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Bands similar to Dream Theater/Prog Metal suggestions?


H34VYM3T4LD4V3

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Hey guys, was wondering if you could suggest me some other Prog Metal bands/albums? Only band I listen to in the Prog genre is DT and I love them (5th fave band) so was thinking what other bands I would enjoy?

 

Also sorry I posted on the wrong part of the forum, been a long time since I posted a topic :/

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I don't like Dream Theater at all, and honestly I'm not the best person for recommendations in this area, but maybe some of this stuff will land with you. You'd probably dig Fates Warning if you haven't heard them yet. My favorite albums are No Exit and Parallels:

 

Also check out their older stuff, I don't like their original vocalist too much but you might enjoy him more than I do:

 

Crimson Glory rules, not very much like DT but highly worthwhile:

 

 

I'd assume you know old Queensryche, but just in case:

 

If you like old Queensryche, you'll probably like Lethal. I guess I wouldn't really call this "prog metal" but it's only a hop, skip, and jump away:

 

Also try Riverside. They're pretty different from what I've mentioned so far, more like modern rock with a bit of a Pink Floyd vibe, but aside from the lame harsh vocals here and there, their first album is pretty cool:

 

On a more metal tip, BAN turned me on to Pagan's Mind at some point last year, again not very similar to DT but I'd be surprised if you didn't like this:

 

And one of my favorite albums from last year is "progressive metal", albeit (again) totally unlike Dream Theater. Howling Sycamore has a hell of lineup (highlight is the original vocalist from Watchtower, yelling his face off) and you might get something out of them:

 

Maybe some of that will appeal. With any luck, @True Belief or @Ecthelion will also swing by and drop some of that sweet sweet knowledge on you.

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17 hours ago, H34VYM3T4LD4V3 said:

Thanks a lot bud, i'll work my way through those. only heard of Queensryche and Crimson Glory and I must say I haven't even touched those, once again cheers man. \m/

Of course, hope you find something in there to appeal. The classic Queensryche album will always be Operation: Mindcrime, definitely give that a shot as well.

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Alright, so here are some recs you may enjoy. 

Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace (1990)

 

Anacrusis - Screams and Whispers (1993) 

 

Thought Industry - Songs for Insects (1992)

Catharsis - Pathways to Wholeness (1995) 

 

Also, all of Alabaster's recommendations are on point with Fates Warning being particularly essential as they had a ridiculous run of quality between The Spectre Within and A Pleasant Shade of Grey. 

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7 hours ago, Ecthelion said:

Alright, so here are some recs you may enjoy. 

Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace (1990)

 

Anacrusis - Screams and Whispers (1993) 

 

Thought Industry - Songs for Insects (1992)

Catharsis - Pathways to Wholeness (1995) 

 

Also, all of Alabaster's recommendations are on point with Fates Warning being particularly essential as they had a ridiculous run of quality between The Spectre Within and A Pleasant Shade of Grey. 

Awesome, I was hoping you'd chime in. I've been meaning to check out Psychotic Waltz for years but never got to it, and I have to say I'm loving this album so far. I dig Anacrusis but haven't heard these other two bands, so that's my morning listening lined up.

Edit - YouTube is telling me I listened to this Catharsis album at some point. I really like it but I don't remember it at all. My son tried arguing with me the other day about something he said I said, and his closing point was "you're wrong, because you're getting old and your memory doesn't work as well, so you don't remember." He was incorrect about that particular discussion but I think there's some real merit to the larger point. Fuck.

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How could I have forgotten to mention Control Denied? This is another brainchild of Chuck Schuldiner, and despite some differences in songwriting style, the lineup and musical style here are essentially late-period Death with power metal vocals. They only released one album before Chuck passed, and it took me years to warm up to, but I love it now:

 

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1 minute ago, H34VYM3T4LD4V3 said:

Working my way through these slowly xD So far i'm really digging Crimson Glory! and Point of View is a great song

Hell yeah. Both of those first two Crimson Glory albums are stellar. Point Of View is just one of many great songs on Parallels, I think nearly every song on that album could be a single.

