Djam Karet
Divorce Applause
Group 87
Simon Steensland
Apocalyptica
Attention Deficit
Fire Merchants
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities
Steve Morse Band
RMS
McGill Manring Stevens
GHS
Vital Information
Tunnels
some John Scofield and some Dave Weckl fit that description too

Give me a couple hours I could give you twenty more if I'm on the right path here. PM me

 

All good bands.

But not sure any of them can be considered prog-metal.

Some are prog, some are fusion, one is avant-prog, but I don't see too much prog-metal.

Attention Deficit, Fire Merchants, and McGill/Manring/Stevens are all certainly pretty heavy, but I think they fall in the fusion category.

 

Thanks bro.

 

Liquid Tension Experiment.

 

Here's a few.

Counter-World Experience
Behold...The Arctopus /very technical
Blotted Science / also very technical, use 12 tone method sometimes
Intervals
Gordian Knot / can be less metal and more prog on some occasions
Continuo Renacer /Spanish band that release 2 great technical-metal, fusion albums, then disappeared
Scale the Summit
Exivious / similar to the non-instrumental band, Cynic
Ron Jarzombek's solo albums (PHHHP! , and Solitarily Speaking Of Theoretical Confinement) / very technical
Electrocution 250 / only 1 album, "Cartoon Music from Hell", but it's a good one. Sounds like Bugs Bunny cartoon music, played by musicians with terrifying metal chops.

 

Electrocution 250 / only 1 album, "Cartoon Music from Hell", but it's a good one. Sounds like Bugs Bunny cartoon music, played by musicians with terrifying metal chops.

thats cool, reminds me of the last Fantomas album, which counts as instrumental is you allow nonsense vocals

 

A lot of the aforementioned music is difficult to listen to, and I am not referring to its complexity. It's often just plain ugly ... and not in an interesting way. The chaps can play their instruments but do not have the ability or talent to compose anything cohesive and/or interesting.

 

"Technical metal" fits that description for me -- let's take vapid non-tuneful songs and play them as fast as humanly possible. About as appealing as a chemical peel.

But then, almost anything with "metal" in the name is more about the sound than the song-writing.

 

Vital Information is jazz rock, not metal. John Scofield hasn't done anything close to metal music. Tunnels is a prog / jazz group. Bruford / Levin is prog rock but not metal. Prog metal would be somebody like Tony MacAlpine or Jason Becker. And you could seek out some of Dream Theater's instrumental tracks. Metropolis, for one. Trey Gunn has recorded a lot instrumental prog music. Some of his tunes could be described as metal. I recommend going to Bandcamp and listening to his excellent compilation, I'll Tell What I Saw. This also includes many exotic world music inspired prog tunes. Great stuff!

 

This also includes many exotic world music inspired prog tunes.

Yeah I was considering mentioning Saqqara Dogs and another band with Middle Eastern influences... but I've been unable to pull their name up in my flawed mental filing system.

 

That sounds closer to an old school rock jam than progressive metal. And of course everything else on the record is intimate jazz trio material.

 

Whatever it is, it's very tasteful.

 

His latest is absolutely killer!

 

Are you referring to his solo guitar album?

 

I'll have to pick it up at my local record store. I have to admit that although I bought his last two releases, I haven't listened to them all that much. I miss his old guitar sound with the chorus and mild distortion. Although I do really like Country For Old Men.

 

I think you'll like it.

 

My fav band he's been in is when he joins MMW. At least on the album a go go.

 

If you don't make much of a distinction between prog and fusion, there's some quality stuff out there.

A few examples:

Android Trio - [2021] Other Worlds

Arcana - [1997] [2021] Arc of the Testimony

Radian - [2016] On Dark Silent Off

Marc Edwards / Mick Barr - [2018] The Bowels of Jupiter

 

I absolutely LOVE it when you guys post bands I've never heard of. Either I get great discoveries out of it, or I get to satisfy myself that I just saved a ton of money.

