Why i like Dream Theater but barely any other prog metal

[TheGreatPretender]

Three more examples that I know of are Empyria. Very progressive Metal band with a vocalist who sounds like Ozzy. Empty Tremor, an Italian prog metal band that's very inspired by DT. Supreme Majesty a Prog Power Metal band with a very 80's stadium rock sound to them. All pretty awesome.

[Lowdz]

I agree with you Rumborak, and have said the same things myself.

Nearly all prog metal sounds exactly the same and it is the song that's missing. There's no variety in the albums. DT incorporates more styles of music than I've ever heard from one band.
So many times I've heard a song by some progmetal band on YT and thought it really good, got the album and found it doesn't stand up to closer inspection.
I was listening to Haken's Visions yesterday and I heard several DT isms and a whole section that seemed lifted straight from The Dance Of Eternity. I did enjoy the album but it was DT I was enjoying.

Saying that RobWebster is right; that's the way with any genre. 80s hair metal suffocated under the weight of all the wannabee bands that were being signed at the end of the decade. The cream usually rises to the top tough.

Standouts for me, Circus Maximus, Myrath, Pathosray, Seventh Wonder, 7 Months.

[robbob]

I'm quite picky with my music tastes including Prog Metal. Besides DT, Riverside and Opeth I rarely listen to any others. What really turns me off is the cheese factor like others have mentioned. DT keeps that to a minimum and add's variety, melodies, etc... 

[chrisbDTM]

like others have said prog metal is used for many different sounding bands. some of my favorie bands like Between the Buried and Me and Periphery fall under the prog metal label, but arent close to DT and are on the heavier side of the genre. too much variety to make a sweeping statement


but show me one of those 60-minute LOTR prog opera's and ill laugh all the way to the 'close window' button

[jingle.boy]

Standouts for me, Circus Maximus, Myrath, Pathosray, Seventh Wonder, 7 Months.

And this is why topics like this are highly subjective to one's personal tastes.  I've heard many say that Circus Maximus, and Seventh Wonder are bland knock-offs, unimaginative etc, etc.  I personally don't think that, but it's been said.

[me7]

...In the last 12 months, I've discovered Flaming Row, Beyond the Bridge, Redemption, Epysode, Avantasia, ReVamp, After Forever, Amaran's Plight, Mind's Eye, Frameshift, Pagan's Mind, Soul Secret, Ice Age, and others....

You mentioned Mind's Eye. I fell in love with A Gentleman's Hurricane a few weeks ago. How are their previous albums compared to it?

[VioletS16]

I can't claim to love Prog either--just DT. I know some consider Opeth Prog, but I really don't think so. I listened to Symphony X when I first got into DT, but have found I don't like them nearly as much anymore. These days I listen to a lot of black metal, symphonic black metal, extreme metal, gothic metal, symphonic metal, doom metal--but not really Prog  Just DT! 

[TheGreatPretender]

I'm a big fan of Epica, and while they can be described as Symphonic Metal, or Symphonic Black Metal for certain songs, I'd say in terms of how they structure their songs, they're also very much progressive. But it doesn't have that sound that people often describe as "proggy". I think to say that "progressive" has a sound is really limiting to the genre.

Of course there are some people who will claim that Progressive music is the music that's new and innovative and 'progresses' the genre into something new. Personally, I don't associate the term with that, because by that definition, any band with a new sound is progressive, and then they stop being progressive several albums in. Heck, even Dream Theater, by that definition, have not been 'progressive' for a long time. So I personally don't consider that definition to apply.

To me, Progressive music means music that actually progresses as you listen to it. Stuff like ACOS, Metropolis, songs that don't just have a repeating verse chorus, verse chorus, solo, chorus, fade out riff. Sure, in Dream Theater's case, SOME songs might be like that, but I think what truly makes a band progressive is if they do structure their music outside of that basic formula. Like, Queens' Bohemian Rhapsody, I would call a truly progressive song, one of the most progressive songs in history. Not because it did something new and different at the time, but because the song itself keeps evolving throughout, and changing into something different. To me, that's the true definition of progressive.

[IdoSC]

I rarely ever love more than one band per genre as much as I love Dream Theater. However I do enjoy Prog Metal, and I listen to the occasional Queensryche, Circus, Opeth, whatever.

Muse are also one of my favorite bands and apparently some people consider them "New Prog" or actual Prog Metal, probably because of songs like Stockholm Syndrome. I usually don't see it that way, but if it works for anyone, that's awesome.

[Perpetual Change]

For what it's worth, prog/power metal is well past its heyday. There was a lot of good stuff in the 90s and even early 00s, but most of the good bands have either moved into different styles or haven't developed stylistically at all. Plus, there's a lot of new cookie-cutter bands out now that have diluted the genre. In 2012, it's easy to not take the genre seriously.

