Prog Metal!

On 06/02/2013 at 02:36 AM by Blake Turner

No intro. Just music. Whoo!

Enslaved - Thoughts Like Hammers

My new addiction. These guys are a lot like Opeth, except with less emphasis on folk and death metal, and more emphasis on straight 70's progressive rock fused with black metal. If you're a bit turned off by the intro and the shrieks, I advise you to stick with it until the 2 minute mark, where the song goes full on with it's clean, melodic passages. It's a thing of beauty. Although, the main riff is kind of fucking phenomenal.

Karnivool - Change Part 2

Dialing back a bit on the heaviness, here is a band that started life as a nu metal band with elements of prog, before diving fully into prog on their second album. They're Australia's best Alternative Metal outfit in my honest opinion, and this song is among their best.

Opeth - Ghost of Perdition

Believe it or not, I wasn't always into extreme metal. I used to hate growling, shrieking, and yelling in my metal, preferring to stick to bands like Tool and Deftones. Opeth changed that, as it gave me both beautiful clean passages and brutal growling that I grew to appreciate over time. I think one of the reasons that Mikael's growl is more accessible than most is the production. It's not grating on the ears, and it perfectly compliments the music. This song is one of the pinnacles of their song writing in my opinion, although it's from my third favourite album. It's heavy, it's groovy, and it's haunting. It opens with death metal, turns into a funky piece of prog rock, goes back to death metal and then, almost out of nowhere dives head first into a chilling acoustic passage. If you haven't listened to Opeth, this is the time to.

Katatonia - Dead Letters

What I love about Katatonia is that they use heaviness as a tool, not a crutch. They'll go entire songs without a face melting riff, and then when it hits, it hits hard. This song is off their latest album, and dear god is it wonderful.

Stolen Babies - Mousefood

Those of you who follow my music blogs would know a band called Unexpect. These are like a slightly more accessible version of Unexpect. They still change genre more times in one song than some bands have in a life time, but they're not as hard to get into for non-metal fans I find. They retain that eerie Carnival feel that a lot of Avant Garde metal bands tend to go foor, but they're closer to rock with some harsh vocals than fully fledged metal. Except for this song... maybe a bad choice to show you, but fuck you, this song is awesome.

Arcturus - Star Crossed

The Sham Mirrors is one of the pinnacles of Progressive Metal Albums for me. Listen to it, and you will be happy.

Homelessrook

06/02/2013 at 09:32 AM

Stolen Babies are awesome live. We got to hang out with them for a little bit and got our poster signed. Great Metal m/

Blake Turner Staff Writer

06/02/2013 at 10:36 AM

That's awesome! I'd imagine they would be!

06/02/2013 at 11:22 AM

I will take a picture of the poster and post it later.

Here it is.

06/02/2013 at 11:43 AM

That is awesome! Twas an awesome poster to begin with. The signatures just make it godly!

smartcelt

06/02/2013 at 12:08 PM

Katatonia reminded me of Tool somewhat. In that they are great musicians who can show it in subtle ways. And with a good singer who can almost be whispering,yet evoke strong emotion. I only recently got into bands that feature growls. Guess it started with Leave's Eyes and Dimmu Borgir. I like the band Liv Krull used to be in,Theatre Of Tragedy a lot too. Very good music picks here. I learned a lot and enjoyed them all.

06/02/2013 at 12:21 PM

Yeah, that riff is very Tool like. That was my first thought when I listened to it. Not many of the other songs are that Tool like though. Believe it or not, their first few albums were straight up Death Doom, one of which had the lead singer of Opeth growling for it, since the main singer had a medical condition and couldn't do the growl anymore. That's why he sings like he does now.

Glad you liked the bands though!

Cary Woodham

06/02/2013 at 12:10 PM

At first I thought I read "Frog Metal."

06/02/2013 at 12:16 PM

I'm just picturing Kermit the Frog in gothic face paint, wearing all black and sporting a pentagram shaped guitar. Ah that would be awesome...

BrokenH

06/02/2013 at 12:20 PM

Blake, your a genius! I agree Kermit needs to be "edgy" to get fans back and I prefer he goes "Metal" over "Bieber bad boy". Cary also has a point. We're onto a new genre here! Frog Metal will be all the rage!

06/02/2013 at 12:26 PM

Yep, especially if Kermit starts it. Their first hit single could be "The Rainbow Intestines."

mothman

06/02/2013 at 06:25 PM

Muppet Metal FTW!

06/02/2013 at 12:18 PM

Yeah, I appreciate "soft eeriness" in my metal too. Electric guitar shreds by themselves don't do as much for me these days. I consistently enjoy what Katatonia puts out. I need to look up more of their songs!

06/02/2013 at 12:24 PM

They just released an album called an introduction to Katatonia. While it's not as good as their albums, I think it's a good starting point, and the songs you do like you can link back to the albums.

Alex-C25

06/02/2013 at 05:00 PM

Another great collection of songs Blake. I think I specially liked Change Part 2, because of the sound, changes of styles and it's like you combined Tool, Deftones and Dream Theater in one band to create a great combination.

Slightly off topic, do you always buy your albums phyically or digitally?

06/02/2013 at 10:53 PM

I love physical copies, and I get them when I can, but a lot of the bands I like I'd have to order in fom either a capital city or overseas, which costs extra money. So I usually end up going digital, unless I love the shit out of an album.

06/02/2013 at 07:32 PM

I have been listening. Some interesting stuff there. Still not loving the Orc noises but I am getting slightly more tolerant of them so hey, thanks for that. :)

06/02/2013 at 10:58 PM

Tis ok! I still suggest listening to Opeth for that!

Aboboisdaman

06/02/2013 at 11:41 PM

I never really liked growling either untill I started to listen to Tristania. Opeth is a great band. I really liked the Karnivool and Katatonia. I'm gonna look into those dudes some more. Thanks for the metal! m/

06/03/2013 at 12:58 AM

I'll respond to your edit lol.

PixlBit