Adam's Blog #1: Progressive Metal

Something to restore your faith perhaps Adam...

Sorry Adam, that came across more critical than I had intended.  I had to run so I posted before I was ready.  I realize that the thread isn't about DT, but I just find it ironic how many people hate the new Dream Theater album, and yet they tried to do something different.  So maybe it is a case of be careful what you wish for.    I don't have a good response to your query.  One might argue that "traditional" progressive metal, is bound to grow stale and lose any progressiveness just by being pigeonholed as "traditional".  They can either become more prog and less metal or more metal and less prog or continue to do what they do, thus becoming "stale".

My top list for 2015 may include District 97, Vanden Plas, Subsignal, Pyramaze, The Gentle Storm, Kingcrow, Riverside, Baroness, BTBAM, Caligula's Horse, Scale The Summit, TesseracT, Leprous, Symphony X, Kamelot, Royal Hunt, Native Construct and Queensryche.    I think that most of these are traditional prog, although BTBAM may be more extreme than traditional.

This being said, I think that just about every one of those bands has produced a previous album that I would say is better than their 2015 release, which might be my way in agreeing with you. 

The irony of this thread is that Dream Theater tried something different i.e. less stale, and you hated it. 

Perhaps I should have been. It might have sounded better then.

I'm not a big progressive metal fan. In fact, the "P" word generally puts me off something! I always thought the idea of prog stuff was to keep experimenting and expanding, and thus not going stale? Bands do run out of steam and inspiration eventually, and sometimes entire genres stagnate, like thrash did, and death metal did to a lesser extent.

However, I have burned myself out on various genres over the years, to the point where I've avoided them for a few months, or a couple of years, only to come back later with a fresh appetite for them after exploring something else. I suppose my biggest burn out was around 1995, when I just got bored with the metal being released at the time. Nu-metal was on the rise, grunge was huge, (both of which I dislike) thrash had died, death metal was going back underground, and black metal was impossible to find in NZ.

So I got in to the pop punk thing which was also just taking off. I discovered a heap of great bands (NOFX, still my favourite punk band, Bad Religion, Pennywise, Diesel Boy, Guttermouth, The Vandals) and a new scene. Around 1997-1998 my interest in metal kicked back in with the discovery of the internet. Finally, I could find what I wanted when I wanted it, and didn't have to just rely on what was in the shops. And my old favourite bands started coming back with stuff worth listening to again.

I still like the punk stuff, and I'm almost glad of the metal burn out now which pointed me in that direction. I'm not saying ditch prog altogether, or that the genre is dying. I'm just suggesting taking a bit of a rest from it for a while and look at something else for a bit, and then you'll come back with a fresh, and perhaps clearer, appreciation of it.

I don't think it got "stale" or at least "stale" is not a word I would use. There are still a lot of albums I enjoy and there are new bands coming with interesting music - Earthside being an example, also Caligula's Horse, Agent Fresco, Headspace, (and "the not so new")Subsignal, Kingcrow, Voyager, Vangough, Distorted Harmony, Haken and even Myrath I dare say.

Some veteran bands still deliver the goods, Fates Warning being THE example (I hope Jim Matheos will collaborate with Kevin Moore some more as to me OSI is a great project). Threshold has never disappointed me, it would be another example.

I can't complain, there are still a lot of albums I enjoy and discover every year; although I'm not into extreme progressive metal, even here there are interesting things (Barren Earth would be an example, Dan Swano's Witherscape, Dordeduh) or some post-rock/metal related (Sannhet, Sunset in the 12th House), even some djent (Walk Across Jupiter, Widek, Tesseract, Skyharbor, Abnormal Thought Patterns).

I don't think prog has gotten stale, though 2015 was a fairly weak year for the genre, to be sure. I personally had 1 full length that definitely counts, 1 EP and then Symphony X which probably counts, though that particular album could also be seen as prog/power as there's a ton of power metal on it. In 2014 I had 4 in my top 30 and a whole bunch just outside of it, and this year already I have a 5 star album (The Astonishing, lol!), 2 4.5's and the Headspace album is just outside of a 4.5 and could get there with more listens, so it's already looking like a better year for me. There's also new Haken on the horizon, and their last album was part of a very strong 2013, so we'll see how things go the rest of the year with prog.

I know what you mean Jonas. It's that sort of thing that has actually led me to start going back and changing a lot of my ratings to a new system. A couple of years ago I think I probably would have give The Astonishing 3 stars at minimum. But I ended up going with 2 as any higher wouldn't fit with my new guidelines:

Edited by adg211288 - 27 Mar 2016 at 2:16pm

Interesting read, personally I do feel like it's become stale. For me, a lot of recent prog metal I've heard seems to be pretty generic and cookie-cutter. However, I'm in the place where even if something has been done before, it can still be amazing if truly inspired. However, when comparing the likes of classic Fates Warning, Queensryche, Symphony X, and Dream Theater to some recent works of progressive metal I've heard, the recent stuff just sounds dull. 

Edited by Unitron - 02 May 2016 at 12:57am

Try it now.