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10 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Hell yeah. Both of those first two Crimson Glory albums are stellar. Point Of View is just one of many great songs on Parallels, I think nearly every song on that album could be a single.

Will check the rest of the album out eventually man, but DAMN That Pagan's Mind song is tight, definitely the best so far, wasn't sure what to make of Howling Sycamore though hehe

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On 1/8/2019 at 7:27 AM, FatherAlabaster said:

How could I have forgotten to mention Control Denied? This is another brainchild of Chuck Schuldiner, and despite some differences in songwriting style, the lineup and musical style here are essentially late-period Death with power metal vocals. They only released one album before Chuck passed, and it took me years to warm up to, but I love it now:

 

One of the most overrated albums of all time along with The Sound of Perseverance. 

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6 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Sorry you think that, I love them both.

I don't, part of me has always thought that Fragile Art's fame in comparison to a lot of other prog/power is due to Chuck's own cult of personality rather than any merit of the composition. Like, if this was another band's debut, people would criticize it as lacking tightness and having more generic riffing. 

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4 minutes ago, Ecthelion said:

I don't, part of me has always thought that Fragile Art's fame in comparison to a lot of other prog/power is due to Chuck's own cult of personality rather than any merit of the composition. Like, if this was another band's debut, people would criticize it as lacking tightness and having more generic riffing. 

The vocals were the part that always didn't sit quite right to me. I still don't love them but they're better than I gave them credit for when it came out. I think the songwriting doesn't gel 100% of the time -- there are awkward moments and spots with a weird sense of pacing -- but Chuck was always one for a non sequitur and the awkwardness doesn't actually bother me. I don't think its popularity has as much to do with a cult of personality as it does with his music having a large, well-deserved fanbase. His stylistic hallmarks are all over this and it's a good bridge for any fan of latter-day Death. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece; it's a sometimes uncomfortable marriage, it can be a bit jarring, and that's what makes it unique. Why don't you get into TSOP?

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13 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

The vocals were the part that always didn't sit quite right to me. I still don't love them but they're better than I gave them credit for when it came out. I think the songwriting doesn't gel 100% of the time -- there are awkward moments and spots with a weird sense of pacing -- but Chuck was always one for a non sequitur and the awkwardness doesn't actually bother me. I don't think its popularity has as much to do with a cult of personality as it does with his music having a large, well-deserved fanbase. His stylistic hallmarks are all over this and it's a good bridge for any fan of latter-day Death. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece; it's a sometimes uncomfortable marriage, it can be a bit jarring, and that's what makes it unique. Why don't you get into TSOP?

I can't call TSOP an album I enjoy due to a lot of the same issues that plague Fragile Art. Plodding, predictable riffing that hardly mixes it up compared to many prog, power and tech thrash albums from the preceding decade. Not to mention that it's influence to tech death is largely overrated considering that if you compared it to even the likes of Atrocity's first two, it would not hold up well under such comparisons.

Hell, a part of me hardly considers TSOP an actual tech death album as it shares more in common sonically with the likes of albums like Think This with the difference being that Think This was much better written. 

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4 hours ago, Ecthelion said:

I can't call TSOP an album I enjoy due to a lot of the same issues that plague Fragile Art. Plodding, predictable riffing that hardly mixes it up compared to many prog, power and tech thrash albums from the preceding decade. Not to mention that it's influence to tech death is largely overrated considering that if you compared it to even the likes of Atrocity's first two, it would not hold up well under such comparisons.

Hell, a part of me hardly considers TSOP an actual tech death album as it shares more in common sonically with the likes of albums like Think This with the difference being that Think This was much better written. 

