PA's Battle to Stardom A6: Echolyn v. Opeth

Another interesting matchup, especially following the last one! With Dream Theater out, will another prog metal band suffer the same fate or rise above its challenger to continue onward? It should be tough competition, as Echolyn is no slack at making music! In contrast to Can however, Echolyn are a unique blend of modern rock and prog, most notably taking influences from Gentle Giant and Yes to create something completely unique (in fact, IMO, the most unique of any 70s-vein bands). Opeth is also quite unique, except quite different than Echolyn; they combine prog with death metal to truly make a style their own.

How will this one turn out?


Please: If you are not familiar with one or both of the band's material, I urge that you use the links provided and at least listen to the samples on their respective pages.

Echolyn's PA page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=90
Opeth's PA page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1122

As always, discussions are encouraged.


Recap:
Round 1
A1:  Mahavishnu Orchestra v. Marillion      (24-28)
A2:  Gong v. Area    (18-19)
A3:  Emerson, Lake and Palmer v. The Flower Kings      (22-14)
A4:  The Residents v. Tangerine Dream    (12-15)
A5:  Can v. Dream Theater    (42-37)

A1: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51423&PN=2
A2: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51492&PN=1
A3: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51567&PN=1
A4: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51630&PN=1
A5: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51711&PN=1


Edited by MovingPictures07 - September 14 2008 at 09:23

Opeth, though Echolyn run them close.

Wow.. this is a very tough poll. I have all albums by both bands... and love every single one! I think in the end Opeth is going to win this due to more people being familiar with them, despite the fact that they shouldn't be voting if they haven't heard both bands. For this reason, I will give my vote to Echolyn to help balance things out.

Echolyn is getting beaten to death.

Yorkie X wrote: The problem with this poll is the mentality .. let me explain how it goes // those who know Echolyn and don"t know Opeth that well wont vote  , those who know Opeth but don't know Echolyn that well probably will vote. BTW I didn't vote, I really like Echolyn but what I have heard of Opeth so far hasn't done much for me

I really like them both, but I'm an avid Echolyn fanboy.

It would be interesting to see if your theory was correct. If it is, I don't know if it would make too big of a difference.. usually people will vote if they know one, the other, or both; it doesn't matter too much who they are.

rushfan4 wrote: Geez.  What happened?  When I cast my vote Echolyn had twice as many votes as Opeth.  Alright, so my vote made it 2 to 1 in Echolyn's favor but... Actually, I think that this one was a foregone conclusion.  The best chance for Echolyn to get votes was the same that Can had and that would be for the Opeth detractors to vote against them like the DT detractors voted against them.

Not nearly as many Opeth detractors as there are for DT.

rushfan4 wrote: I'm really surprised that their weren't more DT tractors to vote in the other poll.  I guess Micky has done a really good job of eradicating most of them.  I think that there are quite a few PA members who don't care for the death metal vocals of Opeth, but the supporters are definitely more fervent, and I tend to find them in the strangest places.

The last poll I was looking forward to ever since it was first randomly selected (I'm so happy at how they turned out overall), mainly because it could have had absolutely any outcome: either Can trounces DT, close race with either barely coming on top, DT trounces Can, and anything in between. It does depend on what demographic of the site you get... but I was quite surprised as well to see Can actually win that one, especially with the decent amount of votes.

Holy sh.... This poll/thread has just made my day, and that says something since I haven't been with electrical power for 30 hours. You should be able to figure out where my vote went.

I actually like Echolyn quite a bit. But Opeth has not only created a completely new genre but dominates it, probably the #1 prog group of the last ten years. It's the most important band of all 12 you've done already with the exception of ELP (and I like Opeth better).