Progressive Rock Suggestions?

DSC · August 21, 2020

I really like progressive rock, and I know about all the greats. So, does any of you know any good obscure stuff to give everybody something new to listen?

Also, this is my 420th post, so I hope nobody minds me putting this classic progressive song in here:

Spoiler

nostalgia · August 21, 2020

You should post what you have already know so we don't repeat ourselves.

T2, It'll All Work Out In Boomland (1970) - Black Sabbath meets Prog rock. A total banger of an album that will keep your head banging and your finger air picking the whole 40 minutes of duration. My top recommend, every fan of rock should listen to this at least one.

Can, Tago Mago (1971) - Great german progressive rock (a.k.a. krautrock) with lot of sonic & production experimentation. Fine vocal diversity by Damo Suzuki too.

Soft Machine, Volume Two (1969) - Good progressive rock with jazz elements presenting the classic sound of the "Canterbury Scene".

Phallus Dei, Amon Duul II (1969) - This just feels like a lsd trip went rock.

Those are some prog rock albums that I think are a little more in the "unknown" side of the genre.

DSC · August 21, 2020

5 minutes ago, nostalgia said:

You should post what you have already know so we don't repeat ourselves.

I said it in the original post, I know all the greats. Pink Floyd, obviously, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant etc.

nostalgia · August 21, 2020

2 minutes ago, DSC said:

I said it in the original, I know all the greats. Pink Floyd, obviously, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant etc.

You're right, my mistake ;;

DSC · August 21, 2020

1 minute ago, nostalgia said:

You're right, my mistake ;;

Its alright pal.

Revved · August 21, 2020

Have you tried venturing out into the more modern bands of the genre?

Dream Theater was certainly one of the first prog bands that I got into, and the metal crossover influence they exhibited certainly helped.

Symphony X, Fates Warning and Haken are also a couple of great bands within the prog metal subgenre.

Of course, my interest in Dream Theater led me out to search up some of the other projects the other members had taken part in.

In particular, their former drummer, Mike Portnoy, had taken up a prog supergroup of sorts called Transatlantic.

Transatlantic does more of a retro-prog style, harkening back to 70s style Yes, Genesis influence of sorts, with each member being a lead singer of some kind.

Mike Portnoy needs no explanation.

The keyboardist, Neal Morse, was once a part of Spock's Beard, another proggy outfit with a lot more mainstream appeal that still holds my attention.

Nowadays, he has his own solo career where he plays music in that same vein, but if you're not a fan of Christian rock, avoid at all costs.

Roine Stolt, the guitarist of Transatlantic's main band is the Flower Kings, once again, more of a retro-prog outfit, and his playing evokes more of a playing by feel rather than outright shredder. More of a flowery uplifting mood to their music.

He was also in another band called The Tangent, which I really like, where the lyrics tend to be more socially conscious, usually referencing topical events and political issues. They toy around with the prog trappings a bit, with a good example being their concept album about WORK.

Marillion is more of a neo-prog band which I haven't listened to much, but I do like some songs from them.

Pendragon I was able to get into more, which has a lot of emotive guitar playing which really captured me.

Moon Safari is more flowery prog goodness with a lot of vocal harmonies.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can go to www.progarchives.com and make tons of new discoveries over there.

DSC · August 21, 2020

Just now, Revved said:

Have you tried venturing out into the more modern bands of the genre?

Dream Theater was certainly one of the first prog bands that I got into, and the metal crossover influence they exhibited certainly helped.

Symphony X, Fates Warning and Haken are also a couple of great bands within the prog metal subgenre.

Of course, my interest in Dream Theater led me out to search up some of the other projects the other members had taken part in.

In particular, their former drummer, Mike Portnoy, had taken up a prog supergroup of sorts called Transatlantic.

Transatlantic does more of a retro-prog style, harkening back to 70s style Yes, Genesis influence of sorts, with each member being a lead singer of some kind.

Mike Portnoy needs no explanation.

The keyboardist, Neal Morse, was once a part of Spock's Beard, another proggy outfit with a lot more mainstream appeal that still holds my attention.

Nowadays, he has his own solo career where he plays music in that same vein, but if you're not a fan of Christian rock, avoid at all costs.

Roine Stolt, the guitarist of Transatlantic's main band is the Flower Kings, once again, more of a retro-prog outfit, and his playing evokes more of a playing by feel rather than outright shredder. More of a flowery uplifting mood to their music.

He was also in another band called The Tangent, which I really like, where the lyrics tend to be more socially conscious, usually referencing topical events and political issues. They toy around with the prog trappings a bit, with a good example being their concept album about WORK.

