The Progressive Metal Thread

I listened to it about 3 times over on release day, I'm personally extremely happy with it but it's going to take some more time to see where it lands in my head compared to their last three albums. Sure, it's nice to have some of the heavier Metal stuff back, but it's still a far cry from Watershed or older. At the moment I really like the usage of the harsh vocals and the heavier riffs from a writing and storytelling standpoint, even though I'm with you in that nothing really blows me away about it. Hopefully it'll all come together in the coming weeks and I'll have some more thoughts. 

Their albums have mostly landed around 9/10 rather than 10 with a couple exceptions.  Currently I'd say this is the best out of the 9/10's, so fourth.

Novembre - "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." (1994)

The 1994 debut album from Rome five-piece Novembre is another release that my younger brother & I stumbled over during the initial stages of Ben's obsession with the doom/death subgenre during the mid-90's. During that period, Ben would regularly bring home new CDs that he'd often bought unheard & based predominantly on feedback from record store staff that were responding to his enquiries around the latest releases to push his new subgenre of choice. One of those releases would be Novembre's "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." which was definitely one of the more unusual records he'd invested in as it's been a misunderstood release over the years in some ways. I remember being somewhat surprised that Ben had been handed this one as it didn't sound much like the other slow & depressive doom/death records he'd been bringing home. It was different enough to intrigue me nonetheless as it's an extremely expansive & inventive album for such a young metal band. If my internet sources are correct then it's been swallowed up by time & a discography that would go on to even greater things but "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." is still the only Novembre record that I'm familiar with & I've returned to it a number of times over the years so I've been looking forward to finally giving it a dedicated review so as to see if it's as underrated as I suspect it is.

"Wish I Could Dream It Again..." was recorded at Unisound Studios in Sweden in October 1994 with legendary Swedish metal figure Dan Swanö of Bloodbath/Edge of Sanity/Pan.Thy.Monium fame behind the mixing desk. The production isn't as polished as one might expect from a progressive metal release & neither are the performances which maintain a looseness that gives the whole thing a little more humanity than it might otherwise have possessed. That's not to say that there aren't some impressively creative & expansive instrumental contributions included here but it's easy to see that this was Novembre's first foray into the studio because it is a little rough around the edges with Swanö's production giving it more of a blackened feel than it's often given credit for. In fact, the links to the doom/death subgenre are almost non-existent on "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." & I can only think that the tendency to paint the album with that brush is largely based on Novembre's later works although I have no personal experience with that material to base that on so it's really only a hunch. Still... the lack of any genuine doom is a little confounding when you see how the album is tagged on other websites. To my ears, this is mainly a progressive metal release but there's just enough atmospheric black metal here to see it qualifying for an additional primary tag in my opinion. It certainly leans quite heavily to the progressive side of that equation but I think it would be an oversight not to alert the public to the obvious black metal component that permeates much of the tracklisting. I mean, just listen to the regular use of dissonant open-string guitar work for example which is taken straight out of the black metal playbook. This is certainly quite a whispy, dreamy & largely unintimidating version of black metal though, in much the same way as blackgaze artists like Alcest only there's no real shoegaze component here.

The tracklisting is exceptionally consistent with no weak tracks included in the lengthy thirteen-track, 65-minute run time. I don't think there are any clear standout tracks though with the quality levels predominantly remaining flat at a very solid position thanks to Novembre's unusual knack for writing melodic extreme metal of depth & originality. If pushed, I'd probably suggest that "Behind My Window/My Seas of South", "Novembre/Its Blood" & "Swim Seagull In the Sky" sit amongst the best material although I certainly still have a soft spot for "Neanderthal Sands" which was my first exposure to Novembre through a Terrorizer magazine cover CD I picked up shortly before Ben made this purchase. I definitely find myself attracted to the more blackened material but have been thoroughly impressed by Novembre's ambitious approach here nonetheless. The vocals of guitarist Carmelo Orlando alternate between an intentionally fairly loose & pitchy indie rock clean tone & a blackened snarl to great effect & I really enjoy the shredding guitar solos that he & fellow axeman Antonio Poletti (Deceptionist/Hideous Divinity) bless us with at times. The drumming of Carmelo's younger brother Giuseppe Orlando (The Foreshadowing/Deinonychus) is the clear highlight of the album in my opinion though as he shows himself to be a very capable musician with the imagination to integrate some very interesting rhythmic patterns & cymbal work at the same time as being able to blast away with power & precision.

