Dream Theater’s Guide To Prog Metal

It’s intense. It’s noisy. It’s where rock meets jazz, hardcore and death metal. Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy picks five prog metal front-runners to melt your brain.

Backstage at Wembley Arena, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy is mentally preparing for a gig that few believed would ever happen. From playing the Marquee club in 1993, to this cavernous hall, Portnoy and his band have been written off at just about every stage of a 20 year career. And yet Dream Theater, like the phenomenon of progressive metal, has flourished beyond all expectations. And done so without the approval of the critics, who collectively complain that there are many notes, the songs are too long, and ask where the choruses are and “Why all the solos?”

“They’re all correct. But that’s why we like it,” shrugs Portnoy. Until recently it was almost obligatory for a progressive metal band to have a high-pitched, Geoff Tate-soundalike lead singer. Some still do. But as the scene broadened out, so its limitations were pricked.

“Progressive music is going in strange new directions,” observes Portnoy, who gives honorary mention to the likes of Fates Warning, Rush, Watchtower, Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden and Metallica for their roles as genre instigators. Here, then, are five newer groups that Portnoy believes deserve your attention...

Between The Buried And Me

Portnoy: “From America’s east coast. They’re part of a mind-twisting new wave of technical, progressive metal that includes Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum and Unexpect. Besides being fans of Pink Floyd and The Beatles, their album Colors is influenced by Mr. Bungle, Fantômas and Dillinger Escape Plan; it’s an eclectic mix of metal, hardcore, thrash and jazz. The whole thing is one giant song. Which is incredibly ambitious. I can see that they would give people into traditional progressive rock a headache, but the musicianship is off the chart.”

Classic Rock: BTB&M call their style “new wave polka grunge”, but you can’t go wrong with a band whose covers album pays lip service to Queen, Soundgarden, King Crimson, Smashing Pumpkins and, er... Mötley Crüe.

Recommended album: Colors (Victory, 2006)

Opeth

Portnoy: “I discovered them for the first time when they worked with Steven Wilson [Porcupine Tree mainman] on Blackwater Park in 2001. Until Steven turned me on to them when Porcupine Tree was an opening band of ours, I just assumed they were some generic death metal band. I’ve been a fan of their atmospheric, proggy side ever since. Their Damnation album [2003) sounded like the Moody Blues. The way they use the Mellotron reminds me of King Crimson, but they also have roots in folk and blues. It’s a real melting pot.”

Classic Rock: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt has openly admitted on stage that his band have ripped off veteran UK proggers Camel. Need we say more?

Recommended album: Ghost Reveries (Roadrunner, 2005)

Porcupine Tree

Portnoy: “Their Stupid Dream album made me a fan. I was immediately taken by the Pink Floyd sound they were embracing back then [1999]. Their roots are also in bands like Marillion and even Radiohead. Along with Oceansize, Anathema and Poland’s Riverside, they’ve taken progressive rock into an almost progressive-alternative place. Porcupine Tree make the type of records that I wish Radiohead had followed OK Computer with. Steven [Wilson] is one of today’s real geniuses.

“There’s talk of a project involving myself, Steve and Mikael [Åkerfeldt], but the three of us have the busiest schedules in the business. Maybe we’ll make it happen before the year 2050.”

Classic Rock: The most song-based of all these groups. Ignore them at your peril.

Recommended album: Fear Of A Blank Planet (Roadrunner, 2007)

Symphony X

Portnoy: “Dave Mustaine [of Megadeth] gave me the chance to pick a band for his Gigantour, and Symphony X seemed like the perfect choice. They represent a whole other sub-genre of symphonic, neo-classical progressive metal, which stems from the days of Rainbow and Kansas. You might say they’re like Heaven And Hell-era Black Sabbath with Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar, topped off by the amazing voice of Russell Allen.”

Classic Rock: Having been going since 1993, they deserve a break, and current album Paradise Lost is the one to do it.

Recommended album: Paradise Lost (Inside Out, 2007)

Beardfish

Portnoy: “They’re one of today’s best modern progressive rock bands, representing the genre’s classic sound. Beardfish made two independent records before signing to Inside Out. Just like old King Crimson, they’re more about darkness than heaviness. Like the Flower Kings and Neal Morse-era Spock’s Beard, they’re taking what the original prog bands did 30years ago into the current millennium. They’re obscure at the moment, but big things are ahead of them.”

Classic Rock: Beardfish are a four-piece from Sweden, and musically are very much in the vein as Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis and old-school fellow countrymen Kaipa. Listen to their new album Sleeping In Traffic: Part Two and you can hear influences and references from all points of the musical compass.

Recommended album: Sleeping In Traffic: Part One (Inside Out, 2007)