Marillion is more of a neo-prog band which I haven't listened to much, but I do like some songs from them.

Pendragon I was able to get into more, which has a lot of emotive guitar playing which really captured me.

Moon Safari is more flowery prog goodness with a lot of vocal harmonies.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can go to www.progarchives.com and make tons of new discoveries over there.

I'll be honest, prog metal never really interested me. I really like progressive rock and I love many metal sub-genres, but the two of them combined I never cared for. I just don't feel attracted by the concept, I guess... Still, thanks for the suggestions!

Doom_Dude · August 21, 2020

RUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so you want other stuff as you know the Floyd's and Rush's n stuff.

Try some Saga, they're a Canadian band and the 70's band from Britain, Atomic Rooster.

and The Alan Parsons Project but you probably know them for sure.

...and you probably know Kansas but have you listened to the live album Two for the Show? That album is awesome.

DSC · August 21, 2020

Just now, Doom_Dude said:

RUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so you want other stuff as you know the Floyd's and Rush's n stuff.

Try some Saga, they're a Canadian band and the 70's band from Britain, Atomic Rooster.

and The Alan Parsons Project but you probably know them for sure.

...and you probably know Kansas but have you listened to the live album Two for the Show?

Thanks very much aswell! Yeah, I know Rush, I have listened to all their albums and one of my uncles is a giant fan of theirs. Alan Parsons too, after all he was Floyd's sound engineer! Although I don't really know much about Kansas other than Carry Onwards Son... Still, I'll check out the suggestions!

Master O · August 21, 2020

2 hours ago, DSC said:

I really like progressive rock, and I know about all the greats. So, does any of you know any good obscure stuff to give everybody something new to listen?

Artist: Kitarou

Album: Ten Kai / Astral Voyage

Master O · August 21, 2020

@DSC

Japanese prog rock is truly something else.

SyntherAugustus · August 22, 2020

Some suggestions

Ayreon

Camel

Hawkwind

Marillion (Both Fish and Hogarth eras)

Fish himself

Caravan

Damanek

Jethro Tull

Some Kansas songs that aren't Carry On such as "Song for America"

IQ

Opeth (Starting from 2011's Pale Communion if you're avoiding metal)

Renaissance ("Song for All Seasons" album is best so far for me)

Uriah Heep

I would post youtubes but it would be a very long post so I'll avoid that for now.

edit: Also self plug if that's ok.

Edited August 22, 2020 by BlackFish

stphrz · August 22, 2020

King's X - Out Of The Silent Planet

King's X - Gretchen Goes To Nebraska

Pokemanic33 · August 22, 2020

Massive music normie here. I sincerely doubt it's anywhere near the obscurity you're looking for but I have to plug my favorite album, Queen II. It's not the prog-iest album out there, but early Queen was a lot harder than the 80s pop stuff they're remembered for today and Queen II has a lot of prog DNA in it.

Swalzi · August 22, 2020

Guru Guru

Listen to their album Globetrotter to get a taste.

Spoiler

Master O · August 22, 2020

Artist: Hawkwind

Album: Warrior on the Edge of Time

BigBoy91 · August 22, 2020

Maximum Matt · August 22, 2020

Hell yes Ron Jarzombek is THE SHIT

Bucket · August 22, 2020

I could recommend a bunch but most are too obscure for YouTube.

Present

Steve Hillage

Guapo

Nektar

Deus Ex Machina

Gilgamesh

But anyway, here's my current jam.

hybridial · August 22, 2020

9 hours ago, BlackFish said:

Opeth (Starting from 2011's Pale Communion if you're avoiding metal)

I would say don't avoid the metal though, their work in that field is incredible.

Spoiler

Ayreon are pretty interesting

Spoiler

And for an actual progressive rock band, I'm mainly familiar with them from their work on music soundtracks to several Dario Argento movies, but judging by those, Goblin seem pretty good.

Spoiler

DSC · August 22, 2020

Thank you all for the suggestions!

8 hours ago, Pokemanic33 said:

but early Queen was a lot harder than the 80s pop stuff they're remembered for today

Just want to quicly say that their song Stone Cold Crazy was a massive influence on speed metal!

Halfblind · August 22, 2020

Welcome to Ultra Progressive world...

I asked myself a long time ago if there is 'hard rock' and "soft rock" then why isn't there "light metal' when there is 'heavy metal'? Then as I was hearing various prog rock bands I was thinking to myself that if there was such a genera as 'light metal' then it would sound a lot like progressive.

