(Weird) Progressive Metal - Hidden Gems?
The list was prompted, in part, by my assembling of an expansive listening (whose death and black metal segments already prompted two previous lists) of (new) music I have been checking these past few months and will be continuing to check out for the foreseeable future. For this instalment I will be focusing on obscure forms of (often rather avant-gardistic) progressive metal, most of which I have not listened to but am, for now, quite excited to check out alongside some stuff I have listened to recently and enjoyed quite a bit. |
| 40 |  | Aversed
Erasure of Color
Not yet listened to: strong melodic-death-metal inflected progressive metal (or highly progressive melo death maybe). |
| 39 |  | Lalu
Paint the Sky
Not yet listened to: progresive metal solo project (with guest musicians) with strong prog-rock influences. |
| 38 |  | Lunar (USA-CA)
Tempora Mutantur
Not yet listened to: apparently some heavily death-metal inflected progressive metal record. |
| 37 |  | The Gorge
Mechanical Fiction
Not yet listened to: apparently some progressive metal with strong mathcore (and even sludgy) inflections. |
| 36 |  | Cobra the Impaler
Colossal Gods
Not yet listened to: apparently some sludge-metal inflected progressive metal (with thrashy/stoner influences). |
| 35 |  | Mawiza
Ül
Not yet listened to: apparently some groovy progressive metal (with Mapuche folk music influences: intriguing). |
| 34 |  | The Anchoret
It All Began With Loneliness
Not yet listened to: apparently some highly prog-rock-infused progresive metal (with jazz fusion inflections). |
| 33 |  | Nospun
Opus
Not yet listened to: apparently some more straightforward if highly rated melodic prog metal concept album. |
| 32 |  | Symbolicance
Symbolicance
Not yet listened to: had to add this obscure album myself (apparently some totalist prog-extreme mindfuck). |
| 31 |  | Conjoined Twin Octopus
The Infinite Pregnancy
Not yet listened to: apparently some strong 'core-inflected' avant-gardistic progressive metal music. |
| 30 |  | Eigenstate Zero
Shape of God Thought of Sun
Not yet listened to: riff-heavy heavily death-metal inflected progressive metal from this one-person outfit. |
| 29 |  | precettö
Greasing the Wheels of the Killing Machine
Not yet listened to: had to add this obscure Australian band myself (apparenty some genre-bending progressive avant-gardism). |
| 28 |  | The Conjuration
Gospel
Not yet listened to: apparently some highly avant-gardistic progressive metal with very strong deathened inflections. |
| 27 |  | 6:33
Deadly Scenes
Not yet listened to: apparently some extremely quirky modern progressive metal (with a drum machine unfortunately). |
| 26 |  | Verwaint
It Now Remains For Us To Explain
Not yet listened to: supposedly some obscure avant-gardistic technical progressive thrash metal. |
| 25 |  | Sketch The Sky
Hidden Villages
Not yet listened to: supposedly some guitar-focsed instrument mathy, fusiony, djenty progressive metal. |
| 24 |  | Naikaku
Shell
Not yet listened to: apparently some heavily avant-prog-infused jazzy progressive metal. |
| 23 |  | Step in Fluid
One Step Beyond
Not yet listened to: apparently some progressive, very jazz-fusion-infused and somewhat funky) metal music. |
| 22 |  | 1980
1980
Not yet listened to: apparently some progressive mathy (djenty, fusiony) metal music from this obscure debut. |
| 21 |  | Continuo Renacer
Continuo Renacer
Not yet listened to: another hidden gem of progressive technical (deathened, djenty, jazzy) metal music. |
| 20 |  | Atrox
Orgasm
Not yet listened to: apparently some hidden gem of avant-gardistic djenty, jazzy progressive metal. |
| 19 |  | Gire
Gire
Not yet listened to: supposedly some hidden gem of avant-gardistic progressive (deathened) industrial metal. |
| 18 |  | Alchemist
Spiritech
Not yet listened to: apparently some hidden gem of early experimental progressive metal (with deathly inflections). |
| 17 |  | Ashbreather
Hivemind
Not yet listened to: supposedly some adventurous abrasive sludgy progressive metal (ala Mastodon).
