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posts about progressive metal.

noekk is a progressive rock / doom metal band from germany. they use a wide range of instruments, combined with vocals sung in an opera voice, to create a complex stream of music.

the first song, strange mountain, is from their debut album the water sprite.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the next song is from their second album, the grimalkin. consisting only of three songs, none of them shorter than 10 minutes, one even reaching 20 minutes, this album was the first one of noekk i listened to. personally, this is my favourite album.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the last song is from their latest album, the minstrel’s curse. that album goes a bit further in the metal direction, and the guitars are featured more prominently.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

communic is a norwegian progressive power metal band, often being compared to nevermore. so after writing about nevermore, communic is a good band to continue with.

the first song i want to present is from their debug album conspiracy in mind and called they feed on our fear. it shows the full spectrum of communic, from melodic, slow, beautiful parts to fast, powerful riffs, progressive elements here and there, and very good singing, somewhat similar to the one by warrel dane of nevermore.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the next two songs are from their second album, waves of visual decay. the first one, frozen asleep in the park, is very dark, sad.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the other one is waves of visual decay.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the last song is unpredictables of life from their 2008 album payment of existence.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

today i want to write about nevermore, a seattle-based metal band. while collecting the songs i want to present here, i read that two members left the band a couple of weeks ago, which seems to me as essentially the death of the band. which is bad, since i really like their music.

nevermore combines several different metal styles, like progressive metal, power metal (there is a dispute about this, though), thrash metal, into a melodic stream of music. the lyrics are often centered around political/social topics.

let me begin in the past, with their 1996 ep in memory. the opener of that album is a song called optimist or pessimist.

the optimist understands why the world’s gone down the drain
the pessimist never bends, constricting thoughts in vain
from the pessimist’s point of view there’s nothing we can do
as i paint this picture gray and taste the pain
i’ll play the optimist

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song, the tiananmen man, is about a man depicted in a famous photo taken during the tiananmen square protests of 1989. (you can see the photo here.) this song is from the the politics of ecstasy album, which also features the song next in line.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the third song is from the concept album dreaming neon black. it tells the story of a man, slowly loosing sanity, who lost a close to some cult. an incredibly emotional song, and so dark. the following song is the title song of the album; in my opinion, this is one of the best songs of nevermore.

sometimes i wonder where you are, can you feel my tears?
i never knew what changed you
did they paint your dreams in pale shades?
i wait for you, you know you cannot hide
division from within invalidates suffering
 
meet me in the dreamtime water, drown
shifting shaping currents flow in memory
(swim through me)
meet me in the drowning pool of tears
and wash away my innocence

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

released one year after the dreaming neon black album, dead heart in a dead world is another excellent album from nevermore. featuring many great songs, i decided to present you we disintegrate.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

i want to present two songs from the enemies of reality album. first, there’s the title song, enemies of reality.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song is noumenon, which is rather special. it’s psychedelic, very slow, and dark.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the final song i want to present is from their latest album, the obsidian conspiracy. again, this is the title song. it is fast and heavy.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

today i want to present dark suns, a progressive metal band from leipzig, germany. they started with playing very melodic, progressive doom metal for their album swanlike, then changed over to a more emotional, less doomy style without death growls for their album existence, while finally changing to a emotional progressive metal style for their latest album grave human genuine. their second album, existence, is one of my most favourite albums.

let me start with a song from their first album, swanlike. a slow, doomy song, yet so beautiful, melodic. parts with death growls, parts with clean vocals. a wonderful mix.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song is the last song from swanlike. starting almost ambient, the song is divided into two parts. the first four minutes are rather calm, while the second half is more heavy, similar to the sun beyond your eden. the end, again, is calm, like the beginning. a song full of beauty.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the next three songs are from their second album, existence. no death growls to be found here. the first song is called the euphoric sense.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song is anemone, one of my favourite songs from that album.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the third song is patterns of oblivion, featuring a variety of styles.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the existence album is really one of the best albums i know of. the last song i want to present is from their latest album, grave human genuine, called the chameleon defect. the whole album is different from the previous two; i personally prefer the first two albums. this song is a mixture between many calm parts and some heavy, fast parts. it also comes with a video, called the chameleon conflict. the video reminds me of certain david lynch movies…

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

after writing about opeth’s forest era, i want to write about their recent albums, starting with deliverance. let me begin with their progressive rock side (i.e. no metal! for all of you who don’t like metal), with the song coil from their newest album watershed. a very untypical opeth song, very easy to listen to, yet beautiful.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song is from their 2003 album damnation, which is closely linked to the 2002 album deliverance. both albums were recorded at the same time; while deliverance features mostly heavy songs, damnation is a progressive rock album. to rid the disease is my most favourite song from the damnation album.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the third song is from the 2005 ghost reveries album. it’s a very beautiful instrumental progressive rock piece. somewhat spacey.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the fourth song is a balad from the deliverance album. the first song today which includes heavy parts.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the next song is also from their newest album watershed (which, not surprisingly, did very well on the charts especially in scandinavian countries). a very progressive, complex song, with some surprises.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the sixth song, the lotus eater, is also from watershed. if i recall correctly, it was the first song officially released before the album. a very nice piece of progressive metal.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the seventh song is ghost reveries, the opener of the ghost reveries album. another beautiful progressive metal piece.

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the last song is deliverance from the album deliverance. a wonderful piece of progressive death metal, with a very interesting ending starting at 9:38. i once heard a rumor that the strange drum patterns for the ending appeared while fooling around with a drum computer, and in consequence opeth‘s drummer had to learn how to play this.

deliverance
thrown back at me
 
deliverance
laughing at me

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

if you like something heavier, you can try wreath, another song from the deliverance album.