#53 - Andromeda

Andromeda, our fifth band from Sweden and eleventh Scandinavian band, is a top-flight pure progressive metal band.  Their writing is superb and the instrumental musicianship and chops are undeniable.  They've released five studio albums over their 12-or-so-year career, and I'm pretty familiar with the first four, which are of remarkably consistent quality.  You often expect a band to peak (usually early) and then spend the rest of their career trying desperately and in vain to recapture the magic of that pinnacle album.  Maybe it's because they've never really achieved much in the way of commercial success, but Andromeda doesn't seem to struggle with maintaining their excellent work.

I was going to include an instrumental track from their debut album, Extension of the Wish, called "Chameleon Carneval" (sic), which is an impressive display of chops, a fun listen and a favorite of mine.  Instead, I opted for the epic "Veil of Illumination", the finale of their fourth album called The Immunity Zone.  The song clocks in at over 17 minutes so be prepared.  I hope you have the time to give it a listen, as it showcases everything that makes Andromeda such a great band: virtuosic playing, heavy use and feature of keyboards, obvious jazz influence, insane drumming, a lighter fusion-y sound that makes the "metal" label just a bit questionable (kind of like fellow countrymen Pain of Salvation), and really interesting, twisty writing that holds the attention.

#54 - Iron Maiden

While there were several terrific bands during the genre's emergence from the primordial ooze of the early 70s, heavy metal music never really reached mainstream popularity until the movement known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) took off right around the beginning of the 1980s.  Just as English metal stalwarts Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple were petering out, new bands like Saxon, Girlschool, Venom, Angel Witch, Motörhead and Def Leppard rejuvenated the metal sound and introduced it to a new and much wider audience.  Probably the most successful (and deservedly so) NWOBHM band both in the movement's heyday and over the subsequent years has been Iron Maiden.  After generating some underground buzz in the late 70s, they leapt to prominence with their charting eponymous debut in 1980.  As great as that, and their follow-up album Killers were, Maiden took an even larger step into the limelight in 1983 with their third album, The Number of the Beast, featuring new frontman Bruce Dickinson and never looked back.

As was true for a lot of people, the NWOBHM era was when I started listening to music in general and metal in specific: 1983 to be exact, which happened to be the year that Iron Maiden hit their stride.  If I'm honest, I've got to confess that I now actually prefer their first two albums, which featured vocalist Paul Di'Anno, and really established bassist and main composer Steve Harris' writing style and the band's up-tempo, galloping, punk-inspired metal sound.  They're start-to-finish terrific albums both and still stand as two of my favorite early-80s albums.  That said, there are a couple of songs on The Number of the Beast that were just jaw-dropping at the time.  The vocals were unlike anything I had heard to date and the sheer epic-ness the combination of sound and lyrics conjured seriously moved this pre-adolescent boy.  One of these was the album closer "Hallowed Be Thy Name", clocking in at a meaty 7+ minutes of pure sonic power.  The other was the title track which, while a more radio-friendly sub-5-minute song, still had similar epic qualities: the somber spoken biblical quote from Revelation, the gradual crescendo and interesting and unusual 10-beat phrases of the opening to the blood-curdling scream at the end of the intro, the characteristic galloping beat, the progression of melodic sections and they way they lead to one another, the impressive on-the-edge instrumental work - especially the bass work and guitar solos, and of course Dickinson's iconic vocals combine to rightfully make this one of the most well-loved metal songs in history.

