Opeth, The Mars Volta

These are two newer prog bands who I think should be on here.  Opeth is a great prog metal band, while The Mars Volta are a prog band with elements of psychadelia, punk and even free jazz at times.

diddy wrote: Useful_Idiot wrote: These are two newer prog bands who I think should be on here.  Opeth is a great prog metal band, while The Mars Volta are a prog band with elements of psychadelia, punk and even free jazz at times. I don't think, that Opeth is a 'newer' Prog band...they made 7 albums now and the last one 'damnation' is prog because Mikael Akerfeldt wanted to do a prog album because he loves camel and porcupine tree, steven wilson also is a friend of the band, he produced their record 'Blackwater Park' But in their early days they used to play a kind of death metal but it has A LOT of very cool breaks in it...acoustic breaks sounding like prog...and they are, even in their early days, said to play a kind of 'Progressive-Death-Metal' I read it in several reviews...'damnation' is and will probably be their only album sounding like this... but it's a great band and the only one that made me wanting to listen to death metal because it's no normal stupid and simple death metal...if it can be called death metal at all...

So Diddy, are you saying the one album, "Damnation" should be included and not their whole output? Damnation is one fine album. I haven't heard their other stuff and from the reviews I've read and comments from other forum members, I'm not about to search them out. To classify Opeth's Damnation, I'd put it in Art Rock with Porcupine Tree.

Useful_Idiot wrote: I'd classify The Mars Volta as art-rock. And Opeth was probably prog metal before they did Damnation.  My Arms Your Hearse, for example, was a concept album and featured a lot of complex song structures and such.

Black Rose Immortal (album: Morningrise) is a 20 minutes song and all their songs are really long, just another Prog characteristic...

danbo wrote: diddy wrote: Useful_Idiot wrote: These are two newer prog bands who I think should be on here.  Opeth is a great prog metal band, while The Mars Volta are a prog band with elements of psychadelia, punk and even free jazz at times. I don't think, that Opeth is a 'newer' Prog band...they made 7 albums now and the last one 'damnation' is prog because Mikael Akerfeldt wanted to do a prog album because he loves camel and porcupine tree, steven wilson also is a friend of the band, he produced their record 'Blackwater Park' But in their early days they used to play a kind of death metal but it has A LOT of very cool breaks in it...acoustic breaks sounding like prog...and they are, even in their early days, said to play a kind of 'Progressive-Death-Metal' I read it in several reviews...'damnation' is and will probably be their only album sounding like this... but it's a great band and the only one that made me wanting to listen to death metal because it's no normal stupid and simple death metal...if it can be called death metal at all...   So Diddy, are you saying the one album, "Damnation" should be included and not their whole output? Damnation is one fine album. I haven't heard their other stuff and from the reviews I've read and comments from other forum members, I'm not about to search them out. To classify Opeth's Damnation, I'd put it in Art Rock with Porcupine Tree.

I'm almost certain that you'll like the song "to bid you farewell" from the album mouriningrise

Try 'Harvest' from 'Blackwater Park' ... acoustic and awesome, it's a song in the 'Damnation-Style' 

The funny thing is, that Opeth released Damnation and Deliverance at the same time and Damnation was the mellow album and deliverance was the heavy and dark album...a bit surprising, when thinking about the names...

and yes, I think that we should include Damnation and maybe Blackwater Park...a german Prog-Review Site included some Opeth albums even some of the older ones...AND they got good ratigs, Blackwater Park got 13 out of 15...

But for me the only REAL Prog album is Damnation...all albums are 'progressive' but Damnation is the only to be considered as real Prog, IMO

Edit: So if you decide to add Opeth I would recomment following Mp3s:

• Damnation - Ending Credits
• Damnation - Closure
• Blackwater Park - The Drapery Falls (maybe a short excursion into the 'real' opeth world)
• Blackwater Park - Harvest

...and these two albums should be mentioned when adding Opeth

(please add Opeth )

Useful_Idiot wrote: danbo wrote: I'll have to find it. I do like dark, brooding, acoustic based music. "Damnation" took me by surprise. I abhor screamers. Give me melodic vocals and intricate musical patterns. . I usually can't stand screams either, but I love Opeth.  I've spoken to others who are the same way.  I really strongly recommend that you check out Blackwater Park and see if you like it, because it's very possible that you'll be surprsied.

that's right...I don't like all kinds of metal and I don't really like metal that is called Death or Black Metal but I adore Opeth and I was surprised, like Useful_Idiot mentioned...So just look at my last post above...listen to 'The drapery Falls' and see if you like it or not, but you will, I'm sure

Useful_Idiot wrote: Yeah, Black Rose Immortal actually shows some Emerson Lake & Palmer influences, I think. Do you have to be a designated bio writer to write bios for the site?  Because I could easily write you a Mars Volta bio if you'd like.

Contact Max@!

Fully support inclusion of The Mars Volta ( and of similar genre A Perfect Circle, esp "13 Step", might be considered too - as both bands who are simply progressing rock - the original 60's definition of prog ). I wrote up a review on Amazon.Uk to say this a couple of months ago. I have to thank Sid Smith (author of In the Court of King Crimson) for pushing me in TMV direction. BTW Sid Smith also pushed me in the direction of the Burning Shed Records label for new things from the UK prog scene, and in turn I recommend it to everybody here.

If you check out my Amazon review you'll find I'm using the term "nu-progressives" for The Mars Volta and A Perfect Circle. The term simply implies a band that truly progresses rock by taking on board innovative music forms, this term maybe elastic enough to take in Radiohead and Mansun....???? It most certainly excludes the retro rock of The Darkness (and let's not mention them here again!). (BTW I'm told nu.progressives may have been used already by the Spanish prog rock fraternity).