While "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." may or may not be Novembre's weakest full-length, it shouldn't be discounted by fans because it's unique & inventive take on extreme metal is a rare commodity in a global scene that's littered with copy-cats. It's surprising to think of just how young these gents were when they put this record together because it's a highly sophisticated effort for the time & deserves more attention than it's received for it too. In fact, on the evidence here I'm gonna have to immediately place Novembre's more widely celebrated records like 2001's "Novembrine Waltz" & 2002's "Dreams d'azur" into my to-do list as they must be something to behold if they're stronger than this excellent debut album that I'd recommend to all members of The Infinite as well as our more open-minded The North members.

For fans of Green Carnation, Opeth & Alcest.

4/5

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

Blood Incantation are back with their signature progressive, cosmic death metal sound after their detour into the world of ambient that was their 2022 Timewave Zero project. Absolute Elsewhere basically consists of two lengthy tracks, "The Stargate" and "The Message" that make up each side of the vinyl release, with each track being further split into three parts. This time around they have delved even further into progressive realms than they did with 2019's Hidden History of the Human Race, with recognisable influence from several legendary 70's progressive artists, most noticeably Rush, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Tangerine Dream with TD's Thorsten Quaeschning's guesting on the second part of "The Message", which sounds just like an excerpt from the german progressive electronic crew's 1975 Rubycon album.

Of course, after their dalliance with a wholly ambient release last time out, most metalheads want to know if the band still have their hearts in the metal world and the answer is, undoubtedly they do and death metal is still the basis upon which their more expansive sound is built, but they are also on a mission to expand the horizons of the genre and bring in other influences so that it can continue to evolve, thus giving it an even brighter future and allowing it to reach out to a wider audience. Just within the opening segment of "The Message" we are treated to a Rush-like intro, with Geddy Lee-like staccato basslines and Alex Lifeson-influenced lead work leading into a ripping death metal riff, thundering blastbeat and Paul Riedl's growling vocals. These soon subside into a Robert Fripp-style gentle guitar and synth break which itself morphs into a short mellotron-led section (reminiscent of the synths Queen produced for the Flash Gordon soundtrack) which is then supplanted by a Dave Gilmour-esque solo. That then makes way for an eastern-flavoured death metal riff that could have come from the Nile songbook - and we are still only eight minutes into the damn thing! This may sound like a whole lot of disparate influences being jammed together and on paper may not seem that appealing, but the skill of the songwriting is that it takes these multifarious threads and weaves them together into a seamless tapestry of varying colours and textures in an entirely organic and unforced manner, with faultless and seemingly logical transitions, even between the most brutal and gentle passages. The opening extravaganza merely illustrates the ambitious vision that Blood Incantation have for their version of progressive death metal, with a fully-formed science fiction concept behind the album and a wide-reaching pallette of sonic pigments with which they illustrate this vision, metal alone being insufficient to convey exactly the feeling they require.

It is easy, I suppose, to get into a game of I-spy-the-obvious-influence, and on the intitial playthrough I was probably as guilty as anyone of that, but when you become more acquainted with the album I think the technical mastery and skilled songwriting make all that irrelevant and when heard as a coherent entity, rather than the sum of it's parts, that is when it hits the listener as to exactly how good this is. Despite all the progressive tendencies, it is still the effectiveness of the metal constituents upon which the success of the album ultimately rests and we are certainly in safe hands there because when the band let rip then they absolutely nail it with impeccable timing, consummate technical skills and some lethal riffs. The third part of "The Message" is probably one of the most "metal" parts of the album with a devastating set of blastbeats, some complex tech-death shennanigans and a deadly and brutal main riff, complemented with some nice eastern motifs that does more than cement the band's death metal credentials.

I was initially a bit sceptical as to whether Absolute Elsewhere was deserving of all the accolades being poured upon it, but this is undoubtedly one of those albums that increases the returns dependent upon what you put into it. Multiple listens are mandatory to really appreciate exactly what Blood Incantation are delivering here and it is gaining in stature with me as I uncover a little bit more of it's complexity and quality with each playthrough. As a metal album this is a cosmic-themed triumph, being at times exceedingly brutal and heavy, at others complex and cerebral, but it is also much more than that, thought-provoking and visionary with a willingness to embrace influences from outside the metal sphere which lend it an accessibility that will undoubtedly draw in new acolytes to the world of extreme metal and surely that is a good thing.

