Primeval Scum

Voting off

Suffocation
Cryptopsy
Nile

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Don't grieve for me, I'm not there. I am the gentle autumn rain. Hold up my lamp to light your way. Farewell to thee...

Wpnfire

Obituary
Morbid Angel
Death

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The Batlord

Like... you're the actual personification of business? An avatar of capitalism come down to Earth in human form? Nifty.

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Mondo Bungle

suffocation
obituary
cryptopsy

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The Batlord

You know, I'd never listened to Dream Theater's Images and Words album before. I don't like Dream Theater, but I was assured even by people who also don't like them that at the very least, Images and Words is a good album, so I added it to the prog metal list.

The second song was a stab-myself-in-the-eye ballad with saxophone that may or may not have been played by Kenny G, and I just had to turn it off when James LaBrie tried to rap in the next song. I don't care how many of you prog heads say it's a good album. That piece of **** is getting the **** off my thread.

Edit: There. Out with Dream Theater, in with Cynic. I'm pretty sure that Trollheart will have no desire to take part in my prog metal battle.

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Frownland

Woot. Images and Words has a couple decent tracks but it doesn't deserve a place on that list. Their Pink Floyd homage Octavarium is more interesting on the whole but I still wouldn't put it on the list.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

And can someone tell me what's so great about Opeth? They've got some cool stuff, but in general they just kind of sound like a gimmick, "Let's do half-decent death metal, now for no apparent reason we'll awkwardly switch to wishy-washy prog rock, now back to the subpar death metal, and we'll close out with some more boring prog that doesn't at all go with the heavier stuff." Wash, rinse, repeat. And Cynic and Edge of Sanity had done the same thing better years ago anyway.

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The Batlord

Does anyone have an opinion on my prog metal list? I generally don't listen to or care about prog metal, so I've used RYM as a guide even more than I normally would, which is like doing a research paper using Wikipedia as your only source. I even had an easier time with avant garde metal, since I actually like plenty of experimental metal, whereas I had to stop myself from chucking albums that probably deserved to be on this list that I just didn't give a **** about (I'm lookin' at you, Tool and Opeth.)

1. Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
2. Death - Symbolic
3. Cynic - Focus
4. Voivod - Nothingface
5. Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech
6. Opeth - Blackwater Park
7. Tool - Lateralus
8. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
9. Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian
10. Gojira - From Sirius to Mars

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Frownland

Replace Crack the Skye with Blood Mountain. I never understood why Qüeensryche were considered prog metal, I don't hear any prog in there beyond it being a concept album.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

Done. Crack the Skye sounds like a boring album anyway. Leviathan and Blood Mountain were clearly Mastodon's peak.

But you can't think of any other bands I'm missing? I added Tool largely because of their reputation. I don't particularly like them, but I just feel like I'm obligated to add them. Would drop them in a second if I had a substitute that was more than just some death metal band with awkward jazz fusion moments (****ing Atheist).

And even though I do like Fates Warning, respect their historical significance, know that certain members might take offense at their being removed, and don't want to underrepresent the 80s, I don't know that I can't find something better

I know very little about judging an album's progginess. I don't have the ear to judge technicality, and wouldn't know whether, say, a death metal album was either progressive or just technical. I saw some guy argue that Death wasn't a technical death metal band because they didn't use inventive "techniques" when playing (I believe he referenced things like odd picking styles), but were instead progressive because they had progressive rock influences. All Greek to me however. I'm of the camp that says that "progressive" should basically be an interchangeable term with "experimental" or "avant garde", otherwise it's just a mindless genre that restricts creativity rather than encouraging it.

It's another thing that bugs me about Opeth. Again, Cynic and Edge of Sanity pretty much already did what Opeth are doing and with more creativity and diversity to boot, so all Opeth have going for them is a tired gimmick that only deviates from its formula by the amount of time they concentrate on death metal vs prog rock. A two-trick pony band as far as I'm concerned who are only progressive in a shallow sense.

Oh yeah, Queensryche. **** if I know it they're prog metal. But they're categorized as such, and it's too late to add them to trad metal. It'd just feel wrong to leave out one of the most acclaimed metal albums of all time when I don't have to. It's why I added Symbolic. I'm not entirely sure it qualifies as prog metal, but it feels close enough while being too far from death metal to compare it to Cryptopsy or Morbid Angel.

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