Tag: Prog Metal
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Queensrÿche ‘Empire’ (1990)
By the time Empire came out in 1990 Queensrÿche had already earned serious respect in the prog metal world for their precision, ambition, and sharp musicianship. What made this album stand out was how smoothly they blended those progressive roots with a more radio-friendly, melodic sound. Songs like “Jet City Woman” and “Silent Lucidity” showed…
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Architects ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ (2021)
For Those That Wish to Exist is basically a metal pop album. Arena-friendly and radio-ready filled with a collection of bangers that dip their toes into the heavy-heavy and melodic side of metal. Drummer Dan Searle remains the band’s anchor and secret weapon. He’s a total bad ass with his polyrhythmic fills and crushing double-kick…
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Whitehchapel ‘Hymns in Dissonance’ (2025)
Ed. Note: This is the first guest post in the history of this site (a new milestone!). Today’s album review will feature the writing of my brother Mitchell Plank, whose affinity for thoughtful prose is only supplanted by his love for heavy metal and photography. You can check out his photography Instagram by clicking here.…
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Tool ‘Lateralus’ (2001)
Maynard James Keenan is one of alternative rock’s most enigmatic and influential figures. The dude the genre over the past three decades with his distinct voice, intellectual lyricism, and multifaceted artistry. As the frontman of three pretty killer rock bands (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) he has a chameleon-like ability to shift between various forms–…
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The Fall of Troy ‘Doppelganger’ (2006)
The Fall of Troy was an underground favorite of mine during high school– their innovative blend of post-hardcore, math rock, and progressive metal was a dynamic addition to my musical repertoire that coincided with my love for post-hardcore bands like Underoath. Doppelganger is by far their best album in my eyes, and features all the…
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Corelia ‘Nostalgia’ (2011)
I first stumbled on Corelia a few years after college and can’t really recall how I found them. But I purchased the album digitally in 2012 on my iTunes account (remember when people did that?!?!) and I’m constantly reminded of them every time I connect my phone to the Bluetooth speakers in my car. Nostalgia…
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Elder ‘Reflections of a Floating World’ (2017)
It’s rare that I hear a band for the very first time and am immediately impressed by their ingenuity– listening to a full album every day for 450 days in a row will do that to you, especially when you supplement that already staggering habit with hits of singles throughout the day. But when I…
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories’ (1996)
I grew up in Cupertino and saw its rise from a relatively docile South Bay city to the tech epicenter of the world during Apple’s meteoric rise as the largest company on Planet Earth. Every year around Christmas my family would take a quick five minute drive from our house to Oak Meadow Court where…
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Dream Theater ‘Images and Words’ (1992)
Dream Theater is one of the “Big Three” in prog metal, and alongside Queensrÿche and Fates Warning helped prog metal become more than just a small niche genre stuck in between the demise of 80’s glam metal and 90’s alternative rock. Images and Words is an eclectic grab bag of prog rock influences– from New…
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Wolfhand ‘The Devil Arrives’ (2020)
A lone figure in a wide brimmed black hat appears just over the skyline. His long and dark leather jacket blows in the breeze, flowing with the dusty desert wind and yet unperturbed by it, a man who transcends . The silver glint of his revolvers, one-a-side dutifully attached to his hip as they have…
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Mastodon ‘Crack The Skye’ (2009)
Mastodon’s excellent 2009 album Crack The Skye sounds like Ozzy Osbourne did some LSD and decided to write a sludge metal record. That’s the best way to describe it in a nutshell, but peek under the covers and there is an incredible amount going on as Mastodon’s mastery over metal is the stuff of recent…
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Animals As Leaders ‘Parrhesia’ (2022)
Prog metal is having its moment in the Plank household the past few weeks, with excellent albums like Colors by Between The Buried and Me and Remember That You Will Die by Polyphia being a handful of favorites. Today we take a trip to the harder side of instrumental metal with the raucous Parrhesia by…
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Between The Buried And Me ‘Colors’ (2007)
When one of Dream Theater’s co-founders names your album his favorite of the year you know you’ve made it in the prog metal scene. That was the case for Between The Buried and Me and their album Colors when prog-rock legend drummer Mike Portnoy (along with numerous other publications) named this 65-minute eclectic journey the…
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