#55 - Death

Floridian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Chuck Shuldiner formed Death in 1983, and released their first album, Scream Bloody Gore four years later.  While it was not the polished effort they'd produce later in their career, it's pretty tight for such an ambitious departure from the norm of the day, and they have to be given credit for forging their own way as pioneers of the emerging death metal sub-genre.  In fact Chuck is rightfully regarded by many as the "Father of Death Metal".  During those early years and albums, Death essentially invented the death metal sound, characterized by growling vocals, virtuosic playing with a heavy emphasis on alternate picking and bombastic double-kick drumming, frequent time changes, chromatic harmonic progressions and atonality in the melodic writing.  But they really hit their stride in 1991 with the Human album.  By this point, Chuck had eschewed the idea of a band in the traditional sense altogether and recruited session musicians for recordings and tours.  On Human and subsequent albums, Death pursued more of a technical or progressive death metal approach (an approach that really didn't exist to that point), paving the way for hundreds of bands in one of the most interesting and impressive sub-genres of metal since.  Sadly, Chuck passed away in late 2001 after battling with brain cancer and pneumonia.

Death's more progressive releases include the afore-mentioned Human, and its successors, Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance, as well as an album under the moniker Control Denied, featuring similar music but with clean vocals.  All are excellent albums on which you can hear Chuck's distinctive guitar style and sound and some fabulous playing by sidemen including outstanding drummers Sean Reinert and Gene Hoglan and guitarists Paul Masvidal and Andy LaRocque of King Diamond fame.  I'm including the second track from 1995's Symbolic, which is probably my favorite of their albums (although I really enjoy all of their last four).  Check out the intricate drumming and Chuck's unusually atonal melodic guitar style, really paving the way for technical death metal that was to come.

#56 - Queens of the Stone Age

California's Queens of the Stone Age emerged from the rubble of the sudden split of seminal stoner rock band Kyuss in 1995, featuring an all-star lineup of sorts with Kyuss' guitarist Josh Homme joined by former members of Soundgarden, Monster Magnet and Screaming Trees.  The lineup didn't last long, and the band soon settled on personnel selected from the pages of Kyuss' history, with Josh leading the charge as frontman on guitar and vocals (although they've consistently featured additional guitarists and vocalists over the years) for their debut.  Over the years, they've gone through numerous lineups, including a tour of duty by someone you'll see mentioned around this blog repeatedly, drummer Dave Grohl, and minor contributions by such legends as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top fame, Rob Halford from Judas Priest and Elton John who... well, is Elton John.  Queens of the Stone Age has garnered a great deal of commercial and critical success in their illustrious 17-year history, thanks largely to their genre-bending sound which features clear alternative, metal, punk, prog and psychedelic influences and appeals to a broad audience.  It doesn't hurt that they do it with convincing confidence and execution.

Queens' second album, Rated R, is my favorite of their work to date, although I'm not as well-versed in their later stuff as I should be.  It's a bold progression from the driving desert music of their debut (and Kyuss before them), adding a broader variety of styles and instruments while maintaining (or perhaps expanding on) the humor, driving rock feel and tripped out vibe: it's just so interesting and weird throughout.  To me, the album feels like a single, solid work, but I'm including "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret", which stands on its own as a really enjoyable and interesting, if succinct, little song.  From the tidy drum intro to the subdued verse-section guitar riff with chord progression punctuated by vibraphone, into the alt-rock chorus (backed by bari sax), through the awesomely offbeat backing vocals, this is a fun and definitive tune, start to finish.  Enjoy!

#57 - Pan.Thy.Monium

I mentioned some of the weirdness of To-Mera's song "The Lie" in my last post, but Sweden's Pan.Thy.Monium could give weird lessons to just about any musician.  They're also my first avant-garde metal entry since Sigh at number 95.  Pan.Thy.Monium is one of myriad projects by multi-instrumentalist and producer Dan Swanö, who can be heard on the excellent low vocals with Star One.  He's really more of a bit player on this one, playing bass and keys.  Other members include his brother Dag - who also plays with Dan in prog rock outfit Nightingale, Roberth Karlsson - probably best known for his vocals with Scar Symmetry, and Benny Larsson - drummer for another of Dan's projects,  prog-death metal band Edge of Sanity.

