A great genre of music in my opinion. Or at least most interesting on par with Post-Rock/Metal. Bands i like are The Mars Volta, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Cog, Symphony X, Tool, Karnivool, Sleep Parade, Pink Floyd, Template. I like Dream Theater too, but i don't know what album i should should check out. Muse sound good in their progressive moments too. We have a really good progressive music scene in Australia with Template, Cog, Karnivool, Sleep Parade and Arcane among others.
I've heard a lot of great things about this genre but never really got into it. I'm not a big fan of most metal and only like some metal core bands, along with many types of alt. rock. How should I get to know this genre?
Tool are similar to some alt. rock but they are also similar to many prog rock/metal bands, so i guess they could be a sort of 'gateway' band for you. Maybe you'd like Coheed and Cambria, The Mars Volta or Porcupine Tree? They're the more popular ones but all those aus-prog bands i listed are very accessible. Particularly Cog and Karnivool. Those bands are all prog rock and not prog metal but after your used to those bands prog metal is similar but heavier, and faster usually. Dream Theater's a popular Prog Metal band and Opeth are too but they have some Death growls so you might not like them. Good luck.
The Mars Volta, for sure. Would The Human Abstract and Protest the Hero count? Probably more so PtH than THA.
Dream Theater. Check out Octavarium (the album or the song), as well as Scenes From A Memory if you like concept albums. Systematic Chaos also has some awesome songs.
I'm not a big fan of progressive rock, however I do like one track from a recent album: Mixtaped by no-man, album is schoolyard ghosts. That song is so badass, especially when you have surround sound and a subwoofer, although If your speakers are very loud, after the track you can suffer from what it feels like is very mild shellshock for about 10 mins.
I agree with Tool being the "gateway" band for people who want to get into more progressive stuff. The Mars Volta and Mastodon (not sure if you can accurately call them prog, but oh well) are some of my favorites.
Pink Floyd started the whole thing in my opinion+the rest followed and were inspired by them. My favorite prog groups: 1) TOOL~every album they've releashed 2) DREAM THEATER~I prefer Systematic Chaos and Awake 3) SHADOW GALLERY 4) THE MARS VOLTA 5) ISIS~Progressive Rock that tends to become Post Rock 6) PORCUPINE TREE
Well I saw Protest The Hero So I'll put this since They are one of my Favorites The Sound Of Animals Fighting Preferably Their First album Tiger and The Duke The second one, Lover The Lord Has Left Us, Has a FEW good songs that are amazing but a lot of Experimental tracks.
Coheed and Cambria aren't progressive rock. They've got elements of progressive rock, but they're more of a post-hardcore band without any screaming. I'll suggest The Sound of Animals Fighting as well.
@ DisturbedOne98, Butterfly effect are yet another awesome aus-prog band. @Will, I've never really listened to much coheed but i've heard they are progressive and they seem to have long songs and some good guitars so yeah Thanks Harlz I'll definitely check those albums out. On the topic of whether Human Abstract and Protest The Hero are Progressive, I've always thought they were Mathcore or Mathrock, but they definitely do have some prog about them. Sometimes i think I'm listening to Symphony X instead of Protest The Hero until the vox come in.
No, Coheed and Cambria have some elements of progressive rock, but they're not really progressive rock at all. People like to call them that because their albums are all concept albums and they've got a really epic scope as far as their songwriting goes. But they're not progressive rock in the same vein as Symphony X or Dream Theater. As far as I'm concerned, they're post-hardcore with less screaming than is common (given that post-hardcore is supposed to be experimental anyway). Anyway, I wouldn't consider Protest the Hero progressive rock or metal either. They're very technically proficient so I'd probably just put them under mathcore, but that's just me.
Jordan you must check out the band three. they were touring with dream theater this year on progressive nation, and they blew my mind http://www.myspace.com/3