I find a lot of cutting edge metal to be a bit beyond my capacity to enjoy, particularly the excessively dissonant or avant-garde, but Absolute Elsewhere has opened up a brave new world of ambitious and forward-thinking metal made from distinctly recognisable parts that is as listenable as it is ground-breaking. It is hard, if you really listen to this, to not feel refreshed and energised by the possibilities this opens up for the future of death metal inparticular and extreme metal generally. I am sold.

4.5/5

Taramis - "Demo" (1988)

This four-song demo was released the year after this month's The Infinite feature release in Melbourne progressive power metal four-piece Taramis' 1987 debut album "Queen of Thieves". The sound quality is demo quality of course but you can easily make everything out & the song-writing quality seems to have become a little more consistent by this stage too, even if I wouldn't suggest that any of the tracks are particularly essential. There's a greater level of complexity to some of this material but it still comes & goes a little which was a characteristic of the album too. Shane Southby's operatic histrionics are perhaps even more overt than they were previously but he seems to suit the more technical structures a little more & is a touch less pitchy too which sees him becoming less of an issue for me. I'd suggest that I enjoy this demo slightly more than "Queen of Thieves" but they're fairly close in terms of overall quality.

For fans of Nothing Sacred, Adramelch & Sieges Even.

3.5/5

Dream Theater: Parasomnia (2025)

Genres: Prog Metal

I've been avoiding to many potential "sure-fire" metal albums to get my yearly top 100's more diversified, but this is a new year, and there are some bands I will make that exception for.  Dream Theater was the band that got me into prog metal, and although they're not my favorite anymore, if they've got an album the fans like then I will check it out on the day of its release.  And this is an event to look forward to for fans everywhere, and why?  Simple...

Portnoy's back.

Since Dream Theater mastered the standard style early in their career, we must already deal with some sense of familiarity.  So all that's left is how far they drive it.  And they're driving it all the way from NY to CA.  Some of these bits here are straight-up thrash metal with a strong edge backed up by some of their most clever riffs since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and especially Portnoy's drumming.  This is the album where he blew the mercury out of the meter.  He outperforms everybody here without even thinking.  Anything familiar or maybe even only decent about the songwriting is empowered by him.  This is easily some of the best metal drumming I've ever heard, IMO.

As for the rest of it, the short story is that this is yet another "cool" entry into their catalog.  Instead of choosing more meta concepts like the "octave," or telling another rock opera, they went right into a more conventional type of concept.  Much like Metallica's Ride the Lightning covered various forms and themes concerning death, this album's all in the title.  This is probably the perfect theme for Dream Theater of all people to tackle.  I mean, if the band name didn't say it all, albums like Scenes from a Memory should tell you.  Lyrically, they're doing everything they can to bring out the fear factor in each song, almost like we're hearing horror stories but we're supposed to pity the subjects rather than be scared for them.  Instrumentally, even though their riffs aren't always the most original, they're effortlessly heavy and easier to get behind.  Although, once again, Portnoy's masterful performance helps.

Parasomnia seems like a creative splurge for the band, but it doesn't get in the way of the style they developed for a single second.  In fact, I could even say it makes the same mistake as Paramainomeni in the sense that all tracks are following the same goal, but every song shows them doing everything they can at that point to recall the classic era with something a little new.  They never really stopped being relevant, but this feels kind of like a comeback album in a sense.  Dream Theater, ever since Metropolis Pt. 2, has been the kind of prog metal band you need to immerse yourself in, much like a good old ambient album.  And this is the album where they got that back.  No overdoing metal themes like Octavarium, no 2112 knockoffs, just Dream Theater being dreamy and heavy.

90 / 100

Dominion - "Demo Tape" (1989)

The one-off demo tape from a talented Melbourne musician by the name of Corey Romeo who would go on to play with progressive metal outfit Hyperion during the mid-1990's. This 34 minute/8 song effort sees Romeo handling all of the instruments in a purely instrumental exploration of guitar-shredder style progressive metal which also touches on speed metal, heavy metal & power metal. The production is the main stumbling block as the sound quality is quite muted which isn't ideal for this type of music as it requires brightness & clarity to have it full effect. You can still make out the potential here fairly easily though & I found myself enjoying the majority of the collection. In fact, I'd even go so far as to suggest that this could have been a fairly significant release with a more professionally produced packaging.

