Progressive Death Metal

Gold Member

August 2005
13,220 Posts

So, I felt like making another music thread. Instead of doing it on a specific band, I decided to do it on a whole genre instead!

So recently, I've discovered the wonders of progressive death metal through a review of Russian band Instant Suppression, and have since been finding numerous extremely good progdeath bands. But I'm jumping ahead of myself; let's start at the beginning.

First things first, a definition!
Definition: A combination of the powerful drumming techniques, down-tuned and heavy guitars, and harsh vocals of death metal with the complexity and intricacy of progressive metal, as well as often lengthy songs (anywhere from 6 to 16 minutes, if not more). Often has other influences merged into the music as well (from the progressive side)

Cynic

Cynic are probably one of the most well-known and oldest players in the progressive/death metal scene (correct me if I'm wrong; I don't know my metal chronology so well in this field). Their debut album, Focus is highly regarded as a majorly important landmark in progressive death metal. Where Cynic's Tampa, Florida-based contemporaries exercised the traditional routine of death metal--blistering drumming, chugging riffs, and harsh vocals with obscene or abstract lyrics--Cynic took a more experimental route. The album Focus has been labelled as, going beyond the progdeath fusion, as "jazz metal" at times, due to the fact that the jazz influence from their progressive side is so prominent that some people argue it's not so much "progressive with jazz influences" as it is "jazz with progressive influences".

Opeth

Opeth are another extremely well-known act in the progdeath scene. Known mostly for vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt's range in both harsh vocals and clean vocals, as well for Opeth's lengthy songs, ripe with many variations and changes that are a founding block of progressive metal, this Swedish band is widely loved by fans of both the death metal scene and the progressive metal circle. Opeth are also one of the more mainstream death metal bands, having won a Swedish Grammy in 2003 and seeing some of their songs enter the Top 200 and other such charts.

Between the Buried and Me

Metalcore/progdeath band Between the Buried and Me (furthermore abbreviated as BTBAM) are another act that are pretty well known in the progdeath scene (and the metal scene as a whole as well). The album Colors, featured above, is considered by some to be one of their greatest, if not THE greatest, albums to date. It was BTBAM's first album to reach the top 100 of the Billboard 200, coming in at 57th, and has been highly regarded by several reviewers to be one of the greatest metal albums released in 2007. Mike Portnoy, drummer for Progressive metal band Dream Theater, one of BTBAM's greatest influences, named Colors to be one of his favorite albums of the year. The album itself shows a wide range of influences, including anything from jazz to polka.

Okay, so now that we've established some of the bigger players in the scene, let's break it down a bit. The bands I'm about to delve into are my personal favorites, and are bands that I think should have more popularity, since their music is superb in my opinion. Since I have strayed away from bigger bands, I won't be able to give you fun little facts taken off the Wikipedia--I'll only be able to fill in what I know about them and can gather from thier websites.

First off, the band that got me into progdeath:
Instant Suppression

Rostov-on-Don, Russia-based Instant Suppression are, at first glance, a clone of Swedish melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry. Indeed, its obvious that the Swedish metallers are a major influence on this Russian band, even if you completely discount the scientific themes, easily interchangable lyrics and song titles, and even the album art in the same vein. In true Scar Symmetry style, Instant Suppression pair up deep growling vocals with melodic clean singing. You may be thinking that you can disregard this band, though, if you have heard any Scar Symmetry album (except their latest, Dark Matter Dimensions). That would be a wrong assumption.

I said "at first glance" they look like a Clone Symmetry, but that's only at first glance. With a deeper delve into their 2009 debut Domain.Nation, one finds a wide variety of influences that places them firmly in the progdeath scene. Describing their sound is difficult, since it's slightly different from song to song, but one thing is certain: if you enjoy melodic death metal along the lines of Scar Symmetry's Pitch Black Progress (and admittedly traces of industrial/cyber metal), then you should try out Instant Suppression.

Oh, and I forgot. The best part? They released their debut album for free.

Fractal Gates

Paris, France-based progdeath metallers [b]Fractal Gates[b/] are a hard band to pinpoint. They're strongly within the progdeath scene, but where exactly they are inside that scene is hard to decide. Their 2009 debut (and currently only) album, Altered State of Consciousness, comes with (apart from a cool album name and associated album art) four instrumentals, each about a minute long. The instrumentals, "Visions I" to "Visions IV", are spaced out pretty evenly in the album, and are easily the most distinct from the rest of the album. Each no longer than a minute and some-odd seconds, where the songs are thick and heavy, these instrumentals are airy and spacey. If you close your eyes and spin around a bit (to get that dizzy, spinning feeling) during any of these instrumental tracks, you can almost imagine yourself flying through the cosmos, cutting through cosmic dust. At the very least, you'll feel like you're tripping balls.

The rest of the songs, in complete juxtaposition to the tactfully placed relief of the instrumentals, are thick, brutal and intense. The mixing on the vocals could be better, as they're hard to hear (but maybe they wanted it that way?), and then when you hear them, it's hard to follow the lyrics because the vocalist has a very fragmented phrasing habit, which may or may not be intentional (plus you'll spend fifteen minutes trying to figure out where the fuck the song is until you realize the vocalist pronounces "nebula" as "knee-boo-la"). The lyrics, though, are quite good, and go along very strongly with the spacey, extraterrestial feel that the album presents.

Their music is best described as a mixture of progressive metal, melodic death metal, deathdoom, and even some dark ambient. Definitely a band worth checking out.

In Grief

Nordland, Norway-based band In Grief are, at face value, not terribly exceptional. Sounding like a potential mix of Scar Symmetry (and thier clone, Instant Suppression) as well as Opeth, with possibly some Disarmonia Mundi and Meshuggah in there (all of this is my own opinion; I may be the only one to share this opinion), I can also faintly hear a Dream Theater vibe coming from these guys. That may just be the "progressive metal" in progdeath, though. Nonetheless, these guys are a good listen, with good harshes and interesting usage of keyboards and synths to generate a very dark and oppressive atmosphere. The clean vocals leave some things to be desired, but all in all, I can't complain. Another band worth listening to.

Media

Cynic