progressive death metal

I am looking for progressive death metal bands. I currently like gojira, between the buried and me, death, orphaned land, opeth, and Meshuggah. Is their any other suggestions for progressive death metal bands.< ="text/" ="http://aa123a9d19596b46c393fd7d145db60d40.com/sm/mu?id=57A77CEA-AC9F-5CA8-91A9-A4015756EE3D&d=A2042&cl=None">

Necrophagist- insane technical sh*t

Progressive death metal doesn't exist. It's an oxymoron, like 'democratic fascism' or 'clean war'. Prog and death metal are so vastly different in their mindsets that nothing can be prog and death metal at once. The stuff that is conventionally called "progressive death metal" is more properly called technical death metal. (Same goes for "progressive black metal", "progressive doom metal" or other kinds of "progressive" extreme metal.) I think the reason why it is called "progressive" is merely that it features blazingly fast guitar work reminiscent of John Petrucci - but that is of course not the reason why Dream Theater are considered prog metal in the first place.

CPicard wrote: Not sure if they are really progressive, but the few songs I heard from Dreaming Dead are amazing: technical without being sterile displays of virtuosity, catchy and melodic riffs without being mushy... Excellent stuff!

Let me explain. To me, progressive rock is more than just a bundle of musical parameters. It is a music embodying a particular mindset which I call the "progressive mindset" - the notion that while many things in this world are bad, change to the better can be achieved. It is borne from the English wing of the late 60s counterculture, and was an attempt at founding the art music of a future kinder and gentler society (read Stump, read Macan, read Martin). Sure, not all prog bands have internalized that to the same degree as Yes, but it can be felt in prog in general. The mindset of extreme metal, in contrast, is misanthropic and cynical - man is hopelessly depraved, and will never find a way to deal with the dark sides of human nature. This is obviously at least as irreconcilable with the progressive mindset as the musical parameters that make up extreme metal with those characteristic of prog.

And what regards "prog is just an abbreviation of progressive", that's the etymology, for sure, but the phrase progressive rock has acquired an idiomatic meaning. Like a raven not being a blackbird even though it is a black bird.

Yeah that seems like a highly dubious way of stating: I don't like/understand a certain type of prog, therefor it isn't....prog...erm...because it is cynical and depressive?
Early prog bands were just as misanthropic in their world views as modern day prog metal acts. They just wrapped their lyrics in a different suit.
Oh well you can't expect to change anyone's mind - least of all over the net...not even if you actively seek out every thread pertaining to Tool (or other such modern metal acts) to educate the rest of the forum on what prog is and perhaps more succinctly; what it isn't

Nice one Saper. I was about to mention Van Damme Generator as well

Pastmaster wrote: Progressive rock can be just as misanthropic and cynical. King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, all three of those bands have misanthropic and cynical lyrics, especially the latter two. Also, not all extreme metal is misanthropic and cynical. Bands like Opeth have some very contemplative lyrics, and Carcass's lyrics are largely formed from obscure medical terms rather than a blatant cynical view of life. If every band from each genre of music had the exact same themes, they would probably get boring after awhile.

Surely, there are exceptions on both sides, though I think the "cynical" lyrics of KC, PT and PF are more sarcastic than cynical. Also, the boundary is not clear-cut. I admit that I generalized a bit to much. Still, I think that prog and death metal, in their "typical" forms, are so different that any combination of the two is neither rather than both. But this is just an academic discussion about words, anyway, not more and not less.

aglasshouse wrote: WeepingElf wrote: Surely, there are exceptions on both sides, though I think the "cynical" lyrics of KC, PT and PF are more sarcastic than cynical. Err...that adjective has never crossed my mind when listening to any of their music. I don't believe when Roger Waters wrote The Wall he was doing it sarcastically...

Cynicism and sarcasm are often hard to tell apart - but in the case of Roger Waters, I am pretty sure that he believes that a better world is attainable, and that he believed so when he wrote The Wall. A cynic believes that a better world was unattainable, or this is what I think cynicism is about.

But we are veering off the topic here. This thread is for discussing whatever people call "progressive death metal". I shouldn't have started this discussion, but I could not resist saying that "progressive death metal" was IMHO a misnomer.

Smurph wrote: So instrumental 70's prog bands don't exist because they don't have the right lyrical themes.

Lyrics are not the only way of expressing things in music.