For fans of Jason Becker, Vinnie Moore & David T. Chastain.

3.5/5

Dream Theater - "Awake" (1994)

Dream Theater's third full-length "Awake" was a MASSIVE record for me back in the late 1990's, perhaps even contributing to them becoming my favourite metal band for a short period after I'd started my hiatus from the extreme metal scene. Listening back now with more critical ears though, it's not really the undeniable classic I led myself to believe it was at the time. In fact, I'd suggest that it's actually a step down from Dream Theater's previous material which was all solid gold & I'm gonna go out on a limb & say that the reason I've overrated it over the years is the fact that it's potentially the best guitar album of all time. Yeah, you heard me. John Petrucci is my favourite guitarist ever & this is his possibly his finest work as it consistently sees me picking my jaw up off the ground but that doesn't mean that "Awake" is without its faults. The band's record label had been pushing them to make a more commercially accessible & more metallic record & you can see both of those elements here. Petrucci uses a seven-string guitar for the first time so there are some great heavy metal riffs here with Mike Portnoy's ridiculously complex drumming providing the perfect accompaniment. But then there are a couple of clear filler tracks that sound like obvious attempts at radio play too (see "The Silent Man" & "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream"). I think I've been guilty of letting the highlights cloud my judgement of the overall product over the years as songs like "Erotomania", "The Mirror", "Lie" & album highlight "Voices" are without doubt some of Dream Theater's best work but I just don't think there's enough in that space to justify one of my elite scores these days so "Awake" sits more comfortably alongside a record like "Train of Thought" than it does an "Images & Words", "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory" or "When Dream & Day Unite" in my opinion.

For fans of Symphony X, Rush & Liquid Tension Experiment.

4/5

Tool - "Fear Inoculum" (2019)

Oh, my fucking God! What in the actual fuck is going on here then. This isn't just a contender for the most underrated record of all time. It's EASILY the most underrated record of all time in my opinion. "Fear Inoculum" is the best thing that Tool have ever done as far as I can see & is the culmination of everything that preceded it. The production is utterly spectacular. The performances are as amazing as anything I've ever experienced. Every single note is presented with clear intention & serves its purpose beautifully while the song structures are fully realised, despite their indulgent length. There's more dynamics & a greater focus on atmospherics than ever before with the tension created being so thick you can almost touch it. This one is going right in the middle of my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list so I can't possibly fathom how it's been so apathetically received by the vast majority of the global marketplace. I can only put it down to the general impatience that the internet/Spotify age has proliferated over the last couple of decades.

For fans of Karnivool, Soen & Mastodon.

4.5/5

Tool - "Fear Inoculum" (2019)

Oh, my fucking God! What in the actual fuck is going on here then. This isn't just a contender for the most underrated record of all time. It's EASILY the most underrated record of all time in my opinion. "Fear Inoculum" is the best thing that Tool have ever done as far as I can see & is the culmination of everything that preceded it. The production is utterly spectacular. The performances are as amazing as anything I've ever experienced. Every single note is presented with clear intention & serves its purpose beautifully while the song structures are fully realised, despite their indulgent length. There's more dynamics & a greater focus on atmospherics than ever before with the tension created being so thick you can almost touch it. This one is going right in the middle of my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list so I can't possibly fathom how it's been so apathetically received by the vast majority of the global marketplace. I can only put it down to the general impatience that the internet/Spotify age has proliferated over the last couple of decades.

For fans of Karnivool, Soen & Mastodon.

4.5/5

I wouldn't say it's their best, but I agree with most of what's said here.  People who don't like this album don't seem to realize that that band's been slowly merging from an alt-metal band to a prog rock band overtime, which each album steering further away from the roots slightly but surely.  I gave it the same rating.  My guess is that in some years people will warm up to it the way they warmed up to other albums overtime.

