma Jean, Emery, FSF) and did keys/vox for pop-punk and hardcore bands. When I was on a campus tour in 2004, my host roommate introduced me to the records "Damnation" by Opeth and "In Absentia" by Porcupine Tree. Those blew my mind and started expanding my listening horizons. I went on to see Opeth in concert three times and Porcupine Tree twice. 

Currently, I've been enjoying last year's releases by Tesseract (Spotify link) and Periphery (video). 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2w6DV9mIOPHldiUheAN2RD?si=5WhqHC1QRUm2SNrBeMVTAA

Between the Buried and Me - Paralax II: The Future Sequence is the album that got me into prog metal as a genre (if you don't count bands like Tool and Meshuggah as prog).

Intronaut - Valley of Smoke is a personal favorite and lesser known

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic is Earth history but metal. A super cool concept album, though I didn't like the sequel nearly as much. 

Rivers of Nihil - Where Owl's Know My Name is on the heavier side but I just cannot get it out of my head recently.

Animal's as Leaders - The Joy of Motion, how much do you really like time signatures and technicality? Truly virtuoso musicians.

Tesseract is great, my personal fave was the Altered State album, though I haven't kept up with their last few releases. I never did get into Periphery despite liking djent sounds, maybe I need to give them another shot.

Also an obligatory plug for the prog rock greats, without which we wouldn't have such amazing prog metal acts. King Crimson - Red and Yes - Fragile are bangers!

Just old school here, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Kings X, Opeth... if we talk strict metal and pretty much all Meshuggah. I really like Monuments first 2 albums. Browne really knows his craft.

good stuff mentioned, Devin townsend can be an entertaining time as well, lately I gravite towards alot of symphony x because they are Fucking Epic Man! their last album is an orgasmic riff experience even if lacking some depth

BTBAM the 2 automata albums are masterpieces, I could never really get into the rest, maybe to metalcorey for me

Caligula's horse have some cool songs but I never wanted to listen to their singer for that long so never was real psyched on them. Same deal for porcupine tree with me

AaL the joy of motion is by far the coolest record

Who's psyched for the new Opeth album?? And DT with portnoy back, the nite terror song was aight, chorus was pretty formulaic tho, gonna see them in february

Opeth new album looking forward for new dates in the US. Definetely going back to the roots.

Devins solo work off tha charts, but i have fond memories of the days with SYL. 

Symphony new album as well with romeos last solo album are truly remarkeable for this time sake. But the first two album where they have those multi sectional breaks...you can really hear the 70ties prog influence in Symphony. Definetely them and DT open doors for folks back in 1993.

 Also portnoy back to DT.....uffffff....sad and feel bad for Mangini. he is tha man.

Do Dillinger Escape Plan and Mars Volta fit? 

J W wrote:

Ember by Plini

This was like a Schumann tone poem for electric guitar. Near-tangible textures, really cool.

I'm stoked for the new Opeth because their heavy stuff has always been my go-to. Many fond memories of driving into Zion while blasting the Grand Conjuration with my longtime friend and tradventure partner ARG, who introduced me to other prog like Intronaut .

Mars Volta is one of those bands where I enjoy them only if I can give them my full aural attention.

 BTBAM is in the same boat (Mordecai was the first song I ever heard by them, flashbulb memory of that melodic break at 2:25 below). Some of the carnival-erous stuff gets on my nerves. 

Dream Theater was an early gateway band for me but really just Train of Thought and Scenes from a Memory. They get a bit self-indulgent with virtuosity for my tastes at times. The new single was nothing new under the sun.

Gavin Harrison for life. Second video is one of my favorite Porcupine Tree drum parts by him. Just so smooth and tasty, you'd never know it was in a [redacted] time signature.

Israel R wrote:

Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name 

Edit: I'm finished thru-listening this album (56 minutes!) and I get what you mean ... I couldn't put it down. At first I was like, "this is proper death, but pretty textbook" but then the proggy, melodic undertones surfaced at track 5. A nuanced and well-produced record that I will certainly revisit . Thanks for the recommendation.

