Yeah so in general I'm kinda more talking about stuff like Supuration or Timeghoul when I mean progressive death metal, less the stuff with acoustic guitars and kinda heavily emotional based, that stuff doesn't really interest me very much.

I don't mean pre Opeth in terms of the literal years tho obviously I like 90s stuff better, but idk it could be stuff like nocturnus or atheist even but what's important to me is that emphasis on really aggressive heavy riffing style with a big progressive and melodic bent.

I know Disaffected but barely, I'm kinda looking for stuff in that general style you know, like almost Pan Thy monium stuff too, just really odd death and doom shit.

I'm trying not to be extremely vague about it so hopefully someone gets what I'm talking about

There is Lykathea Aflame and their previous version Appalling Spawn, I think they have a good balance between all the styles they blend and they sound quite progressive.

You mentioned Pan Thy monium so I guess you must have listened to Dan Swano's Moontower album, but if by any chance you haven't it's also more than recommended, death metal very influenced by 70's prog rock.

Vital Remains debut is not categorically progressive death metal but the songs are in constant movement between different and distinctive sections, also it has quite a lot of doom metal influence, I think it's worth listening to it.

Are you asking for new bands like Blood Incantation, etc?

There are a bunch of amazing bands from the 90s that fit this bill, they all sound different to one another (being 'progressive', of course).
You might know some already but here are some recommendations:

Afflicted - Wanderland (Demo)
Amboss - Those Who Have Lost the Right to Exist
Celeborn - Etherial (Demo)
Cyanotic - Promo 1995
Dark Millennium - Ashore the Celestial Burden
Deadhorse - Horsecore: An Unrelated Story That's Time Consuming
Decollation - Cursed Lands
Disgrace - Inside the Labyrinth of Depression (Demo)
Dr. Shrinker - The Eponym (Demo)
Haggard - Have You Ever Seen Worlds Progressive Technology?
Infamia - Infamia
Media in Morte - Into the Dark Ages (Demo)
Medicine Death - As a Vigorous and Lustful Figure
Mourning Sign - Alienor
Phlebotomized - Immense Intense Suspense
Strigaskór Nr. 42 - Demo (i.e., the three songs from the "Apocalypse" Icelandic death metal compilation)
Traumatic Voyagee - Traumatized...
Windbreed - Pipe Dreams

Cynic and Atheist both great progressive 90s metal bands.

Not specifically as I already am aware of them but yeah I think they fit stylistically and don't be afraid of modern stuff too id probably be more receptive considering it's a genuine stereotype in my mind that any modern progressive metal will be the lamest softest shit I've ever heard so prove me wrong

I can think of some awesome stuff in that vein:

Blood Incantation:
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com ... human-race

Stargazer:
https://stargazeraustralia.bandcamp.com ... re-the-sky

Venenum:
https://venenum.bandcamp.com/album/trance-of-death

Ghastly:
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/mercurial-passages

Burial Invocation:
https://burialinvocation.bandcamp.com/album/abiogenesis

Ulthar:
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/helionomicon

Faceless Burial:
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com ... deliration

Horrendous:
https://horrendous.bandcamp.com/album/o ... -mysterium

The Chasm:
https://luxinframundisproductions.bandc ... rmal-abysm

monstrosity - millennium

tech/prog death with some balls. funnily enough corpsegrinder does vocals on this one but trust me, this doesn't sound like cannibal corpse. if you've dug deep into 90s floridian death metal tho you may have already heard this one

in terms of modern stuff i'll also recommend darkness of god by heaving earth, very complex album compositionally and has some elements in common with bands like immolation etc. amazing album but may take a few listens to grasp

Voidceremony probably would fit what you’re after and from a modern band.

Disharmonic Orchestra? I'll be giving them my first proper listen soon - CD arrived in the mail earlier today. For now I just want to note that I was not expecting this:

Disharmonic orchestra is pretty cool I actually like the third album but it's not death metal it's kinda just like Voivod making alternative hardcore just from memory but I remember digging it

First is pretty solid they were a weird band.

bit of a scatter shot here, but try anata, diskord, hieronymus bosch, and !t.o.o.h.!

Love me some Akercocke.

Cadaver's 2nd album "...In Pains" is pretty progressive, full of twisted off-kilter riffs and an overall feeling of bizarre mental illness. It's not outrageously heavy, the production is quite dry which adds to the rather clinical feel.

https://youtu.be/0Nl24GAbe_k


Edit:
That's just reminded me of another Norwegian band who may be even more appropriate: Diskord sound like an even more extreme and technical version of Cadaver, taking the twisted off-kilter riffs to even more bizarre places. Great stuff.

https://youtu.be/xNi2Kn1Z6p8

Sadist from Italy.

They've had a long run thus far. You can expect some real steps out of the box with these guys.