My updated Top Ten Progressive Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. 7 Horns 7 Eyes - "Throes of Absolution" (2012)

02. Leprous - "Live at Rockefeller Music Hall" (2016)

03. The 3rd & the Mortal - "Sorrow" E.P. (1994)

04. The 3rd & the Mortal - "Tears Laid in Earth" (1994)

05. Tool - "Fear Inoculum" (2019)

06. Lucid Planet - "Lucid Planet II" (2020)

07. Death - "Individual Thought Patterns" (1993)

08. Mastodon - "Leviathan" (2004)

09. Dream Theater - "Live at the Marquee" (1993)

10. Pestilence - "Testimony of the Ancients" (1991)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/153

Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)

Just been giving this beauty another spin and it still holds up very well to my original assessment:

There are huge swathes of progressive metal that just leave me cold. The Dream Theaters of this world trying to impress everyone with excessive flashiness, bloated songwriting or technical frigidity inspire nothing in me other than a shrug of indifference. This is why I admired Opeth so much - they were technically superb but never forgot that the song was king and everything they did worked to that end. On the evidence of Portal of I, Ne Obliviscaris seem to be a band with the same philosophy and with this album have ticked many of the boxes that appeal to me. I'm especially on board with the marriage between prog and black metal, in a similar way that Oranssi Pazuzu's fusion between black metal and psychedelic rock is so successful, Ne Obliviscaris seem to understand exactly how to alloy black metal with progressive metal in way that makes the whole more than the separate elements (something Opeth also achieved with death metal). While the entire album is exceedingly good Forget Not, for me, is a song on a whole different level and is well up my list of greatest tracks of all-time.

4.5/5

Tool - Lateralus (2001)

At the time of its release I was very much a fan of Lateralus, its take on progressive metal was so dense and industrialised as to be a little alienating, yet it also felt quite intimate and personal at the same time, which was a combination I found to be endlessly fascinating. Over time I cooled to Tool and the endless bullshit that seemed to get bandied about on internet forums on their behalf, but as I listen to Lateralus again after a lengthy break, I am beginning to feel some of the attachment to the record I originally forged over twenty years ago beginning to resolidify. Sure, a lot of their fans are still pretentious as fuck, but frankly that's just noise, whereas Lateralus itself is far from that, but is a fairly unique-sounding album within my collection. Yeah, I'm gonna call it - this is a great record and no amount of internat crap will deter me from that position!

4.5/5 (upped from my long-standing 4/5)

"Lateralus" was a huge record for me during a decade-long period when I'd generally moved away from metal. My best mate at the time wasn't much of a metal fan but he became obsessed with this album so we used to get cripplingly stoned while exploring the finer intricacies of the song structures. We saw Tool twice on the tour for that release too & one of those shows was one of the most elite live performances I've ever seen in my life with everything just falling into place at the same time.

Between the Buried & Me - "Colors" (2007)

North Carolina progressive metallers Between the Buried & Me & I have had a mixed relationship over the years. I first discovered them through their 2011 "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" & 2012 "The Parallax II: Future Sequence" releases with neither of them giving me much to hold onto. Then I stumbled over their 2008 "Colors_Live" live album & my opinion on them quickly turned around. I've since returned to that record a number of times & have subsequently added 2009's excellent "The Great Misdirect" to the list of Between the Buried & me releases that I hold in high regard. Strangely though, I'd never explored the studio version of "Colors" until now but I thought I'd rectify that oversight this week & it's resulted in an interesting disparity. You see, for one reason or another, I haven't connected with it as strongly as I do with the live album. I've certainly found enjoyment in  all eight songs on offer but there's something missing here that seems to give "Colors_Live" a clear edge over its studio counterpart & it's resulted in me falling just short of awarding "Colors" the four-star rating I felt certain it would receive going in. It's not a bad progressive metalcore record but I think some of the melodic exploration tends to be a little too far away from my comfort zone for me to fully commit to.

For fans of The Contortionist, The World Is Quiet Here & Persefone.

3.5/5

Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

Genre: Prog Rock

I can always get behind the idea of changing your sound a bit. Fates Warning have slowly done that over the course of several albums, but typically, they will remain a metal band. It's not so apparent in A Pleasant Shade of Grey, in fact I'd go as far as to say it's not a full-on metal album, but rather rock with a couple metal influences. And I'm totally cool with that. I was hoping this album would be one of the absolute berst of its type, but Fates Warning has only impressed me once in that vein out of several albums, so my expectations were closer to the 9/10 vein.