Pan.Thy.Monium includes some unusual instrumentation with violin and saxophone, but even more unusual is how they include it.  There's a lot of altissimo bari squealing and violin scraping that sounds like nails on a chalkboard.  Dan Swanö's keyboard often sounds like a $50 Casio, and Dag conjures images of the 70s as a hybrid of Tony Iommi and Terry Kath.  "The Battle of Geeheeb" is the opening track off of their third and final album from 1996, Khooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion.  This epic composition is chock full of driving riffs, none of them sticking around for more than 16 bars or so.  Just when you get your toe tapping to one (and they do usually have a catchy, head-bobbing feel), it switches to something completely different (if just as groovy).  Full disclosure, I have a tendency to like avant-garde music like this more than most, so I won't blame you too much if you don't dig it.  But at least give it a try.  As I've mentioned, I appreciate a little humor with my music, and these guys are a fun, smile-inspiring listen.

#58 - To-Mera

Another vastly under-appreciated band, To-Mera comes to us from England with some Hungarian roots.  To-Mera plays a somewhat unusual brand of technical progressive metal in that the characteristic lengthy songs and frequent time changes are colored by a overall gothic metal tone set primarily by the soprano vocals of talented Hungarian singer and front-woman Julie Kiss.  Equally unexpected are the occasional jazz interludes, solo piano and other compositional left turns that come out of nowhere from time to time in their music.  I first heard this band in 2006, shortly after the release of their debut album Transcendental, and fell in love with them right away.  Not only is their music inventive and unique, they play it impressively.

To-Mera's second album, Delusions, was released not long after the first and picked up where the debut left off.  If anything, it's more adventurous than Transcendental, with appearances by saxophone and bass clarinet, more frequent and jarring twists and turns and more ambitious songs, with the shortest clocking in at just a bit under six minutes.  Here's the opener, "The Lie", which gives a pretty good idea of what to expect from them should you give any of their other work a listen.  The tight, dry guitar and drum sound are characteristic, as are the spacey, wandering vocals and keyboards.  As challenging as the first couple of minutes are, it's just after the 2:00 mark that things start getting really weird, including the guitar solo which begins about a minute later and then the pseudo-orchestral section around 5:00.  An interesting and engaging song from a really unique and enjoyable band.

#59 - King Diamond

King Diamond is a Danish band and vocalist, the former active since 1985 and the latter singing in the band and with a couple of prior acts dating back to mid-70s.  King is one of the definitive metal singers, well-known for his wide vocal range, vivid performance, frequent falsetto, grotesque face-paint and theatrical stage persona.  The band was formed when King split with seminal band Merciful Fate and joined up with a team of even more technically sound musicians, probably most notably the excellent neo-classical guitarist and ever-busy Andy LaRocque, who has produced and guested on countless albums, including the classic Individual Thought Patterns with Death, alongside his wingman duties throughout King Diamond's long career.

Probably the most interesting and unique aspect of King Diamond's music, aside from King's vocal histrionics, is the fact that the vast majority of their albums are almost like rock operas.  Concept albums are not all that uncommon, but this band's records actually chronicle stories with plot-lines and characters (King plays them all, with a wide range of voices and expressions).  Abigail was their second studio album and the first of these metal operas.  The story is a Lovecraftian haunted house tale, where a young couple moves into the house that eventually destroys them, while spawning the evil infant, Abigail.  The album is cohesive and well-performed.  "A Mansion in Darkness" is probably my favorite on it, although the record's even throughout.  You get a good feel for the songwriting and the vocal and instrumental style with this one, and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I do.  If so, make sure to give the whole work a listen.

#60 - The Eric Gales Band

Alright.  I know it's a major stretch to call this metal, but it is hard blues rock, and metal first came out of the blues right?  Plus, he's a smoking guitar player.  I first heard Memphis, Tennessee's Eric Gales Band when I was working at a record store in college in 1991.  The Elektra Records rep came by to drop off a bunch of cutouts (promotional copies of their new releases, and usually ones by bands no one has ever heard of).  The Eric Gales Band was one of those no name bands, launching with their eponymous debut album that year, and that album happened to be in the stack of cutouts the rep dropped off.  I'm not sure why or how, but I ended up taking that one home, and I'm glad I did.