You mentioned Supuration. You might want to look into other French bands. Misanthrope is very weird, especially early on, but they ahve some coola lbums, and I think they just win points from me for being so damn eccentric -- even when they were playing slightly Swede inspired melodic death metal in the late 90s they were qutie unusual and distinctive. There's also Dementia. Someone on this board years and years ago recommended their In teh Core of the Dark Ages album to me and it is pretty great.

Disaffected from Portugal might be worth a look, but even though they are basically "pre-opeth" in the sense that their first album did materialise around '95, they might be too much the other way for you as they use a lot of keyboards, occasional female guest vocals and so on. They can be pretty intense though; it's not particularly soft if you ask me. Same goes for Sadist from Italy, who were already mentioned -- unfortunately their vocalist often uses a style I don't really like, but damn, that's some adventurous music, and Above the Light, their 1993 debut, doesn't really have any vocal issues for me.

On the more traditional side of things, but still fitting the bill of your request, I think, you might be wanting to look into Carbonized, especially as you mentioned liking Disharmonic Orchestra. The second album is quite weird and the third isn't really even metal. Start at the beginning and work your way forward I'd say.

I'm assuming you know Atrocity already. Especially their second album.

The Opeth qualification was mostly to say I just don't have much interest in that sound cuz it's just too soft for my tastes too low on intensity

Misanthrope always fascinated me but I never took the plunge I'd probably dig it I'm sure

Even tho I made the thread Id say septic flesh first few albums is a good recommendation to anyone else curious and unfamiliar with it

Some good bands mentioned so far, defintely seconding Carbonized who were well ahead of the curve in terms of adding Voivod-esque oddness to their sound, both "Recarbonized" and "No Canonization" are great.

What strikes me from the range of bands mentioned is the range of different directions 'progressive death metal' can take, which is entirely in keeping with the 'progressive ethos'. I'd say that death metal is a progressive genre by nature, everything in the early days was experimenting. "Altars of Madness" is incredibly experimental.

There seem to be a few broad schools of progginess though, the Voivod school (Supuration, Demilich, Carbonized), the Rush/Watchtower/fusion school (Cynic, Atheist), the 'gothy' school (early MDB, Timeghoul, Dark Millennium, Medicine Death), and the Camel/Genesis/prog-rock school (stuff like Opeth). There are tons of different crossovers of course, and plenty of merging between these, and newer forms (like Lykathea) but that's how I break it down in my head.

Another good one I'd throw into the mix is Nomicon, both the demo ("The-Triangle") and the record after ("The Me") are well worth seeking - somewhere between the first Afflicted and Demilich albums.

We should mention the first Fear Factory album too, of course.

Gardens of Obscurity released a couple demo tapes in the early 90s that I think fits what you're looking for. Especially their second demo (links below). On the archives they're listed as death/doom, but I'm not really sure that's accurate since I hear a lot more progressive/death than any doom. The band's main claim to fame is Peter Wildoer (Darkane) was the drummer in the band. I'm sort of surprised these demos haven't been reissued on CD / vinyl in all these years.

Two things: Black and doom metal always get the perception of being more varied and creative than death metal which is stupid because all three are as creative as each other and definitely more diverse than the rest of the subgenres, I don't think that means it's definitely superior, an album like coma of souls is gonna destroy probably most shit in any genre for example, but yeah death metal is certainly as multifaceted and all three genres are really connected to each other they aren't distinct entities, they're all 3 seemingly different sounds that are bridged by all the creative ways you can get out of the seemingly different sounds.

Secondly: I don't think the son called "progressive" stuff like Opeth or dream theater is very progressive at all tbh, that's my only real ultra nerd genre name critique I don't think it's fitting and I think it's misleading to people because I think it gives people the idea that progressive means tame, and no progressive is the most genuinely abrasive fucking thing in the entire fucking universe, I think in an ideological sense the progressive genre tag is immensely hypocritical considering it's just nice pretty music that's drawn out and boring, it's not breaking any ground besides teaching me how much of taste is dictated by ego lol

I could rant about progressive all day musically and culturally, but it's not playing by the rules and having a grand explanation why it's different, it's actively pointing out how the rules only exist to diminish your worth and place in the world.

Of course that can't really be clearly translated into sound, but in a metal context I think Disembowelment is amazingly progressive and forward thinking because it just expands itself immensely while still being dead fucking simple almost like it's saying to me I'll break my genius command of sound down to super basic just to see if you recognize that's what I'm doing, let's see if you really think outside the box when it comes time to interpret what the music does.

I think in order for me to consider it progressive, there has to be something about it that is super basic at first glance, but just seems to be more, it can risk appearing stupid or simple because depth isn't something that can really be detected in full at first glance.

Don't know how the bands interpret their own music obviously but I bet the real talented ones usually have a deliberate purpose, they just know better than to clue everyone in on it, you gotta see it for yourself.

