Progressive Metal vs Progressive Rock

Only recently have I begun to appreciate metal and prog metal. My preference still is for regular prog rock though.

I always considered Tool to be progressive art rock more than prog metal

I've spent more time with listening to prog metal, yet I love them both. (And recently I can say that I tend to listen prog rock more often.)

I`ll be a little so so as I`ve been into DT, Tool but not many others as I`m not a fan of the metal prog like most of you all... but its not that I`m in to the metal side of prog. so I`m saying I`m a fan of both styles... so no vote...            

I love progressive metal, but I don't particularly care for Dream Theater. I've always fancied the likes of Symphony X.

I often think that progressive metal is an oxymoron.  It is metal with lots of twiddly, noodly bits.  So, prog rock for me is vastly superior.  

Dean wrote:  Prog was described exactly like that in the 70s.

As someone who's into both metal and prog-rock, I find a lot of better known prog metal's fusion of the two to come across as rather kitschy perhaps by being very literal in the way it combines the two.

I suspect the reason is that most prominent progressive metal groups combine styles from after progressive rock and heavy metal had diverged even further than they did in the 1970s. Even back then, I gather there was something of a culture clash between the two: The progressive rock movement tended to emphasize the interplaying instrumental dynamics and usually had detailed philosophical or ideological worldviews underlying either the individual record or entire career project's conceptual ethos; the early hard rock/heavy metal groups on the other hand tended towards emphasis on the instrumental prowess of individual musicians in the band, and they also make a point out of moral or ideological ambiguity in their artistic ethos. This means that the tropes from the disparate styles stick out more, when there isn't developed a newer fluid musical grammar in order to provide a coherent synthesis between the two. That's my best guess as to why groups like Dream Theater and Opeth don't do that much for me, their songs' narrative structures don't strike me as quite as logically consistent as if they had stuck to either genre's rules as either an ideal to live up to or main target to subvert.

My favourite prog metal groups are usually just more ambitious and complex than usual for their respective subgenre (e. g. early Fates Warning), or they come at both metal and prog from a sort of "sideways perspective". (e. g. Virus, Voivod)

Edited by Toaster Mantis - September 20 2014 at 13:42

Yeah, I started with progressive metal, but the more I listen the more I like the rock stuff. Even the best prog metal bands don't have fluid range of emotions and textures that make prog rock amazing. I actually prefer straight-up heavy metal like Judas Priest to most prog metal. Of course I love the heavy sound, so "heavy" prog like King Crimson and Rush usually do the trick for me.

Had completely forgotten about the role of contrasting or building up layers of texture in progressive rock songwriting, and how that's something many progressive metal groups neglect. I wonder if that has to do with that stylistic divergence between prog/psych-rock and HR/HM in the mid-1970s that I mentioned earlier, probably one that had been building on account of the difference in artistic ethos between the two scenes.

An amusing coincidence is that recently, it's become more commonplace for the more introverted metal subgenres like the psychedelic end of doom metal (e. g. Electric Wizard) or the types of black metal (e. g. Drudkh) that emphasize atmosphere over riffing to go over in the opposite pitfall: Id est songwriting that focuses entirely on development of texture at the expense of a clear sense of narrative structure in the composition. In the case of Electric Wizard it's clear they're a stylistically metal band who are closer to 1960s/1970s psychedelia in both ideological outlook as well as visual aesthetic, but what's the excuse of the Eastern European ultranationalists in Drudkh? A misappropriation of Varg Vikernes' interest in Krautrock?