[jingle.boy]

...In the last 12 months, I've discovered Flaming Row, Beyond the Bridge, Redemption, Epysode, Avantasia, ReVamp, After Forever, Amaran's Plight, Mind's Eye, Frameshift, Pagan's Mind, Soul Secret, Ice Age, and others....

You mentioned Mind's Eye. I fell in love with A Gentleman's Hurricane a few weeks ago. How are their previous albums compared to it?

I haven't explored anything other than Gentleman's Hurricane yet either.   

[davzdrummer]

Animals as Leaders sounds great for me, give it a try 

[WheyWaffles]

Standouts for me, Circus Maximus, Myrath, Pathosray, Seventh Wonder, 7 Months.

And this is why topics like this are highly subjective to one's personal tastes.  I've heard many say that Circus Maximus, and Seventh Wonder are bland knock-offs, unimaginative etc, etc.  I personally don't think that, but it's been said.

Seventh Wonder's first album, Become, certainly couldn't be classified that way (their best work IMO, though few agree), though I can understand the newer stuff with the new singer being considered such.

On a side note, prog metal takes time to appreciate.  I've blown off a lot of great music on the first spin but realized there's a lot more to it after a few playthroughs.  The stuff I like on first listen generally gets boring first.

[skydivingninja]

I agree with Rumborak completely, though there are a lot of other prog metal bands I like that do have those catchy elements to them, but they certainly don't write in the same style as DT (Mastodon is a great example, as is Devin Townsend).

[rumborak]

To cite a specific example, earlier today I listened to Bad Salad because the thread was active. Total genero-prog.

rumborak

[wolven74]

This may have been stated already (I'm too lazy to read the entire thread to find my point) but for me it's not that I don't like other prog acts, but I find that most of the prog metal out there are either carbon copies of, or so obviously influenced by, DT that you'd be saving time by just listening to the original.

That being said, I do think Beyond the Bridge have some interesting ideas and they're execution is pretty kick ass, but again, I can tell they were heavily influenced by DT, so it's no wonder I can get into them.

[namgalsipsclar]

Haken are definitely worth a listen, although I'd say Aquarius over Visions. They don't fall into the prog-metal trap of being overly technical and lacking actual music. They are one of the few bands I would compare to DT in terms of style, but not so much sounding similar, more just that they vary it up a bit and write some terrific melodies. Also, they're kinda fun, with the circusy interlude in Celestial Elixir being a prime example 

[?]

I like bands like Opeth, Porcupine Tree and OSI and many bands with proggy elements but DT is the only band in this traditional kind of prog metal (tenor vocals, lots of solos, complexity and long songs) that I listen to. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that I prefer atmosphere to technicality nowadays but I can't get into these modern bands in vein of DT. Too many of them are just taking the DT elements and adding nothing of their own and I think that's the opposite of being progressive. I mean, why listen to a carbon copy when you can listen to the original?

[Ravenheart]

Through thick and thin, wankery and subtlety, DT are definitely a diamond in the rough. Even when the music isn't all that spectacular, it's still better than most bands in the genre, which is mostly flooded with stale imitators.

[YtseJamittaja]

You should listen to Circus Maximus's new album Nine. Catchy choruses, great guitar riffs and although memorable songs. The older material = I don't recommend.

But yeah, I can agree with the OP. Symphony X has some good catchy songs, Pain Of Salvation has some good songs but DT has many awesome songs, that's some magic what anybody else doesn't have.

I like bands like Opeth, Porcupine Tree and OSI and many bands with proggy elements but DT is the only band in this traditional kind of prog metal (tenor vocals, lots of solos, complexity and long songs) that I listen to. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that I prefer atmosphere to technicality nowadays but I can't get into these modern bands in vein of DT. Too many of them are just taking the DT elements and adding nothing of their own and I think that's the opposite of being progressive. I mean, why listen to a carbon copy when you can listen to the original?

I'm with you.

[MoraWintersoul]

I guess I'm really good at avoiding this genero-prog you're talking about because I can't remember ever listening to an album and saying "okay, DT has done all these guys are doing now, and done it better". Maybe only Seventh Wonder, but then again, Mercy Falls is so good that I honestly don't give a damn. Symphony X is an interesting case in particular - combining a bit of 90's DT (in the early days at least) with all the stuff I usually tend to avoid - symphonic stuff, bombast, GREAT BIG melodies, enough shred to make even my shred-loving head spin, and yet I like them a lot.

When I go for prog metal, I usually go for either the soft, emotional, atmospheric stuff or mixes with other genres, particularly extreme genres or avant-garde, and it works fine for me. Prog metal is thus my favorite genre of music, because I can find bands in it that embody everything I love about both metal and progressive music and the variety is insane - from OSI to Leprous to Riverside. But that's how most genres of music are when you dig into the underground.

