Progressive Rock

[musik_man]

In my efforts to diversify my musical tastes, I started to listen to some of this over the last few months(I first tried Jazz, but found that I don't like it too much.)  The next genre I tried was progressive rock, and I found that I loved it.  The bands I've been listening to are Yes, Genesis, and Kansas.  The amount of complexity and the structure of some of the pieces is as great as that in classical music.  Most of the pieces are 10-20 minutes in length.  So, I'm starting this thread for anyone to share their thoughts on Prog rock, and for people to share any suggestions on non-classical genres, bands, or artists that produce complex thoughtful music.

And if anyone wants a good intro to prog, try Close to the Edge by Yes.  The title track is a 19 minute work that blew me away when I first heard it.

[chopiabin]

Scholomance is actually a metal band, but they are incredibly complex and atlented, and they are influenced by classical music. Unlike a lot of metal, they are not cheesy at all, and write about philosophy etc. A Treatise on Love is my favorite album.

[willcowskitz]

My favourites would have to be Pink Floyd and Gracious, and Genesis from 60's and 70's is good... and Pekka Pohjola! Maybe you'd like to familiarize yourself with Mike Oldfield's older productions too, they're very inventive, imaginative and visually stimulating, though I'm not sure of the "genre".

[meisel]

Concerning progressive rock, i think Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull is great. You should also check out Camel.

Arcturus`album "La masquerade infernale" is not prog rock, but is highly complex music with elements from classical, metal, rock and circus-music. Excellent!

If you like rough music, i recommend Emperor, Opeth and Satyricon, which is complex metal that really blows my mind off. There are actually much quality music within the metal-genre, if one gets under the surface, and get to know how to listen to it.

[chopiabin]

My problem with bands like Arcturus is that they write the dumbest lyrics imaginable. I bought Arcturus's album, The Sham Mirrors, and, while the music is pretty cool, the lyrics are all about aliens and UFO's, which, in my opinion, devalues the music. They don't really talk about anything relevant. This is also my problem with Nightwish and about a million other bands that are otherwise really cool. Talking about elves and dwarves, etc. is, in my opinion, inane. If, on the other hand, you like aliens and dwarves etc., then by all means, check these bands out.

[brewtality]

Try listening to Dream Theater, some great prog-rock there even tho james labrie is an average singer imo. Btw, I also hate the cheesy lyrics of bands like Rhapsody and Nightwish and the growling vocal style ruins the work of bands like Children of Bodom for me.

[meisel]

My problem with bands like Arcturus is that they write the dumbest lyrics imaginable. I bought Arcturus's album, The Sham Mirrors, and, while the music is pretty cool, the lyrics are all about aliens and UFO's, which, in my opinion, devalues the music. They don't really talk about anything relevant. This is also my problem with Nightwish and about a million other bands that are otherwise really cool. Talking about elves and dwarves, etc. is, in my opinion, inane. If, on the other hand, you like aliens and dwarves etc., then by all means, check these bands out.

I guess it comes down to how relevant the lyrics are for your musical enjoyment.
If the lyrics are important to you, and you dont like what Arcturus write about, i can see that you have a problem with them. It is however only on The Sham Mirrors that they use elements from science-fiction/astronomy.
I agree that there are millions of bands with really shitty lyrics. In fact, there are so many that i more or less ignore it, because if the band have to write good lyrics for me to listen to it, i would miss tons of good music.

[mound]

I don't know that I'd call Pink Floyd progressive rock.. Psychadelic Rock, not progressive.. They don't really have the "edge" of bands like Yes, Dream Theatre, King Krimson, Genesis.  They have enormous depth though, depth that many of the top prog-rock bands don't really have.

of course lets not forget Zappa.. not sure I'd call him a prog-rocker either, but lets just not forget him

-Paul

[willcowskitz]

I don't know that I'd call Pink Floyd progressive rock.. Psychadelic Rock, not progressive..

Many of Pink Floyd's songs or even whole albums are built progressively towards the completion, in contrary to being constructed by the typical flat beat, chorus and other repetitive elements, in patterns. Therefore I'd call it progressive.

[etudes]

Dream Theater    Jordan Rudess at keyboard
AWESOME!

[brewtality]

indeed, except when i listen to DT its for Petrucci