After listening: single 37-minute plus progressive sludge metal journey which is at its best when it ventures into these fairly complexly layered guitar-driven grooves or ramps up its moments of intensity during its few crescendos, yet which, for the most part, lingers in a much more boring realm of structurally flat, overly repetitive sludge metal (with some proggy inflections) and vacuous interludes (~2.5). |
| 16 |  | Candiria
Surrealistic Madness
Not yet listened to: supposedly some avant-gardistic fusion-infused (deathened) progressive mathcore. |
| 15 |  | Amogh Symphony
Abolishing the Obsolete System
Highly technically refined progressive metal with excellent passages of intensely complex instrumental layering which loses the plot a little, I feel, whenever it ventures into its softer electronic excursions (which it does far too often: ~3.0). |
| 14 |  | Confessor
Condemned
Extremely metrically wacky, angular, progressive 'doom' metal combining hyper-precise jagged (if somewhat simplistically phrased) riffs and drumming (of a uniquely appreciable complexity) with strangely voiced cleans (~.3.0). |
| 13 |  | Coprofago
Unorthodox Creative Criteria
An almost uncannily competent reiteration of Meshuggah's early sound (circa DEI): impressive if derivative (~3.0). |
| 12 |  | Smiqra
Rɡyaɡ̇dźé!
A ruthlessly abrasive, incessantly unpredictable, and unrelentingly intense progressive/experimental technical thrash metal excursion from the mind behind Hoplites which does run out of good ideas a little by the end (~3.0). |
| 11 |  | Lowen
Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran
Wonderfully produced progressive/doom metal whose subtly sophisticated instrumental layering is as much its strength as the immense lead vocal performance, though its stylistic approach does run out of steam a little by the end (~3.0). |
| 10 |  | Zorbas Crisol
Wiña
Avant-gardistic fusion of highly technically refined progressive metal and jazz fusion with incredible highs of structurally dense and intensely complex instrumental interplay that, unfortunately, runs out of ideas a little too quickly (~3.0). |
| 9 |  | Doom (JPN)
Human Noise
Quirky progressive (even avant-gardistic) technical thrash metal combining hyper-precise technical thrash metal riffing, syncopated drumming, and fretless bass noodling, into unpredictable, often rather dense, soundscapes (3.0+ nearing a 3.5+). |
| 8 |  | C.B Murdoc
Here Be Dragons
Extremely complex Meshuggah-core with an abrasive (almost deathly) edge that takes (poly)rhythmical complexity to immense heights without loosing a sense of infectious groove (apparently Haake likes them, I can see why: 3.5+). |
| 7 |  | Thrailkill
Everything That Is You
Technically refined, exceedingly polished (wonderfully produced) instrumental progressive metal in the vein of Animals As Leaders. At its bests when it leans into the heavier, more aggressive, structurally dense side of its sound, but becomes slightly more derivative in its cleaner/quieter moments. Very enticing (3.5+). |
| 6 |  | Twisted Into Form
Then Comes Affliction to Awaken the Dreamer
Highly technically refined (somewhat deathened, somewhat jazz-fusiony) progressive metal defined by immense instrumental prowess, extensive fretless base noodling, metric acrobatics and structurally dense instrumental escapades, all accompanied by fairly by-the-numbers heavy-metal cleans: promising if somewhat stylistically unvaried (3.5+). |
| 5 |  | Spiral Architect
A Sceptic's Universe
Ibid., if slightly more refined than the former which is, in many ways, 'A Sceptic's Universe' 2.0 (3.5++). |
| 4 |  | Buzzard (USA-VA)
Churp!!!
Extremely adventurous mathy progressive technical-thrash-infused progressive metal with very competently performed (sometimes gritty but mostly) clean vocals, prominent bass, and immense drumming (3.5++).
(P.S. I accidentally added this band because I thought it was absent from the site only to realise that its name simply overlapped with another band and hence was not directly searchable: mods please delete my entry). |
| 3 |  | Peculate
In Two (A)
Caustic political criticism of American capitalism wrapped in what I can, at this point, only describe as a wholly original, immensely complex fusion of mathcore-infused progressive metal and modern classical music (a reviewer on RYM aptly described it as 'serialist avant-garde barbershop mathcore') (3.5+ nearing a 4.0). |
| 2 |  | Collapsar
Integers
Extremely complex, compositionally refined, and indeed quite ambitious (if not always entirely successfully so), instrumental progressive metal with what I would be inclined to describe as a marked mathcore-edge to it: very promising effort (3.5+ nearing a 4.0). |
| 1 |  | Autocatalytica
Vicissitudes
Extremely technical avant-gardistic progressive mathcore-inspired metal music grand in scope, refined in its instrumental layering, and with an incessant structural density and complexity. Outstanding effort (4.0+). |
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