Check out the new Blood Incantation- a band from Denver that I've seen 3 times live. The base is pretty standard old school DM, but especially the new album has tons of Pink Floyd and krautrock influences that makes for a wild journey.

Plus the music video seems like a climber was involved in choosing the locations.

https://youtu.be/6N4rLtjPzH0?si=1GcbG32hAHNRy9-6

This might lean more Math Rock...

Anything by Lighting Bolt

Physics House Band

MonoNeon has some rowdy stuff he works on too.

Mono is more post rock, but has some good tech in some of their work.

For something harder - Rolo Tomassi 

Jinjer is absolutely phenomenal, any album, go for it.

check out Vildhjarta, absolutely fantastic, can’t go wrong 

The contortionist, I’d start with exoplanet or language 

Jinjer is phenomenal, any album, go for it.

check out Vildhjarta, absolutely fantastic, can’t go wrong 

The contortionist, I’d start with exoplanet or language 

So, what are your thoughts on  Sleep Token? Some of that stuff is dabblin´with prog...

Sleep token is a little polarizing, but I like em, not supper proggy so I didn’t list them but they definitely dabble 

not a fan on the silly gimmicky lore though, just make good music and I’ll listen 

Bryan Bielicki wrote:

Sleep token is a little polarizing, but I like em, not supper proggy so I didn’t list them but they definitely dabble 

not a fan on the silly gimmicky lore though, just make good music and I’ll listen 

tru dat. I gave em a fair chance...not that im anyone to give chances ...i was just very interested in their stance i guess while seeing vids of the drummer that allegedly has a great reputation as a performer.... but the gimmick kinda mushroom head got my interest away...the sound do not match the look...just on a personal note. Rather listen to other stuff

Also never got into Sleep Token, but iirc (might be making this up) one or more of their members used to be in Slice The Cake, and their last two albums are pretty great, Odyssey to The West and Odyssey To The Gallows.

Lots of unmentioned goodies. Canadian group “Unexpect” don’t get nearly enough recognition, check out their last album Fables of the Sleepless Empire for genre-bending, 11-string bass, violin, female vocal death-prog.

SikTh, both pre- and post-breakup kind of defined prog metalcore for me and I suspect hugely influenced BTBAM’s shift progwards starting with Alaska. Any starting point is good.

I love Black Crown Initiate’s first EP Song of the Crippled Bull but never got into their full length albums.

Another unforgettable EP is Gorguts’ epic about the ancient library of Baghdad entitled Pleiades’ Dust.  

Will make an update post with more obscure recs when reunited with my music library. 

It’s more down the middle prog than metal but I *highly* recommend checking out Squeaky Feet outta Denver. They are up and coming and NASTY

Squeaky Feet - Cause for Alarm

The number 12 looks like you

Tigran Hamasyan's New Album 

I'm a couple tracks away from having listened to at least one song by each band listed in this thread, and it's been a very mind-expanding journey. Thanks everyone for the recs, and keep them coming!

A few specific replies: 

Although the latest Unexpect album wasn't on Spotify, I found it on Youtube. The opening cut very much reminded me of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, especially this song: 

Re: Vildhjarta, I thought this Reddit witticism summed it up nicely:

Cause For Alarm really made crave an IPA for some reason (it's 09:15). Definitely will spin this whole album on the long drive south next week.

Nine (9) calendar days remaining until the new OPETH drops! One of my friends just saw them last week and said they're slaying as hard as ever. This is what they played:

Sleepytime are great, I got into them around the time Of Natural History came out, early 2000's, and finally got to see Nils Frykdahl live in 2017 or so, albeit as part of Faun Fables but still a dream come true. 

Kayo Dot, Maudlin of the Well, and Pin-Up Went Down scratch a similar itch for me in the avant-garde space. 

@Ignacio, Symphony X have a new album? Don't see anything about it except a promise that it would come out in 2023. Takes me straight back to high school....