[emblempride]

Comma Paradise hehe, sorry: It may not mean much coming from someone as young as myself and who hasn't been listening to DT for as long as most of you probably have, but it may be just as interesting for some veteran fans to read my opinion as it was for me reading yours.

I started listening to DT about 3 years ago at a pretty pivotal age for discovering yourself in music and interests, and for that first year, I only listened to them. Seriously. I was familiar with some Prog through my parents and was and still am a fan of a few big name Prog rock bands that probably don't even need to be mentioned on this forum to be recognized, but Dream Theater was my first foray into Progressive Metal. And Jesus Christ did they kick my ass that entire year. I was always a huge Thrash Metal fan, and it's still my favorite genre, but there was something magical about this band. I always knew there was something about them specifically that was special, but despite them solely dominating my ears for a lengthy period of time, I always accredited the entire Progressive Metal genre for being my affinity.

After I had finished remembering all parts of their material by heart, like I'm sure the great majority of you have, I started to go back to my other musical loves, mostly metal, but fairly vast. If it may help you understand my perspective a bit more, I try to listen to everything except Country, but Metal happens to enchant me in an indescribable way, with Thrash being my favorite because of the VAST amount of talented and amazing bands out there and Dream Theater being my favorite band because... Well, you should know hehe. Anywhoo, after a while, I decided to give the genre that I had thought to be so amazing (because of one band) a chance by actually listening to not-Dream Theater. I started off with Redemption, Fates Warning, Symphony X, and other name Prog bands, and while there was some great material there, I always found myself bored. I felt exactly the way you did, and everything really paled in comparison to DT or sounded like a watered-down/try-hard version of them.. It was a weird feeling, but I never really lost faith in it, especially since
 I still had my taste for Classic Prog.

The first Progressive Metal band to grab me in any way for a while was Pain of Salvation. I had heard wonders about them, but was iffy since I had heard that they were more "Prog Rock" but not "Prog Rock", and wasn't sure what to expect. Now, I play guitar and we guitarists like to think we have an easier time understanding music that's new and different to the normal ear, and I have looked to DT and JP specifically as big inspirations on my playing since I listened to them and figured my own style yet, but I think that it was with PoS and looking back at DT, bands I had checked out previously, and classics like Yes and King Crimson that I REALLY got and learned what the Progressive genre was. I listened to The Perfect Element and was blown right away. Here was this Progressive Metal band that had really interesting instrumentation like DT does but in a different way; they weren't really as flaring and flashy as the Prog that I had heard and thought the genre confined to be. Everything they did was different, more than just a specific band or genre influence. Here was a singer that wasn't just roaring, soaring, or singing his ass off, but doing some crazy weird shit with his voice ala Mike Patton (on A Trace of Blood in Remedy Lane, he scats! definitely caught me off guard in a good way!) and doing other innovations like DT had with their music, but obviously in other ways. Here was band who, aside from the first few albums, didn't have a definitive sound as much as definitive elements. It opened my eyes in seeing the genre - understanding Progressive music as a whole, not just as being experimental like PoS or sounding like-DT and/or Rush.

From there, and for the most part of the last year and a half or so, I've been getting REALLY into the Prog scene, from Prog Rock like TFK and Moon Safari to Neo-Prog like IQ and Arena, and other examples that may be known around the forum. There's just so much you can do, so much that can make a song Progressive. To me, there's this almost euphorious aroma of mystery surrounding a new band or something I haven't heard yet because you never know what you're going to get.  I mean, sure, there are a lot of DT-clones and bands labeling bad Tech Metal as Prog, but finding a band like Haken or Canvas Solaris or w/e that really captures that respective sound well is crazy. And even then, such as in Haken's case, aside from a few sections throughout Visions, their sound is very distinct in comparison to Dream Theater's and other bands.

Thrash may be my favorite genre, but it's only because of the sheer amount of good Thrash bands that are out there. Prog has maintained a strong 2nd spot for me because of how spectacular it is when you do find a good band. And it's not like there aren't a lot - because there are. It may not be your thing, and I understand liking Prog and not DT because Dream Theater is a band that has been comprised of musical angels, but as possible with every genre, if you look really deep and find that majesty and connection that separates itself from DT(which of course you may never do, which is A-OK), you'll find a pretty wide gold mine. And judging from the songs I heard from some of the fairly large haul of new bands and old I worked my ass off to order from LaserCD today actually, if some of you ever do get to embrace Prog, you can, and always will be able to find yourself a lot of good material.

TL;DR - I fuckin' love Prog and I hope you all do one day too