 

If prog = wanky guitar shredding, this definitely aint prog, but Earth has made some of the best heavy guitar instrumental records out there

Bill Frisell is also on the first, fourth and fifth tracks

 

If prog = wanky guitar shredding, this definitely aint prog, but Earth has made some of the best heavy guitar instrumental records out there

Bill Frisell is also on the first, fourth and fifth tracks

No, prog =/= wanky guitar shredding.

For me, prog is much more about the structure of the music, not a particular sound, style, instrumentation.

The things that define prog for me, are : Complex time signatures, chord progressions, very high level of musicianship, (usually) long form songs, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge structure, incorporating influences from classical, jazz, folk, world music.

I am almost "style agnostic" with regards to the type of prog. I listen to: classic prog, avant-prog, prog-metal, Canterbury, prog-fusion, Zeuhl, because they all have most or all of the previously mentioned attributes, even though they are all quite stylistically different.

Planet X, for me is progressive, due to their constantly changing complex time signatures, advanced soloing techniques, counterpoint, polyrhythms, etc. Not because they fit any sort of 'style'.

 

Planet X

 

Yes, that might qualify as "Prog-Metal" according to Simon Moon's definition. Personally, I don't hear much that is "progressive" in it, but it definitely has that "metal crunch."

 

Just found a copy of this CD in my collection. This is the first track.
Planet X - Alien Hip Hop - YouTube

 

a little curiosity for those who could be interested, the only example of Allan Holdsworth playing on a metal tune

 

Odd time signatures and high level musicianship have been a part of rock music for decades so why would this be considered progressive in the year 2022? If Dream Theater were to move away from their formulaic music and do something totally different I'd consider them progressive. Maybe if they hired a producer to help nudge them in a different direction and Petrucci stopped playing lickety split, Steve Morse inspired solos, they could do something genuinely progressive.

 

Odd time signatures and high level musicianship have been a part of rock music for decades so why would this be considered progressive in the year 2020?

Yes, I find the whole term confusing - even back to the 70s - no one calls Steely Dan prog, but they certainly wrote more sophisticated music than ELP or Genesis. ISTM prog is more of an implementation of a Romantic CM aesthetic - epic programmatic type music

 

From the Story CD by Terry Syrek.

Featuring Marco Minnemann, Bryan Beller, Mohini Dey.

 

 

Not sure if it has been mentioned but do give Arch Echo a try, their first album is one of my favourites.

 

Have you tried Ayreon, Avantasia, or Pain of Salvation, Captain? Not instrumental but worth a try. I'm no big fan of the latter but Avantasia's Scarecrow album was one I enjoyed a lot at the time of its release and the 11 minute title track is excellent (see below). Avantasia is a sort of prog-metal supergroup that employ a heady mix of Prog, power metal, folk-metal and quasi-symphonic metal. Ayreon are a little more prog-based and Lucassen got a lot of musos from the prog bands of the 70s to appear on albums (Wakeman, Emerson, Hackett, etc).
The later Devin Townsend Project albums (eg. Transcendence) are considered to be prog metal too a d are more instrumental.
I could throw in a load more bands with vocals for you to try to like Opeth, Gojira, Fates Warning, Symphony X, Evergrey, Periphery, Riverside or Royal Hunt bit I expect you've heard of most of these.
Animals as Leaders, however, are an instrumental band you may like who straddle that djent/prog-metal area.
Personally I've always been a big fan of lots of post-metal bands such as Isis, Pelican, If These Trees could Talk, Maybeshewill, Neurosis, Jesu, Year of No Light and the wonderful Russian Circles. Try those bands out (Isis' 'Panopticon' , ITTCT's seminal 'Red Forest' and Russian Circles' 'Geneva' are great albums).

 

I love Spaced Out because there's no Petrucci style guitar wankery. And their CDs sound so much better than most metal oriented records with bright, compressed sound.

 

I've recently discovered Jennings Smith (and also his band Myth of I). Super technical stuff, but in this case I like it for the exotic (sort of) atmosphere. Very interesting guitarist, and I'm not super into djent.