Fun fact: Eric plays a right-handed guitar left-handed and upside down.  His brother Eugene does the same on bass.  I think the family had a bit of a Hendrix obsession.

When they recorded their first album, Eric was only 16 years old.  When you listen to his playing on it, it's simply unbelievable.  His phrasing's as beautiful and effortless as his chops are formidable.  The clip below includes two of the songs from the album (I couldn't find just one).  If you like it, search him out on YouTube.  There are a ton of videos there of him playing live, both as a kid and as an adult.  One of my favorites is this footage from a Memphis "Battle of the Bands".  He's a skinny 14-year-old kid with a super goofy outfit.  It's astounding.  He's 14 years old!!  They won the competition, which is no surprise when you hear it.

#61 - Pagan's Mind

Pagan's Mind is our fourth Norwegian band so far, and we're not anywhere close to done with that great metal country.  They're probably the most pop-oriented of the bunch, with a catalog of hook-laden songs with sing-songy choruses, especially in their later work.  As you'd probably expect, I'm more a fan of the earlier, less predictable stuff, particularly their second album, Celestial Entrance.  Like #63, they cultivate a polished prog-power sound, with pristine playing and catchy but somewhat twisty compositions.  They opt for science fiction themes and longish, epic-sounding songs... a true nerd's delight.

Celestial Entrance is a wonderful album, consistent but varied enough to hold your attention throughout.  The vocals and all instruments are performed flawlessly, and it's difficult to pick a favorite song from it; they're all so good.  I'm going with "...Of Epic Questions" pretty much out of a hat.  It's a great song and succeeds in showing what Pagan's Mind is all about, complete with over-the-top lyrics and "Also Sprach Zarathustra" type pomp and bombast.

#62 - WatchTower

WatchTower, from Austin, Texas, was one of, if not the first technical metal band, and they're frequently cited as influences by just about every tech metal band of the last 20 years.  Their first album dates back to 1985, and it's just mind blowing when you consider what was going on in music at that time.  The playing is frenetic and hyper-adventurous, fast, thrashy and insanely difficult, as their songs feature frequent meter changes at breakneck speed.  The vocals suit the style as they're high-pitched and wild.  Vocalist Jason McMaster went on to semi-fame with moderate hair band hits "Teas'n Pleas'n" and "Scared" in 1989 with his other band Dangerous Toys.

"Meltdown", in an earlier form, was the first WatchTower song ever to appear on a recording, that being a 1983 Texas metal compilation.  It later appeared again, re-recorded, on their 1985 self-funded debut album, Energetic Disassembly.  It's representative of their style during their two-album lifespan: hard, fast and wild technical progressive thrash.  Keep in mind this is from almost 30 years ago and on a minuscule budget, and just enjoy this jaw-dropping and fun piece of work.

#63 - Spheric Universe Experience

Spheric Universe Experience is a relatively recent band (by my standards anyway), having released their debut album only 8 years ago.  I first heard them on their follow-up, Anima, and as is often the case with my introduction to a band, it remains my favorite of their albums.  S.U.E.'s music is not too out of the ordinary, being firmly placeable in the progressive-power metal style, with a bit of a lean more toward the prog than the power.  As with the likes of Adagio, Angra and Symphony X, there's a lot of synth orchestration, shifty time signatures, squealing guitar harmonics and very tight playing.

As stated, Spheric Universe Experience's style of music isn't unique, but it's a favorite style of mine, and they sure do it well.  And what is unique is that they're the only entry in my top 100 favorite metal bands from France.  Give a listen to the pristine and enjoyable "Sceptic" off of their sophomore album Anima.  There are some neat tricks like the muted introduction that sets up the full-tilt entrance of the main opening riff and the mathematical time shifts that occur throughout the song.  The playing's impressively precise, and it's also simultaneously heavy and melodic, and as such, could have broad appeal.