And I think a record like that or Obituary cause of death too is another great example I wanna mention cuz it's the same thing, it appears really simple but there's so much life to it despite being about death, truly progressive confronts the horror of life and doesn't lack in intensity, pink Floyd is a soft mellow band but they're fuckin extreme, and I didn't even think about it like that until those "simple" dudes from obituary said that about them.

Keep it simple keep it intense keep it real because that's how you seperate a real progressive metal album from the one that sounds like all that other music that's more accepted by the society at large you're supposedly against, nah I don't need that, Something like Reign in blood already showed me that's not the way I have to be, I can just be myself

I don't know about death metal being perceived as less creative or progressive in general than the other two (I've never heard such a thing really despite the prominence of "meat 'n' potatoes" bands like Cannibal Corpse and Obituary), but one thing that I've noticed, especially after watching a few metal youtubers, is this perception that death metal only got more progressively inclined later on, say in the early 2000s (kind of an arbitrary figure, but if you want, start with Opeth). Definitely ignoring a lot of the wild experimentation that was going on in the very early 90s. Death (the band) is certainly acknowledged, but truthfully, there were just so many pushing the boat out around the same time.

There is this band from Switzerland called Babylon Sad, they released only one album "Kyrie" in 1992 and then split up. I got it years ago in one bargain bin in a mall just because it had a sticker on the cover which said "gothic death metal" or something like that. The album is very progressive, like a mixture of Rush and Asphyx.

I think you're absolutely right, I don't imply a victim mentality saying it about death metal it's like all everyone says is ok started with thrash then death metal was normal then atheist and Cynic came along then and changed it into a serious form of music it lulled until Opeth and all the fuckin "open minded" crap then people wanted to pretend they were 20 years old again so it had a revival.

People just really do ignore the genre besides just pointing out what everyone else says about it, even metal fans do that too it's like come on man the way I feel about this music in general is it really isn't for the faint of heart at all, I see a lot of people with taste in it that is all about it the more it attempts to be seen as "serious music" and I hate that attitude it's so underhandedly dismissing the genre the same way everyone else does but pretending it's the biggest fan at the same time.

I look at atheist as the crossroads especially unquestionable presence because it's basically the same as piece of time in pacing and playing technique only it's translated into a more sort of nuanced, and enlightened version of the sound, its really a great example of moving the genre forward because it's all about exploring the possibilities to the maximum instead of trying to prove anything to me, it's creative on their terms not trying to meet my standards

Cynic focus is the same way but I feel that's kinda where it went to far, not the bands fault but they kinda figured out a sound which is totally natural and authentic and legitimately creative and expressive, and I love the record I just feel people don't always like it for the right reasons and they especially hate it for the wrong reasons too, that's like just completely 100 percent death metal in my opinion its just so not on surface that the whole thing just gets mistaken as soft because of it's surface, it's probably more intense than pretty much everything in the genre, it's just so different that its several layers to discovering what it really is, I kinda just realized it talking just now about it, but that really is a deceiving fuckin record, it's just total fuck you and so good at appearing harmless that I'm actually blown away that I didn't even really notice it

The third atheist album elements is kinda like that too, so is pestilences spheres, I just think Focus is a step beyond, it's probably the natural conclusion of what death metal really is, partly the sound, but partly because it comes off as innocent and gentle, but it's really kinda mean and harsh, and that's fitting because that's how evil spreads itself in real life

So id say cynics focus really did destroy death metal not because of the way it sounds but really because it's a great example of how sound itself is an illusion, the feeling behind it is what makes it death metal or not death metal, and it fed the ego of the ones who think sound itself is the reason something is sophisticated or not, man I'm really impressed with that record more than I ever was just kinda looking into it that way, it really is what the genre actually means in such a pure form with no sense of pretending, I think it's what all the other bands are really saying behind the hate and aggression, I just think it's too pure to be really felt at first

I don't know how much of a death metal album it really is, but I certainly do love Focus. i grew up listening to jazz stuff, long before I discovered metal in my teens, and I think Cynic definitely appeals to the former just as much or more than the latter side, which is fine. I also enjoy Cynic's demos quite a lot,a nd they might be more in line with what the thread is after, though of course you can hear most of the songs that ended up on Focus in a more primal fashion as well.

