Rush vs KC: Which is responsible for prog metal?

BaldJean wrote: verslibre wrote: micky wrote: IMO that is mid 70's Judas Priest.. not heavy prog... not metal with occasional progish side detours.. but full blown prog metal as it would become recognized decade and more later. Mick, if you really think Priest was making progressive metal in the mid(!!!)-Seventies, at least post the clip or drop the link! Because nobody's going to believe you. (I know I don't!)  I rarely agree with Micky (musically), but he has a point there: the exact distinction between "heavy prog" and "prog metal" has always escaped me, to be honest. my surmise would be the sound of the bass guitar and the electric guitar. prog metal's bass guitar often sounds somewhat metallic (it actually leaves an unpleasant metallic taste in my mouth, by the way; a case of synesthesia. I often experience tastes when listening to music, but since to most people it wouldn't make much sense to say "Rush taste like spinach" I usually refrain from it). the electric guitar is remarkably often played without distortion. but these differences are pretty vague, so I am by no means certain about them

Both definitely contributed, but rush can be pretty heavy so Id say them.

Both of these were an inspiration for some metal acts (KC for Tool, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, and many more; Rush for Pocrupine Tree, DT again, Devin Townsend, and more, I am naming some common ones); However, both of them are not necessarily the first names that come up when thinking about bands responsible for metal. Should have had an option both.

Rick1 wrote: Prog metal is not a genre! Metal is simply part of the palette used by prog bands. Blimey, even Henry Cow has 'metal' moments!

I don't deny King Crimson's influence but over all I'm going to say Rush. Rush were also an influence on NWOBH(new wave of British heavy metal)and have been cited by metal bands as an influence(Kirk Hammet of Metallica and the members of Iron Maiden to name just a few). King Crimson were more or less(imo)accidentally metallish. They probably set out to be heavy but I don't think they were overtly influenced by Zeppelin or Sabbath nor did they set out to be metallish. I think Fripp just wanted to occasionally turn the distortion nob up and crank out some riffage. You could say that about other bands too such as UFO, Budgie, Mountain, Uriah Heep etc. However, with the possible exception of Uriah Heep(and I guess Black Sabbath)most heavy bands weren't trying to be prog (imo)or at least not many well known ones were. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 27 2021 at 15:09

With no "other" option, I would say Rush, given their more consistent overall heavy sound.

Heart of the Matter wrote: I'd say that, comparing (let's say) Xanadu to Schizoid Man, it's both. But what made people talk about "Prog-Metal" (genre or whatever) were Rush 70's albums, mainly 2112 and A Farewell To Kings.

Interesting. A lot of posts in this thread seem to have taken the question as "who invented prog metal" but I took it as "who's most responsible for its spread/development/popularity?" As for who invented prog metal...yeah that would have to be Sabbath. They invented metal, they had prog bits to a number of their songs, I'm just not seeing the argument for anyone inventing it after them. Maybe someone codifying it...

I still say Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 2 is THE quintessential proto-prog metal track. It has it all. It's 30 years ahead of all the bands that revived that sound and people assumed it was unique and brand new, like always, lol.

Dellinger wrote: ^ And many of their songs get much heavier in live versions. Say, Schizoid Man played by the Wetton era Crimson, or later versions, or Larks part 1 on the recen line-up... and those are just a pair of examples.