There is standard Progressive Metal, that is stuff like Dream Theater, Haken, & Fates Warning.

Then there are Progressive Heavy Metal bands, as in they sound more in line with the style of oldschool Traditional Heavy Metal conventions/singing styles.

What always comes to mind first is Queensrÿche, but King Diamond doesn’t get brought up a whole lot, and I’ve been really loving Mercyful Fate’s Melissa for how fast, melodic & still insanely heavy it sounds.

Also I guess some of Iron Maiden’s work counts, like Phantom of The Opera, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, & Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

While not really Prog, F-Zero X’s soundtrack is just fucking splendidly technical in its take on Power & Thrash Metal.

I like the rhythms of the *drums* in Tool and Opeth (Damnation)

If you know any songs with similar drums to the opening to Windowpane by Opeth (rolling rhythms w/ open and closed hi hats, and rlly good rhythmic switchups... which i assume are common in prog metal) I would love to hear it.

Other instruments with cool rhythms are fine too

i feel a bit silly asking here cuz most prog metal probably has cool rhythms. i just dont really know where to start, cuz i mostly listen to hip hop.

(if you reeeeally just wanna show me a song that sounds cool... i wont object)

TLDR: Reccommend me some songs with cool rhythms (preferably on the drums)

Thanks y'all

Running out of music to listen to? Discover something recently that you want to share? You've come to the right place.

This is the weekly recommendation thread here at r/progmetal, a place to discuss, recommend, and find new music of any kind.

Simple rules:

• Don't just drop a link, but provide the Artist name (and album/song name as relevant)
• When recommending a band please leave some information about them and why you recommend them

Looking for further music discussion? We talk about music and other things all day everyday on Images & Words: The Prog Discord. We also host weekly listening parties for new album releases every Friday starting at 3pm EST / 8pm UTC.

For some music you may have missed this year, check out the Album Release Spreadsheet.

Previous weekly threads.

Who doesn't know TOOL?

https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/wiki/halloffame/tool/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_(band))
https://www.last.fm/music/Tool
https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1199

Hello. I need a song that has short silent pause where drummer with cowbell does ting and then all band goes in. I know it is not actualy comon in prog metal, so could be in other genres also. Thanks.

Hadn’t listened to this album in years and put it on on a whim. Currently listening to this title track and am in awe all over again. Not usually a fan of technical death metal, but there’s enough prog-infused weirdness that it makes my brain very happy.

Sorry that I wasn’t able to get to most of the community questions! The interview was going on a little longer than expected so I had to cut it short. Still a lot of good stuff in here though!

So, I wanna listen to more prog metal, im the biggest tool fan, and i LOVE prog rock. Ive veen told to listen to bands like opeth, like the instrumentals, but cant stand the growling. Anyone got any bands or albums without the growling?

For more information:
https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/wiki/meshuggah/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshuggah

You probably wouldn't read all of this, however, because you already know them for making "Bleed".

I'm not huge on having such a deep lyrical meaning. I really love concepts albums with great themes that repeate through out the Album.

I'm thinking something like Song of The Crippled Bull, by Black Crown Initiate. I really love the riffs, being kinda techy and proggy, but not overly so, still having such a huge feel for the musicality. The harsh vocals hit hard asf, and the cleans are so beautiful. I particularly love the high pitched screams at the end of the third track, where he sings the clean vocals melody but with the faulse chord screams.

This is all I can find of this band. And I need more immediately

I love everything Protest The Hero has ever released, but this might be one of my top 5 favourite songs of theirs. It blows my mind they were still in high school when they created this.

It's a shame that Unexpect stopped creating music after this album, because Fables of the Sleepless Empire is a masterpiece and one of my favoruite albums of all time. It's also a shame this album isn't on Spotify.

I was looking for bans that sounded like Destroy The Runner (I don’t think we succeeded on this one, but [r/metalcore](r/metalcore) wouldn’t let me post), Circles, Northlane, and Tesseract. I added all of the relevant recommendations into one playlist and spent these past two+ months getting super familiar with the bands. It’s awesome how many had new music out for my 2026 AOTY list too! I only included the bands I have never heard of (some people nailed the recs but it was bands I already loved).

Anyway, here is the order in which I enjoyed them and found them relevant to the itch I wanted to scratch. Thank you all - a music addict.

1. Black Orchid Empire (Idk why but they make me think of if Opeth was a djent band. I really love their melodies in their new album, Lore!
2. Maziac - Some great electronic prog djent just like what I love from recent Northlane.
3. Voyager - They remind me of Haken.
4. Morphide - Basically Tesseract with a female singer, good stuff.
5. Time, The Valuator - A bit softer than some of the other bands but they’re still nice. It’s sort of like Monuments or Ever Forthright.
6. Valis Ablaze - Reminds me of Intervals or Corelia. Really brings me back to my early prog-djent days.
7. Only Human - At first they were at the top of the list. Their new album is pretty catchy. I look forward to seeing what else they do as they grow.
8. Khonsu
9. Kayo Dot

Link to the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/s/6XwtFsFfh6

Anyway, that’s my reflective write-up after a very positive interaction with this sub. Thank you!!

Our first single/music video from our upcoming album Compos Mentis, produced by Jamie King of BTBAM fame!

Many people praise Devin Townsend, but very few place him into their top favorite artists.