That being said my 2 favorite 70's bands are Bad Company and Rush just to let you know. Many older people that I meet here in my state have a distaste for any Pink Floyd song that does not have Roger Waters in it. I for one love 'On the Turning Away' and 'Learning to Fly' they are two very emotionally driven songs.

Journey in their early days did progressive and one song that comes to mind is 'Anytime' from their 'Infinity' album.

April Wine wanted to let you know that 'I Like to Rock' and to warn you of the 'Sign of the Gypsy Queen'.

King Crimson ate some 'Cat Food'.

Jefferson Starship told about the 'Black Widow'

hybridial · August 22, 2020

29 minutes ago, Halfblind said:

I asked myself a long time ago if there is 'hard rock' and "soft rock" then why isn't there "light metal' when there is 'heavy metal'?

Well, to be honest a lot of the early bands that coined the term "heavy metal" are not particularly "heavy" after the innovations of thrash and death metal.

I know the term "progressive" tends to mean something kind of specific when talking about progressive rock, but in music is just generally means any characteristic of a style that expands on its initial genre by introducing elements from others. Given that, every band I've just about ever liked were progressive.

I do have a few other suggestions that occurred to me. To be honest in recent months I've been in a very Doom/melodic death metal mood, but there's bands I currently listen to that make decent recommendations (especially if one likes Opeth) and ones I did that I'm not really just now (Ayreon, Symphony X and Dream Theatre all fall under that)

So I'll bring up a few more examples which might suit for someone into prog rock.

Conception & Kamelot

I bring them up together as Roy Khan is the singer on every Conception album and on several of Kamelot's albums, arguably their most critically successful. He is a gifted vocalist.

Spoiler

Anubis Gate

Pretty good, sound like an amalgamation of Queensryche and Iron Maiden I'd say

Spoiler

Evergrey

A pretty great band, some albums I didn't care for but their good ones are great. But they are also probably the most downbeat and melancholic one can do with this style.

Spoiler

Vision Divine

I think some of these guy's albums would be very appealing actually to a prog rock fan, they're not that heavy, one of the two vocalists they used (Michelle Luppi) is more of a rock singer and honestly I liked him more than Fabio Lione, their other associated vocalist who is of course very prolific in power metal. Lione's great in other acts but Luppi suited these guys more imo. They do have some real bangers on some albums.

Spoiler

Pagans Mind

Yeah if you liked the above these guys are very similar. Very into their Stargate.

Spoiler

And to be honest I have a tonne of one off albums I've heard that might be of interest. There was a time where, though power metal and symphonic metal were mainly what I was into, I really hunted for stuff to listen to, and there's definitely more examples I could suggest, especially in the power metal sub genre, bands like Royal Hunt, Avantasia, Stratovarius, Blind Guardian and Rhapsody of Fire could all appeal based on their prog elements potentially. I'll stop with those recommendations though because there's so many. I'll just go one more, of a band I really love just now, who I definitely would say progressive melodeath is as good a description of their style as any.

DSC · August 23, 2020

17 hours ago, Halfblind said:

I asked myself a long time ago if there is 'hard rock' and "soft rock" then why isn't there "light metal' when there is 'heavy metal'? Then as I was hearing various prog rock bands I was thinking to myself that if there was such a genera as 'light metal' then it would sound a lot like progressive.

Technically, I guess light metal could be genres such as traditional heavy, speed and power, while heavy metal would be things like thrash, death and black, if you know what I mean.

kalaeth · August 24, 2020

I have to chip in to say Astra, specially "the Weirding" album but the other is also good:

and I will re-recommend Amon Dull II's phalus dei, it's a awesome album, I mean :

If you don't mind lyrics in portuguese, José Cid's "10000 anos depois entre venus e marte" (10 thousand years afterwards, between Venus and Mars) is considered the best prog rock ever to come out of Portugal (fun fact : José Cid is know for is easy-listening popular songs but what he always wanted to do was prog-rock).

Besides that.. Van Der Graaf Generator's Aerosol Grey Machine is also great.

I'll second Hawkwind's Space Ritual and Can (Krautrock has some awesome bands).

this is all i remember from the top of my head that isn't metal, I'll add more eventually, maybe.

stphrz · August 25, 2020

I'm really digging the Astra album. Can't believe I hadn't heard it before.

STILES · August 25, 2020

Everyone on this thread has contributed some great bands, haven't seen this one listed yet though. You might have heard this band, they only made 2 albums but I highly recommend this one (the first one). They fit nicely in that late 60's - 70's bracket of Prog rock, whole album is good.