I wish prog metal`s songs were better composed

Edited by Masque - February 19 2007 at 02:01

Laplace wrote: I agree that musicianship on its own isn't enough (and so I try to avoid most jazz fusion and virtuoso guitar artists) but it's actually quite hard to write music without a melody, at least in some rudimentary form. can you go more in depth into your problems with prog metal?

Sometimes too much flash without enough substance can be a problem

I agree. That's exactly the reason my interest in prog metal has declined recently, while my interest in avant prog has increased. Prog Metal musicians tend to know their instruments very well, but lack the skills of knowing what to do with  a blank sheet of paper.

Ed_The_Dead wrote: no...   avant-prog has more of a composition problem than prog metal IMO...

dead persons' opinion don't count

go away!!

chamberry wrote: Just out of curiosity, what prog metal band do you know of?

I agree with Zero Hour.,.. there are no songs in there, just some guys trying to show off, and ultimately not accomplishing it because if you listen to Spiral Architect.. now THAT"s showing off! But, also, there's hardly any melody, you can't discern structures easily... it's decent and I have it like a "specialty" item or something, but not music I'd hear every day. There's a lot of poor-written prog-metal (mostly in the power-metal+prog genre, which at times is anything but prog), but in this case because of the "copy/paste" theory applied to the limit. There's other kind of metal which I found repetitive and incoherent, but let's not name names.

The T wrote: I agree with Zero Hour.,.. there are no songs in there, just some guys trying to show off, and ultimately not accomplishing it because if you listen to Spiral Architect.. now THAT"s showing off! But, also, there's hardly any melody, you can't discern structures easily... it's decent and I have it like a "specialty" item or something, but not music I'd hear every day. There's a lot of poor-written prog-metal (mostly in the power-metal+prog genre, which at times is anything but prog), but in this case because of the "copy/paste" theory applied to the limit. There's other kind of metal which I found repetitive and incoherent, but let's not name names.

Can;t generalize a whole genre, some bands do and some don't. Most prog-power is like that. I see no problem with DT at all, I love them, but Symphony X, Rhapsody, Nightwish, etc. are way too overblown and laughably cheesy at times for my taste.

THE_POLE wrote: This is why i don't listen to bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X much anymore. Too much technical skill and not enough melody there for me. I think one of the best bands when it comes wonderful composition is Anathema. Some others include: Devin Townsend, Savatage and Opeth. These bands tend to show off their skills in creating a melody rather than notes per second.

Man, it's stupid to say DT and SX have not enough melody (as far as I know, most of their solos are melodic, or at least have melody on them)!!



Of course they can play good and they show us that, but (IMO), they really know how to compose, and I think that's why they're amongst my favorite bands! Listen (for example) to DT's "Voices", and SX's "Divine Wings..." and then tell me that again! These guys can play AND compose incredibly well!!