Yeah I'm going strictly on non musical reasoning at the moment but idk man it just seems jazz gets a pass cuz in the eyes of corporate America only that form of music is legitimate as outsiders being creative, it's a delicate topic but I know it's because corporate America is really just rich white America and they know how to sell the pain of minorities to poor white people better than selling the pain of poor white people back to poor white people so that's really the only reason jazz or blues can be accepted as more legitimate of an art form than something like metal also metal is hilariously stereotyped as brash and mean and dangerous hilariously the same way they used to portray minorities lol but that's something most people probably don't even think far enough into to realize

I say this mostly cuz I feel two ways about it: number one the only reason certain music is seen as high status over others is mostly because of people just having one sort of definition of what being at a disadvantage in life means so whatever speaks to that image they think is obviously the true meaning and secondly, it ties back into metal fans who have that need for metal to be taken excessively serious in discussions of serious music, and how that's a useless pursuit, but also its contrary to the genre itself, all those psychedelic hippies were fuckin fakes bruh all that shit was a lie, that just reaffirms the status quo, the top can easily combat that and radicalize people on the fence against some stupid fucking burn out hippie, that's so fucking easy Jesus, but how about if we make a sound that is symbolically as heavy and dark as life really is and use that as a way to fight back against it, we'll be dark and evil and that way the people on top look really goofy trying to fight against it and thereby really expose themselves more, we dont need your "sophistication" we already know how little that really means, its that feeling that only metal has and so far its the only genre that ever really accomplished it besides probably rap.

No point in fighting the system, prove you don't need it and you'll really start to understand how much they need you, you'll have the power.

Metal always was sophisticated, too sophisticated to know that appearing excessively approachable is what the bad guys do, not the ones who see through it

I don't think it's a conscious decision to do any of that like I don't think bands set out with the goal, but that's what they're doing fundamentally and I think unfortunately it'll probably lose out to whatever bullshit is marketable as rebellious.

But I think the real fans know that's to be expected anyway

Well, I wasn't expecting this thread to go here. I don't tend to think about it in this fashion -- artists just play what they want to play, and I take that as a given unless I really think some weird compromise has happened. I don't know about the acceptance of jazz -- the general public seems quite averse to it more often than not, but none of that stuff really matters to me, I just know what I like, and if artists or bands connect with me, I'll go in pretty deep, but there isn't a "big picture" for me and I don't spend much time thinking about genres and their place in the world.

Oh no problem i just find the way I think about it kinda enhances the enjoyment for me it's just what the music I like the most means to me, idk I know you didn't even imply it but kinda when you mentioned jazz I thought about how that would tie into what I was saying a little it was actually kinda a perfect response cuz you're speaking just as a fan of music but I guess kinda the way I am I just see a lot of shit the pretentious metal fan way even tho I really just don't agree with it I understand their point of view a little better I guess

I just think music is way too trivialized these days I just like to take it a little seriously just cuz the whole mental aspect of just reading way too far into things is something I find enjoyable it always ends up making perfect sense too, just maybe uncomfortable to some

Maybe you should give Kalisia a shot.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Kalisia/4985

Well fawkin put Sir. especially that last sentence......church!

If I may, after my short time here as a user it's clear that you are passionate as fuck about music and take it seriously....which of course
is killer. I enjoy reading your muse rants hahaha, respectfully but of course!
They're well typed and it is clear to me that you have vast knowledge but also know what you like and don't like.

In regards to prog music/metal. I've always felt prog=better musicians capable of higher levels of playing and thinking outside of the typical 4 on the floor.

I certainly don't want to trivialise music and I think I'm also quite passionate about it. I could even say I'm quite passionate about metal, since I listen to it a lot, talk about it, and even still visit this forum. But I'm passionate about art in general and believe in the creators doing what they want to do, regardless of genres, styles, or anything else. I don't think that's pretentious and I don't think a band like Cynic not being afraid to demonstrate their skills while writing songs that just happen to (sometimes) fit into a metal framework is in any way pompous. They just make the music they want to make, and that's how it should be for everyone.

One of the best progressive death metal albums that I listened to, check it out if you haven't.

Check out the first demos that they made, they were called Godzilla and played a much nastier version of progressive metal.

Execration fit the old school progressive death metal too.

No you're fine I can turn into quite a dipshit sometimes when I get a little too buzzed shall we say

Man I've downloaded probably 30 or so albums the last day mostly black metal I gotta keep up

Im actually kinda happy to be mostly listening to unexplored stuff at the moment, tho I sometimes wish there wasn't so much shit in life sometimes, I get overloaded, probably why I try to ignore it most of the time

I've always like In Mourning(Sweden), and more recently Be'Lakor(Australia).

Would anyone consider Omnianthropy from Mexico to be Proggy DM?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxcj5czE0cY

I think Mithras fits in here somewhere.



I never really thought of them as progressive until this thread, but working within the frame work you've established I think they fit the bill. They have some of the best lead guitar work in death metal, too.

They've already been mentioned, but the first Afflicted album Prodigal Sun is pretty wild progressive death metal for the time it was released.



Also, for fans of StarGazer and The Chasm VoidCeremony and Aenigmatum should be bands up your alley.

Somebody mentioned Venenum already but I'd highly recommend looking into them. Last few tracks of their LP are literally progressive rock.