From what I've studied, Fates Warning are basically a top 10 in prog metal as far as popularity and influence goes. Of course, when you're going to tackle prog, you have to be careful that your technical melodies and the harmony of the instruments don't come off as wonky. Part II was fairly guilty of that during the verses, so the first two parts didn't really do much for me musically, despite setting a good preconceived standard for the rest of the album. But it took way too long for me to get to a spot to where I could feel like absorbing an atmosphere, bobbing my head, getting intrigued, etc. Part 5 had a good level of psychedelic intrigue to it, but it simply wasn't strong enough to stand out amongst the masses of prog rock or metal IMO and it didn't justify the wonkiness in the other parts of the song. Things started to feel more fleshed out and make more sense in the second half, featuring better examples of prog that took a few key directions that cemented the second half as superior to the first. But when the band was trying out some metal in the fix, the softer focus of the album got in the way of heaviness, making it feel more like general rock, so while they have every right to make a rockier album, any metal should actually be metal.

it shows this vintage group of prog metal pioneers somehow struggling to maintain proper atmosphere, being more focused on maintaining a softer presence that they only occasionally succeed at. This is also to say that when it was trying to be metal, it wasn't heavy enough. They have every right to change their sound, and this was a pretty good attempt with a few good songs, some interesting technical ideas and a little bit of experimentation that never broke the flow. But sometimes it feels a little empty, and sometimes the rythms are a bit wonky, so the album feels incomplete.

74

Green Carnation - Journey to the End of Night (2000)

Genres: Prog Metal

Green Carnation, a prog band formed by ex-Emperor bassist Tchort, is a band I've put off for a long time so I can focus on other kinds of metal and other genres in general, but I finally have the freedom to check out one of the three bands I need left for one of the Metal Academy prog metal list challenges. Even though I only need to review one of their albums, I wanted to go back to the beginning, as I believe a real student should expand further than just one album per band as the lists are exclusively formed.

So starting with the debut, I was quickly introduced to a psychedelic atmosphere that I had never heard before. The thirteen minute opener, In the Realm of the Midnight Sun, was an obvious effort in putting together various styles in a way that fit and could justify the length of 13 minutes. Now I'd say as far as progressing the various genres in one song goes, there wasn't any problem with that. But there's something that really needs to be addressed: some of the rhythms outshine other parts of the song by country miles, so the song still feels inconsistent in that way. I thought to myself, "I supposed that's where the leading criticism comes from?" I had other epics to check out before I could be certain of that. Another product of the inconsistency is how some metal moments are much heavier than others. I suppose the drums were improperly mixed, feeling a little faint for what they were striving to achieve. But by the third epic, which totals tracks 2-4 into 45 minutes, it kind of becomes a cycle of reused tricks in different epics, creating a sense of overlength. Even the fact that several shorter songs take up the end doesn't really detract from this.

For a first attempt, there's some good genre balance and ambition here, but the lack of original rhythmic ideas tells me that this was merely the band tackling too much at once and only fairly succeeding more at the intrigue rather than the music. It's a fine first attempt in that way, but more or less decent in other ways.

68

Pain of Salvation - Entropia (1997)

Genres: Prog Metal, Prog Rock

Today is the day I finally finish my second list challenge: the Prog Metal 2nd Decade Challenge, and it'll happen on my Pain of Salvation marathon.  I'll be getting through at least the first four PaS albums, potentially ending at the album I need for the final review on this challenge list: Remedy Lane, the fourth album.  I never really got interested in Pain of Salvation for some reason, but I'll gladly check them out for the challenge.

Entropia is a concept album about a struggling family in a fictional titular world, and the main characters are basically detailed in a pretty poetic collection of lyrics that are also standardly "prog concept album."  I an't say there was anything here that made me feel too heavily.  Now I'm not saying that I didn't have any good expectations for Pain of Salvation's debut, but with the genre-tagging on RYM simple saying Prog Metal for primary and Prog Rock for secondary, I had a pretty good idea of what this album would sound like: standard guitar tones for prog metal and catchy mid-level progression that's only proggy enough not to stay off the radio.  The opener and the next song (not counting the pretty lame trip hop segue in between) are so standardly 1990's prog metal that it's not even funny.  Dream Theater obviously ended up manifesting a lot of emulators, such as Shadow Gallery and Evergrey.  Is it catchy?  Yeah, but I've totally heard this before.  In fact, I need it to be a little proggier.  Save the radio prog for Rush, guys.

