What does age have to do with Prog Metal?

Not young, and not much of a fan of prog metal. I am a fan of a lot of hard rock and plenty of noisy indie/alternative music, but most of the music listed as prog metal just leaves me cold (and I have tried DT, Opeth, Symphony X and most of the others with sample songs on this site). A lot of the time it seems like the worst of both worlds to me - not heavy enough for metal but too close to metal to be prog.

The samples are from the websites of the bands ... sadly they don't offer full songs. But you should check out the Pain of Salvation website, they're offering many tracks from their other albums - full songs, in good quality. The songs from Perfect Element are even neighbouring songs, so you can listen to the first 20 minutes of Perfect Element Pt. 1.

Fantomas: "Rosemarie's Baby". interesting track, though I fear hardly representative. the part when it gets heavy is a little over the top, in my opinion, but certainly not uninteresting.

Sadly this track is not at all representative of their music. I'll try to post two more interesting samples.

Devin Townsend: "Hide Nowhere" and "War". excuse me, but I fail to see how these tracks are prog at all, not even prog metal. it is metal, yes, but absolutely no prog element. absolutely boring too. if this is in any way representative for his work, he should be removed from the archive.

Again, the tracks are not representative.  

Heaven's Cry: unfortunately there is no MP3 of them in the archive, nothing I can judge.

I'll see what I can do ... they're my favorite "unkown" band, they deserve some promotion.

Pain of Salvation: "!Forward", "New Year's Eve", "Ashes", "Beyond the Pale". the most interesting so far. big plus: when they rock, they don't go over the top. on the minus side: I don't care much for the vocals (maybe I could get used to them though), and the keyboards are occasionally too billowing.

Well ... they're the best band in Prog Metal ... for me and many others. The vocals are an "acquired taste", but Daniel is really an outstanding singer. Two days ago I had the opportunity to be at one of their shows, and I witnessed first hand what an incredible range, phrasing and versatility the man has.

Symphony X: "The Eyes of Medusa", "Church of the Machine", "Egypt". quite interesting. the keyboards generally seem to be a weak point of prog metal; here they are often too reedy or (again, as with Pain of Salvation) too billowing. nice duet between guitar and keyboards at the end of "Church of the Machine" though. the vocals leave me cold again. on the plus side, just as with Pain of Salvation: they don't go over the top when they rock. but those keyboards are sometimes way too "sülzig", as Friede said; a word that is difficult to translate; "schmaltzy" does not quite hit the mark; perhaps "billowing" is best to describe them.

I'd call these keyboards "cheesy" ... but again these aren't the best tracks. The singer (Russell Allen) is perhaps the best current metal singer. But then again you don't have to like metal singers ...

Psychotic Waltz: "Freakshow". nothing special here; a band like dozens of others. not even very proggy. in through one ear, out through the other. horrible vocals though (although they are absolutely typical for the metal genré).

It's a bad sample of their progressive side, A Social Grace is much better. The singer isn't that bad ... but with Psychotic Waltz he does a lot of unnecessary "wailing" and overexerts himself frequently in the high registers. With his own band (Dead Soul Tribe) he's much better and more mature, but their music is less progressive. 

Adagio: "The Inner Road"  and "Next Profundis": that's something I will have to listen to again. just one remark right now: why do so many singers have to sound like castrated cockerels?

Underworld is a remarkable album - it takes much longer to grow on you, it has a very serious classical approach.

Ayreon: no MP3s here, so no comment.
Ice Age: "Ice Age". by far the best track so far; even the vocals are bearable. more of this.

Yes, their albums are quite nice.

Opeth: "The Drapery Falls", "Closure". quite interesting and many non-metal parts. but I can live without the growling; I think it is childish. if this is something they use often: no thanks.

The growling is inherent to their music ... but compared to other bands with such vocals it's still quite musical. They made a complete album without growling ("Damnation") which is very good ... but it's not really Opeth (It's a collaboration with Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree).

Shadow Gallery: "The Dance of Fools" and "Act 1- Victims". the first track is not metal at all, the 2nd a little. quite untypical for prog metal.

In my book they're not Prog Metal, more like a mix of many genres like Folk, Neo-Prog and Art Rock, combined with Metal guitars and songwriting. The sample tracks are somewhat representative of their sound, but not of their songwriting. IMO their most important asset are strong melodies, very refined vocals and tasteful solos.

Winds: "The Fireworks of Genesis". I like the beginning of that track with the string section; do they use it more often? the rest was nothing special

The string quintet is an integral part of the band, it is used throughout the album.

Psychotic WAlz have terrible vocals? I dident hear anything from them but can anyone tell did Devon's singing change so strongly in DeadSoul Tribe?