Progressive metal
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Progressive metal
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| Development phase: | Mid 1980s |
| Place of origin: | United States |
| Stylistic precursors | |
| Progressive rock , jazz fusion , elements from all styles of metal | |
| Pioneers | |
| Fates Warning - Queensrÿche - Dream Theater - Watchtower - Mekong Delta - King's X | |
| Instruments typical of the genre | |
| Electric guitar - electric bass - drums - keyboard | |
Progressive Metal (sometimes also called Prog Metal or Technical Metal) is a stylistic synthesis of heavy metal , progressive rock and psychedelic rock music , which became very popular in the 1990s. In the early 1980s, however, the first contact between the two genres of progressive rock and metal took place.
Stylistic features
Progressive Metal is usually characterized by a complex structure of the songs. This manifests itself in the artful combination of several topics, break-heavy , frequent tempo changes, complex percussion and rhythm , among other things also by superimposing different rhythms ( polyrhythmics ) and time signatures ( polymetrics ), technical instrument finesse (virtuosity of the musicians) and not infrequently also excess length (for example A Change of Seasons , Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Octavarium by Dream Theater or The Divine Wings of Tragedy and The Odyssey by Symphony X , all over 20 minutes). Attempts are also made to underline the high musical standards with appropriate lyrics in the form of epic song texts and concept albums . Examples are Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater, Operation: Mindcrime by Queensrÿche or Be by Pain of Salvation .
Furthermore, the range of instruments is often expanded compared to classic metal. While synthesizers are almost an integral part of most progressive metal formations, string and wind instruments as well as various ethnic instruments are often used, which are integrated into the compositions and the ensemble and do not just serve as a gimmick.
history
As early as the 1970s, the music of progressive rock bands such as King Crimson and Rush contained elements of hard rock and thus had an influence on the later development of progressive metal and its representatives (for example King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man or Rush's YYZ ).
In the mid-1980s, the metal bands Queensrÿche , Fates Warning and Watchtower integrated essential elements of progressive rock into their own genre. While the Watchtower, active in the field of Thrash Metal, built their songs with an intentionally cold and distant jazz - typical complexity, the power metal band Fates Warning placed much greater emphasis on (albeit unconventional) melodies and harmonies with a similar approach. Queensrÿche combined their classic heavy metal with orchestral passages.
Due to the great success of these bands in the metal subculture, a second wave of progressive metal bands developed in the late 1980s. The most successful of these bands to date, which is still achieving great commercial success today, is Dream Theater , whose debut album was released in 1989. In particular, the success of their album Images and Words in the 1990s laid the foundation for the second wave of progressive metal bands. Groups such as Pain of Salvation , Threshold , Symphony X or the Ayreon project were founded at this time and had a decisive influence on the genre. Pain of Salvation brought influences from progressive rock of the 1970s into their music, while Ayreon combined typical progressive metal structures with rock operas . Symphony X finally built the bridge between Power Metal and Progressive Metal. All four bands are now cited as sources of inspiration by many new progressive metal bands.
To this day there have been many bands founded in the field of progressive metal, which often also take up aspects from other styles of metal or bring progressive elements into other metal genres and thus create sub-genres. Progressive Metal's continued popularity is also ensured by the continued existence of early greats such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater.
Subgenres
Some progressive metal bands also incorporate more extreme styles of metal into their music or vice versa. When it comes to combining progressive metal with black metal , the Norwegian band Emperor , who picked up elements of progressive metal on their second album, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk , is considered a pioneer. However, this musical fusion is very controversial in the black metal scene and is largely rejected. Therefore, it is primarily a marginal phenomenon that, apart from Emperor, has no commercially successful bands. In the underground, however, representatives such as Deathspell Omega from France have achieved a certain level of awareness, as has the band Negură Bunget from Romania, which represents an ideology known as "Transylvanian spirituality".
Connections of progressive metal and death metal , on the other hand, meet with less rejection within the death metal scene. Genre greats like Death , Meshuggah and Atheist and Edge of Sanity combine the musical complexity of Progressive Metal with growling and heavily distorted guitars, as they are common in Death Metal. Apart from a few bands like Opeth and Disillusion , who integrate melodic, sometimes ballad-like elements into their music, these bands can hardly achieve any success outside of the death metal scene.
Some of the few bands that mix Progressive Metal with Viking Metal are Týr from Faroe Islands and Enslaved from Norway .
Style-defining bands
The pioneers of this genre are:
Established sizes of the genre are:
- Ayreon
- Devin Townsend
- Dream theater
- mastodon
- Obscura
- Opeth
- Pagan's Mind
- Pain of Salvation
- Symphony X
- Threshold
- Tool
For a list of all progressive metal bands represented in Wikipedia see Category: Progressive Metal Band
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Genre Description: Progressive Metal ( Memento of October 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Michael Wuensch: Deathspell Omega - Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum: Chaining The Katechon ( Memento of the original from May 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . January 14, 2009, accessed October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Oliver Schreyer: Negura Bunget: Maiestrit . March 7, 2010, accessed October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Idology , accessed October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Captain Chaos: ENSLAVED: Vertebrae . September 24, 2008, accessed October 13, 2012.