Now I was pretty thrown off by the funk aspects that kicked off the nine-minute People Passing By.  That's considered to be one of their better songs on this album.  The song has a tendency to switch between these and blackened riffs in the same percussion tone like they naturally go together.  I wouldn't say that, but at least the prog improves here.  But it just isn't catchy enough or even heavy enough to really support my prog metal needs until the end when it pretty much just goes back into the standard behavior of the album.  After a totally standard ballad, the album takes a much catchier and outlandish turn with Stress, boasting instrumentation that even goes into Cardiacs territory with its hyper-melodic nature.  Unfortunately, while the instrumentation's awesome, singer Daniel Gildenlow's melodies are just lame and don't pair well with the song much.

Things get largely standard again on Revival, which tries to capture the same spirit as Stress but only really succeeds in one aspect: matching the singer's melodies to the instrumentation.  Now for the most part, To the End is the best the album had to offer.  Everything was energetic, in perfect harmony, and catchy while maintaining that intriguing unpredictability of People Passing By, even though its style is standard.  Next comes Nightmist, which is much less melodic and more built on maintaining an ever shifting atmosphere between fast and funky, slow and dramitic, and surprisingly hyperactive for a couple seconds, but I don't feel like banging my head to this one, even as the funk returns in small bits.  It seems more like a display of how proggy they can be without setting up the experience as a "song."  Plains of Dawn feels like it's going for more of a tonal balance as a slightly-symphonic prog rock song, and it kind of works, but also just tells me that they should've done some more about balance and behavior from previous songs on the album.  And finally, there's that ending segue (the segues have been largely unremarkable, by the way), Leaving Entropia.

A lot of people were very impressed with this debut, but it seemed generic at times, proggy but imbalanced at times, and showed a lot of compositional strengths that weren't always lived up to.

73

Pain of Salvation - One Hour by the Concrete Lake (1998)

Genres: Prog Metal

I don't feel like doing another track-by-track review today, so I'll just cover the most important stuff.  Hearing the actual music kickstart with a beautiful piano metal intro already told me there was a Symphony X similarity that might end up going through the whole album.  As a huge fan of Symphony X, I adored the neoclassical piano focus.  While I can't say this was "groundbreaking," I was certainly impressed with the healthy upgrade in balance between melody and progression, as well as a totally new sound for the band.  On top of which, metallic moments seem to be a bit heavier and more layered, which was an issue for the more metal-oriented songs of the debut.  The occasional industrial backdrops also help with that, as well as with more robotic guitar tones and riffs.  And of course, there's always a little room for a softer and more contemplative song with some violin attached.  But these elements don't often overpower the standard dramatic prog metal aspects, but rather add light influences for the most part.  In fact, it's enough to make sure most of these songs feel different enough from each other to almost be different subgenres of prog metal.  Handful of Nothing, for example, is quite mechanical in its handling of hardcore punk influence, never really steering into "metalcore," though.

I gotta say, though.  Only about half the time the melodies manage to really impress me.  For example, a wonderful collective of rhythms takes up the bulk of Home, but in comparison, a track like Water feels a bit empty.  Thankfully, the former happens a bit more often.  A track like Home is followed by an incredibly proggy yet catchy track like Black Hills, making for an excellent pairing.  Hell, I'd say Black Hills even astounded me, managing to be better than the already grand Home.  On top of all that, the various sounds and feelings connect well with the emotional focus of the theme, centering around the dystopian devastation and pollution of the world due to man's lack of sympathy for the world around them.  The theme isn't very story-based, but it does an excellent job sharing the lead character's feelings of despair.  Of course, it goes without saying that it takes a while for that hidden track to really pick up, about four out of six minutes.  But once it does, it really does, going into some beautiful avant-garde that perfectly covers what the album went through in a very quick time.

Major improvement over the last.  This is considered the weakest of the first four Pain of Salvation albums?  I might not agree with people's general consensus on the debut, but the improvement here seems like a very good sign for what's coming next.

93

Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element I

Genres: Prog Metal

After turning this album on, immediately after concluding One Hour by the Concrete Lake, I certainly wasn't expecting the verses to be orchestrated in NU METAL.  But that didn't tell me this was gonna end up a nu metal album, just that this album was gonna end up wild and varied just like the previous efforts.  Honestly, there's really no way to tell with these guys.  But it's pretty obvious from the slow melodic structures and the nu metal influence that they were trying to appeal to the modern alternative crowd without being an alternative band.  You can easily tell from the way our singer occasionally shouts in a very similar manner to Wayne Static.  Despite this, post-metal also reigns pretty strong in the background, having a larger say than any other kind of influence in the album.  This creates a strong sense of ballad-based serenity throughout a good chunk of it.  These are good tracks with a strong sense of progession and some fine melodies, but in comparison to the wide range they went with on the debut and managed to balance out beautifully on the second, this seems a bit less inventive.  For example, the first half of Her Voices is made up of this until it takes an immediate shift into speedy Arabic influence, as if they suddenly became The Tea Party.  But there are songs that are practically entirely made up of the post-metal influence, like the titular closer.  And unfortunately, the songs, while quite enjoyable, are a bit too similar too each other in moods, and the melodies are often a bit light.  So in short, this was a GOOD album for me, but not brilliant.

