Metal Monday: Metal Essentials – Progressive Metal
posted in: Features • Reviews & Playlists • Rock
If a person is to consider themselves a metalhead, they had best know the roots”the basics. Be aware of all subgenres, who dominates them and know the albums that helped shape that subgenre. For the next few weeks, I’ll be schooling you on some essential metal albums from metal’s biggest subgenres; making sure you know the biggest and the best in the metal world while giving you some essential albums to add to your metal collection.
This week’s topic seeks to stretch the genre boundaries of metal, and, quite literally, the length of songs. I’m referring to progressive metal.
The first album on this list is an epic that comes straight from the brilliant mind of Arjen Lucassen under the pseudonym Ayreon. Though there are a few great albums in the Ayreon catalog, one stands out above all else: The Human Equation. Clocking in at an hour and forty-five minutes, this is truly a massive album. With one large, continuous storyline and a tremendous amount of style changes, the only way to describe this album is as an adventure. Legends like Mikael í…kerfeldt, James LaBrie and Devin Townsend make guest appearances on the album as “characters” which adds to the overall story effect. Twenty songs, all with incredibly distinct moods and themes, are combined into one grand tale. With plot twists, an incredible climax and a heart-wrenching resolution, The Human Equation is all a fan could want in a progressive metal album.
The next album is far less grand than Ayreon‘s The Human Equation but it packs just as much power in half the time. Arguably the most commercially-successful progressive metal album of all time (it went gold in less than 3 years after its release), Dream Theater‘s Images and Worlds is an absolute must for any metal collection. Each member of Dream Theater shows extraordinary amounts of talent on this album but their contributions never feel like overt showmanship because they play so naturally. Masters of the necessary ebb and flow of a progressive metal album, Dream Theater can seamlessly go full force with a powerful sound then tone things down to a more somber level. However, this album really makes waves in the vocal department. Images and Worlds really cemented the band’s sound for the next ten albums to come thanks to James LaBrie’s lead vocals in addition to top-notch writing, performance and production.
The third album on today’s list is Opeth‘s Blackwater Park. With 8 other equally-magnificent albums, choosing just one record by this band was really tough. They added a new facet to the genre of progressive metal, something much more sinister, making Blackwater Park heavier than both The Human Equation and Images and Worlds. Typical of most progressive metal, the song lengths on the album are quite substantial (three tracks are over ten minutes long and all but one track are over six minutes long). Mikael í…kerfeldt’s mastery of both gutteral growls and angelic vocals give this album a dimension no other band can capitalize on in the same way. Even when there are sudden and striking transitions between death metal style and a quaint acoustic section, it feels right. Every moment of the album seems meticulously thought and planned out, and thus executed to beautiful perfection.
Picking only three albums for this week’s list was a tough task since these bands each have other releases that could easily be considered quintessential to the progressive metal genre “ a feat almost unrivaled in contemporary music. Regardless, if there is any chance of interest in progressive metal, one of these three albums will surely hit the spot (just be prepared for the long haul, as no one track off of any of these albums can really do them justice).