Rock - Progressive Rock ->>>

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There are so many prog-rock bands out there, its impossible to listen to them all, and everyone has their own taste. I have scoured Progressive Rock - Definition, Genres & Articles to find what suits me, and then settled to collecting and listening in detail to the best rated albums of the chosen artist. If I find I like an artist I will buy more.

My daughter has been asked to do an assignment on Dream Theatre - I'd never heard of them.... After listening to some of their stuff on Youtube, here are the conclusions I came to (feel free to disagree..:)
Listening to some of their stuff is not enough to make a proper judgement. They have a large catalog and it covers a lot of territory.
Dream Theatre - Genre: Heavy metal – originally from ‘heavy mettle’ – clumsy ability
The name is Dream Theater, they are an American band. They do not sit well in the Heavy metal genre if you compare them against other well know heavy metal bands.
Although their style followed on from ‘progressive’ rock in that their early music was not based on short song forms, their compositions amount to little more than extended riff rock relieved by shows of technical dexterity – what Frank Zappa once referred to as “clouds of educated gnat-notes” (He also referred to their "pathetic lick-spewage and freeze-dried stereotypifications.")
John Petrucci is a very highly regarded rock guitarist. He has been near the top of the heap for a long time. If you see him play live (I have) you will realise just how skilled and consumate a player he is, and he has developed his own style rather than cloning others.
Metal lyrics tend to be juvenile and banal, with romantic tragedy being a standard theme of metal. Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, frequently inspired by mythology and fiction, lending them an escapist quality. This theme was probably initiated by Black Sabbath's "The Wizard’ and Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On’ . Dream Theatre have nothing new to offer here.
Just as well Dream Theater are not a heavy metal band :)
Early Heavy metal bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, had singers with vocal strength and range that matched the power of the bands – a necessity in the days of inadequate PA systems. Very few bands following this era had singers who could do little more than speak the works of their songs. None of the singers in Dream Theatre appear to have had more than mediocre ability. The current fashion in the Metal formula, which Dream Theatre follow, is for the lyrics to be screamed and heavily distorted. This covers up any lack of vocal ability.
You need to listen to James LaBrie's vocal capabilities across all of Dream Theater's recordings. He actually has a great dynamic range and is much better than singers in any comparable bands.
Legacy: their early hit ‘Pull me Down’ appears to have set in stone the formula for modern Metal sound, particularly the sound of the bass and guitar doubling the underlying riff, which nearly all metal bands use today. Although there later albums appear to be more oriented to shorter song based music, there appears to have been little musical development in their style over their career. It remained for a few Bands such as System of a Down, who used Armenian folk tunes and political protest, and Rammstein, who combine theatrical performance with more melodic songs, to break the mold and bring new life to the genre.
System of a Down? Rammstein? I don't think they relate at all to what Dream Theater are trying to achieve.

Pete: I have respect for your opinion, it just doesn't agree with mine...
 
There are so many prog-rock bands out there, its impossible to listen to them all, and everyone has their own taste. I have scoured Progressive Rock - Definition, Genres & Articles to find what suits me, and then settled to collecting and listening in detail to the best rated albums of the chosen artist. If I find I like an artist I will buy more.
OMG that's an incredible resource.
 
I have many Influences as far as bands and genres and eras 60s,70s,80s etc like lots of different stuff but to me Hendrix created a style that just created even more kickass styles just that really bluesy vibe/tone its really tasty lol I try to incorporate some in my playing etc but I do like the more exotic eastern sounds as well. I don't know I'm just all over the place lol. for now I'm stuck in the 80s haha Rippin - YouTube
 
There was plenty of bad tones and sounds in all the eras though 60s/70s were great for that good straight up clean sounding tone with maybe hint of reverb/delay/echo etc then the 80s just went crazy with lots of abuse of heavy delay/reverb echo and **** load of compression etc and other effects lots of guitar tones were so wet with effects it just masked the good natural tones to me, I like the effects and all just don't abuse them lol
 
Heavy metal – originally from ‘heavy mettle’ – clumsy ability
I take it this is an attempt at sarcasm. The Zappa quotes are totally believable.
Originally Posted by glennb
There are so many prog-rock bands out there, its impossible to listen to them all, and everyone has their own taste. I have scoured Progressive Rock - Definition, Genres & Articles to find what suits me, and then settled to collecting and listening in detail to the best rated albums of the chosen artist. If I find I like an artist I will buy more.
There's also The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock, which evolved from the Progressive Rock Fidonet SIG.
 
I just really like a good Open Airy sound so to speak can't stand a super compressed and congested tone lol something about about how my ears perceive the soft clipping/overdrive nature of tubes I really love, transistors can get close don't get me wrong but I'm still hearing the differences, its simple really tubes involved with output transformer in a power section is a more natural load for speakers so it just sounds more natural and warmer solid state just always had that unmistakable digital tone to them that you can't get rid of.
 
lots and lots of prog bands indeed I like some of it though I like all kind of guitar styles man not so much with like nu-metal or death metal or anything the gain is cool and all with amps hot-rodded to hell and back but the playing isn't that great in my opinion lol that and well vocals kind of screw it all up anyways. who the hell wants hear some dude groan/growl/grunt etc save that for on the toilet or something haha.
 
Dream Theater is a good band to start with. They are impressive musicians and very dramatic music, but for me not something that last.

Tool is different. I really love this band. Especially the newer stuff like 10.000

One band that very few think of as prog rock is Scorpions. I stopped bying Scorpions with World Wide Live. But try Tokyo Tapes and Lonesome Crow. These are really great prog albums and Tokyo Tapes is one of my favorite live recordings.
 
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Scorpions - We'll Burn The Sky - Tokyo Tapes 1978 - YouTube
 
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