82

Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane (2002)

Genres: Prog Metal

Here it is, the final of the four Pain of Salvation albums for my marathon, and the final album before I complete my Prog Metal Challenge List.  To recap, my ratings for the first three albums fluctuated drastically from the general consensus.  People say that Entropia was a great metal debut, but to me it was a bit imbalanced and not heavy enough.  I almost adored Concrete Lake, and I thought the much-beloved Perfect Element was a good but somewhat overdrawn album with too much fixation on post-metal influence that seemed to take away from the identity of the first two albums.  And now, here I am, at the general opus.

While I loved the instrumental direction the short opener took, the next track, ironically named Ending Theme, so was I in for more of the typical prog metal sound that I was so weary of when my marathon began with the debut's first couple tracks?  Fandango seemed to answer my question: not entirely.  Fandango's general sense of rhythm is totally xylophonic, not built in metal energy while the backing effects and percussion deliver a strong sense of surrealism.  This is basically an experimental track, and I mean almost Residents level, even though it clearly uses the same instruments as previous efforts, so that was a damn good sign.  But unfortunately, the next two tracks, while great and beautifully melodic, only provide faint ventures from the standard to other areas, so I'm not so sure what'll happen next.  The eight minute Trace of Blood has some nice piano melodies scattered around, but remains high-level typical.  The next track, This Heart of Mine, seems to have some Gabriel-era Genesis influence in the vibes, but not very strongly.  Undertow was kinda lame in comparison.  It just repeate the same slow melody over and over again and only differentiated itself by being more quiet.

Things got pretty proggy again on the more active track, Rope Ends, which knows how to put together a decent rhythm while maintaining the very reason I listen to prog in the first place.  This one didn't stop being catchy, even when it was going wild.  I get a nice follow-up with some Latin folk influence on Chain Sling, which showcases the best of the band's previously established strengths.  Easily a winner of a song.  Dryad of the woods continues the folk rock focus and is a nice and soft tune on its own, but even slow songs have more pizazz, and while this was nice and emotional, it was also missing that special something.  After the title track, which is a largely prog electronic two-minute segue with a tamed but epic approach, the next track is immediately shamed as it falls into only decent melody and standard behavior for the band.  Purely palatable, not remarkable.  Same with the track after that, but then the ending, Beyond the Pale, gets back on track with a proper ending that takes the overall vibe of the band to a good strength, ending with one of their more emotional and rhythmically healthy takes of the modern prog sound.

Well, I didn't get the magnum opus everyone was bragging about, but it has plenty of strengths among the traditional sound.  This was a very enjoyable album overall, but I'd say that instead of it being one of the greatest I've heard, it's more on the level of Dream Theater's underrated debut.

87

Dream Theater - "Octavarium" (2005)

I have to admit that I hadn't heard anything these Boston progressive metal legends have done since 2003's very solid "Train of Thought" album prior to entering into their eighth full-length "Octavarium" this week. The generally luke-warm response to it is warranted though as I think it's one of the least impressive Dream Theater release I've experienced to date, even if I did still leave it with a generally positive feeling. It's definitely a less complex record than I'm used to from the band & is also a little more commercially accessible with the more radio-friendly tracks like "The Answer Lies Within" & "I Walk Beside You" doing very little for me. Things start to get significantly more proggy later in the tracklisting & there are some nice chunky metal tunes like "These Walls" (my personal favourite), "Panic Attack" & "Sacrificed Sons" included but I don't think there are any genuine classics here to balance out those weaker numbers which leaves me feeling like I'm unlikely to return to "Octavarium" in the future, particularly when there are so many great Dream Theater releases out there to fulfill my needs.

For fans of Symphony X, Rush & Liquid Tension Experiment.

3.5/5