altered_beast wrote: Tarja, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Helloween, Stratovarius, and Saxon. Prefer the Symphonic ones to the Power ones but the Power ones often surprise me. Tarja’s My Winter Storm is as great as anything Nightwish and her live albums are phenomenal both Metal or the real Opera performance ones that also have multiple releases. Within Temptations albums “Mother Earth” and “The Silent Force” are Prog Metal essentials. I don’t know what happened to them after that otherwise they would or should be on Prog Archives. Evanescence has a good amount of classical influence and some nice piano and classical soloing I really enjoy. They have a live album with an orchestra that is really good and it’s really cool to see Amy Lee singing and playing on the piano at the same time. Helloween was years ahead of their time and you would think they were one of the most important bands in influencing and even pioneering Prog Metal even surpassing Iron Maiden in a few ways. Their contributions and importance are impossible to ignore. Saxon might be the RC Cola of the NWOBM and they are definitely not Iron Maiden or Judas Priest but I can’t think of much more that’s far better than them that would dethrone them from 3rd place. Maiden and Priest definitely had a Prog album or a few. Saxon has random Proggy moments that catch you off guard. And when they do you wonder why they don’t stay like that. I guess I kind of feel that way about Power Metal band Stratovarius which puts them into mention.

Edited by Cristi - May 27 2023 at 13:37

altered_beast wrote: You completely took everything I said out of context. I’m not going to respond. A waste of my time.

altered_beast wrote: Tarja, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Helloween, Stratovarius, and Saxon. Prefer the Symphonic ones to the Power ones but the Power ones often surprise me. Tarja’s My Winter Storm is as great as anything Nightwish and her live albums are phenomenal both Metal or the real Opera performance ones that also have multiple releases. Within Temptations albums “Mother Earth” and “The Silent Force” are Prog Metal essentials. I don’t know what happened to them after that otherwise they would or should be on Prog Archives. Evanescence has a good amount of classical influence and some nice piano and classical soloing I really enjoy. They have a live album with an orchestra that is really good and it’s really cool to see Amy Lee singing and playing on the piano at the same time. Helloween was years ahead of their time and you would think they were one of the most important bands in influencing and even pioneering Prog Metal even surpassing Iron Maiden in a few ways. Their contributions and importance are impossible to ignore. Saxon might be the RC Cola of the NWOBM and they are definitely not Iron Maiden or Judas Priest but I can’t think of much more that’s far better than them that would dethrone them from 3rd place. Maiden and Priest definitely had a Prog album or a few. Saxon has random Proggy moments that catch you off guard. And when they do you wonder why they don’t stay like that. I guess I kind of feel that way about Power Metal band Stratovarius which puts them into mention.

Best metal bands that are not prog metal

What about AFT (Automatic Fine Tuning)? Self titled album from 1976 sounds very close to prog metal.

Classic, Message's From Books and Dreams stands out for me, especially for the tracks Dreams and Nightmares (Dreams) and Dreams and Nightmares (Nightmares). A lot of heavy psych would, I think, fit the bill. These are some of my classic favourite albums on the heavy metal or harder rock side:
Armaggedon - Armaggedon (1970)
Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You (1970)
Birth Control - Hoodoo Man (1972)
Black Widow - Sacrifice (1970)
Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum (1968)
Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond (1972)
Coven - Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls (1969)
Damnation of Adam Blessing - The Damnation of Adam Blessing (1969)
Gun - Gun (1968)
High Tide - Sea Shanties (1969)
Lucifer's Friend - Lucifer's Friend (1970)
Message - From Books and Dreams (1973)
Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come (1970)
Writing on the Wall - The Power of the Picts (1969)
Yesterday's Children - Yesterday's Children (1970)

As more modern ones, consider looking into Kayo Dot's Choirs of the Eye, Secret Chiefs 3 Book of Horizons (2004), and Taal.

I also think that Chelsea Wolfe's Hiss Spin could be a good one to look into.

^ I too would label many of those classics heavy metal, and in fact I did, as well as describing them on the harder rock side and mentioned heavy psych. The OP specifically mentioned Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Pink Floyd, as well as Rush and Porcupine Tree. That classic list of mine could well appeal to fans of Black Sabbath, and the psych qualities could well appeal to one into certain Porcupine Tree (not as band I got into) and Pink Floyd, this is the heaviest Pink Floyd track I can think of:



More important than the metal label is I think the examples when coming up with ones (trying to understand where the OP is trying to come from). And I do prefer the individually tailored ones to mega lists (that said, I did list a bunch of my faves). As for the kinds of classic music I listed, I thought of that kind of stuff as heavy metal (I was not born until the 70s). The movie Heavy Metal may have influenced me too.

Edited by Logan - July 07 2023 at 13:49

^ I like labels for more than my prescriptions. In the metal and heavy metal related area, I mostly am interested in what I tend to think of as classic 60/70s heavy psych, and I do like plenty of post-metal, sludge metal doom, stoner, atmospheric metal and experimental metal. Of course such lists (to your site, to RYM etc.) can be of value, although I tend to post what I think is most relevant from a list and then link to it (I understand you wanting people to check out your site which you have put so much effort into and I appreciate and for which I wish recognition, longevity and success). What I meant was sometimes people are looking for recommendations, or just what you think best or favourites, and they might give examples in the original post, and some will just say, maybe try this, and link to a huge number of albums or post what are sometimes called laundry lists of albums -- throw everything in rather than being more selective. I appreciate the more selective approach when people respond to my topics. Even for discussion-sake (actually talking about individual albums and sharing impressions), I would rather focus on fewer per person, but that's my preference. It doesn't mean it should be others. A balanced approach that can do both can work very well. Quality over quantity, but quantity has its place too and one can have both quality and quantity -- it does help when people try to list what they think are the best examples, or what they find best according to their or the OPs biases, or both.

And some don;t read beyond the headlines, so to speak, and so, despite my having specified "heavy metal", "heavy psych" etc., which is not quite the same as "metal" to me (it's related) I thought you were questioning my inclusion of those in a topic entitled "Best metal bands that are not prog metal". Were I not to consider the original post, then my answer would have been very different.

cold 103 wrote: I'm a huge fan of prog metal, but my question is, which bands that are not prog metal would appeal the most to prog metal fans? I'm trying to discover some good stuff! Obviously Rush, Porcupine Tree, and Pink Floyd. But I'm hoping to mostly get recommendations here of bands that are not considered prog enough to be prominent on Prog Archives. I would say Black Sabbath! This band has so much awesome music! The albums "Black Sabbath", "Paranoid", "Master of Reality", and "Heaven and Hell" are all very good! Arjen Lucassen (from Ayreon) has said that "Heaven and Hell" is one of his favorite albums of all time! The live album "Live Evil" is also good! Deep Purple's live album "Made in Japan" is great!

I do hope that the OP chimes in again. While Cold has been a registered user here since 2005, is not the most prolific poster by a long shot. A certain user here, not posting now since there was too much risk of a supermassive back hole forming due to the weight of all the posts, has been known to generate more posts in a day than Cold did in 18 years. We're trying to phil in that lesser hole, but it might take some years.