Music that sounds like other music (The newer progressive era)

Now I haven’t included a lot of bands that you’d like to hear, but these are some of the bands that I like, and am currently (or always) into

1)      Porcupine Tree - Soothing progressive rock with psychedalic elements

a.    Steven Wilson/Blackfield – This is probably the closest you can get, seeing that these are Steven Wilson’s own side projects. The only problem here being – Steven has failed to bring in a change, hence his songs sound like a more mellow version of PT’s. Blackfield are nothing but PT songs made sorrowful

b.   Opeth – Opeth are more on the heavier side, but these 2 bands do have a lot of similar ingredients

c.    Katatonia – The nostalgia and melancholia gave me a sense of direction when I was in complete depression

2)   Dream Theater – I know I’m a little late, but DT being my all time favourite, I just had to put this one out

a.    Liquid Tension Experiment – They are exactly DT without James Labrie (and John Myung of course, but Tony Levin’s Chapman Stick bass makes up for all lost, and more!). It would’ve been better if things had gone according to Portnoy’s initial plan of getting Dimebag Darrell, but they are fantastic nevertheless

b.   Pain of Salvation – POS sounds like a raw version of DT, kinda like their times during the early 90’s. Like the DT song ‘Lie’.

c.    Symphony X – Keyboard solos (check). Songs longer than 10 minutes (check). Scale changes (check). What’s missing?

d.    Special mention of the band Corelia, who are in my current list of favourites. Not too much similarity to DT, but they fall under progressive metal nevertheless

3)    Tool – One of the most unique bands out there. You can forget finding songs similar to Lateralus, but bits of Stinkfist, Vicarious, the Pot can be found in other bands, such as

a.     A Perfect Circle – This is the closest band to Tool that I could find, seeing that it was formed by Tool's vocalist Maynard James Keenan himself

b.    Rishloo - One of the comments I read of this band on Youtube was - "When I think of Rishloo, I feel like Tool had sex with The Mars Volta, creating the most beautiful baby in the world"

c.    Karnivool – I would put them under PT, but they fall right in between PT and Tool, and I needed one more for Tool anyway

4)   Tesseract – One of the best progressive/ambient/djent bands with high ranged vocals.

a.    Skyharbor – Pure Indian power. Through the brilliance of Keshav Dhar, and the added vocals of Ex-Tesseract vocalist Dan Tompkins, Skyharbor delivers the layers that can be found in many Tesseract songs

b.    Voices from the fuselage – The original band of Ashe O’Hare, who currently sings for Tesseract. A little younger in the music years, but close nevertheless

c.    Monuments – I love the riffs of many Momuments’ songs. They use original djent bare knuckle slapping techniques, and have good range vocals which makes them one of my favourites. This video below shows John Browne of Monuments play their instrumental song 'The Uncollective'

5)    Pink Floyd - Now who wouldn't want to listen to evergreen bands like Pink Floyd? Im including some of the more recent artists, and not the older ones (like David Gilmour/Syd Barrett/King Crimson)

a.    RPWL – German Floyd cover band morphs into a new Floyd. Must Must listen! 

b.   Mostly Autumn – Progressive-melodic retro-folk-rock with female vocals

c.    Archive – Primarily the album ‘You All Look The Same To Me’. The subsequent albums aren't as good IMO

More coming up, soon!