No accounting for taste, huh? As a Death fan, I love it. I could see criticizing the songs for being a bit haphazard or unfocused, but aside from a handful of riffs here and there I don't find it plodding. Mid-paced, yes, but it works for me. There are some great ideas and awesome melodies on there, interesting sense of development from the previous material, and I personally think it's Chuck's best vocal performance. It's a path I wish he'd been able to go down further.

I've never thought of it as "tech death" either, although you and I might see the reasons for that differently. As far as whether it's objectively overrated, I'd ask, by who? I don't think I've come across anyone who gives it the same credit they give Human or Individual Thought Patterns when it comes to prog death. Death's music as a whole is probably given a bit more credit these days than it fully deserves -- seems like "some people" assume that they and Possessed created the entire DM genre in a vacuum -- but that shouldn't take away from the quality, dedication, or evident passion in the music.

Happy to talk about this more but it would probably be best to take it over to the Death thread.

Edit -- turns out we already talked about this in the Death thread a year and a half ago. My memory might be going but my opinions are ironclad!

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I must admit having a problem with the very concept of "prog metal". I'm like that bird who comes flying along and then goes THUD into the window glass ... that is called 70s prog rock. While everybody else is flying merrily along, I'm stuck in the 70s. There is no getting around it. Arrested development, probably.

Only today, I was at the post office and picked up a specimen of "Pet Arts" by the Petards, on CD, ordered through Amazon. German chaps, from 1971. "Krautrock" they used to call it. Not so much any kind of metal as perhaps "heavy psych" ... with tendencies towards "space rock". (Hawkwind is the big dick in the genre of space rock.) OK that was a lot of unnececessary information ... point is, as soon as I read the word "prog" my mind goes all 70s on me. It can't be helped.

That being said, I did in fact enjoy the album "Affinity" by Haken (that's pronounced like the word "taken"). I believe they get sorted under the genre of "prog metal". It was released a couple of years ago.

 

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Haha I love the analogy dude, I can kinda see where your coming from, it’s the name that does it for me, I suppose your so used to hearing ‘prog rock’ and not ‘prog metal’ it does sound kinda weird thinking about it, plus when you think of prog rock you think somewhat soft and psychedelic, not exactly metal attributes.

And thanks for the album suggestion, i’ll Check it out in due time, going through them all sequentially at the moment. :P

 

UPDATE: I quite some of the Psychotic Waltz album, a lot of cool riffs but I may need to give it a couple listens to really get into it.

I really like that Thought Industry album, especially the first song, very thrashy.

Also I find it funny how their name is kinda a play on words for Dream Theater (Dream-Thought Theater-Factory)

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Sons of Appollo ! I think that band is the closest to DT, and has good reason also, because Portnoy is their drummer. Personally, i think you should check out Psychotic Symphony. It reminds of Systematic Chaos. They even have used some similiar keyboard tones also.

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  • 5 months later...

Hey @H34VYM3T4LD4V3!!!  The first band I think of that's as close (music style and meaningful lyrics) to being like Dream Theater is Symphony X... over at this other site I spend a great deal of time at a lot of people love them.... you might already know or have heard... if not here's a link to one of their better albums "Lost Paradise"... if you don't have time to listen to entire album (embedded video below should be a playlist for entire album) I hyperlinked the album name to the title track and one of their more commonly known tracks for ya! 

another "similar" could be Porcupine Tree here's a list of some full albums on YouTube for ya (here) bottom right of page you'll see the full albums.  If you're not familiar with these guys I'd say start with either "In Absentia" or "Deadwing"...

I used to listen to these long ago as my music flavors are always changing now I'm more into heavier stuff... but do enjoy revisiting these for a "reprieve" of sorts...LOL  Anyway, I just thought these were as close to DT that I didn't see anyone mention yet... although I gotta say some of the other recommendations I've taken to myself so either way we all win here!  Thanks everyone and to you H34VYM3T4LD4V3 for keeping this place as fun and interesting to visit... Hope you enjoy and don't end up working TOO much...as long as you can listen to music while at work then you've got the perfect gig mate! 

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