#64 - Anacrusis

Anacrusis came out of St. Louis in the late 80s and rose to power in the early 90s, secretly keeping the metal flame lit during those dark days.  They were probably first and foremost a hard-charging thrash band, but they also possessed some veiled subtlety, and some unusual and interesting writing in their tonal, rhythmic and phrasing.  They kind of remind me of a blend of three classic and varied bands: Metal Church (power), Testament (thrash) and Voivod (prog).

I think Anacrusis hit their high point with 1991's Manic Impressions.  It's such a great album from start to finish.  Their follow-up (and sadly final) album Screams and Whispers is also outstanding.  It's tough to pick a favorite song to share with you, but at least there's no chance of picking a loser.  I'm just going with the opener.  Check out the energy, the quirky writing, the great drumming and the awesome, other-worldly vocals from this woefully under-appreciated classic progressive-thrash metal act.

#65 - Rush

Ok.  So have you heard of these guys?  This band out of Toronto, Canada was one of the first, and certainly one of the most influential, progressive metal bands.  While there were bands playing something akin with some hard progressive rock earlier, a la King Crimson and Yes, and there were other bands who got around to metal a little bit earlier (ahem... Black Sabbath), Rush may have been the first to put it all together with great musical and commercial success.  They had a remarkably consistent string of terrific albums from their more straightforward eponymous debut, featuring the hit "Working Man", in 1974 through eight albums in eight years culminating in 1981's Moving Pictures.  Of course there have been many Rush albums since then, and for the most part, they've been adventurous and interesting (at least the bits I've heard), but I think few would argue that those first eight weren't something special.

I'm including "The Trees" from 1978's Hemispheres here, since it's one of my favorites (although they have so many good songs, it's hard to pick one).  It's a fair representation of Rush's compositional style in those years, particularly the complex layering of parts, the impressive fullness of only a trio of musicians, and the use of departure from and later return to earlier-established musical themes.  It also shows drummer Neil Peart's characteristically and impressively busy drumming (remember this was the 70s) and thoughtful lyric writing.  You've heard it before, but enjoy Rush's "The Trees" again for old times sake.

#66 - Kyuss

In the early 1990s, Kyuss defined and perfected the rock sound of the desert of Southern California.  While Seattle was flipping the bird to the world and perhaps more directly to the increasingly superficial music industry with the rise of grunge, Palm Desert was raising its own middle finger, but this one was dirtier under the nail, permanently bent at the knuckle and with skin leathery as hell.  Kyuss' sound, and the genre of stoner rock that it helped spawn, captured the disconnected, disenfranchised sentiment of the grunge movement, but without the malaise.  Instead, they opted alternately for an intense slow burn or a driving edge, with just a dash of imperfection to drive home the take-it-or-leave-it aesthetic.  These guys were so talented, authentic and musically convincing that after their breakup in 1995, they went on to participate in many more bands that left a mark on rock music, most notably guitarist Josh Homme and his later band Queens of the Stone Age.

When I think of definitive driving-on-the-highway tunes, a handful come to mind: "Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest, "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, Corrosion of Conformity's "Clean My Wounds" (which we heard earlier) and this gem off of Kyuss' album Blues for the Red Sun.  "Green Machine" is a tight little song with a great riff and an incredible groove.  There are some cool details like the stuttering entrance of the second guitar at the beginning and the fuzzy tube amp sound that make the song work so perfectly, and the backing vocals are spot on.  Here, Kyuss shows why they're so highly regarded and why legions of stoner rock bands followed their lead.

#67 - Between the Buried and Me

I was late to the game on this terrific band out of Raleigh, North Carolina, having first heard them about a year ago despite having read a lot of good press about them prior to that.  It's been about 10 years since their first album, so to me and the glacial pace of my discovery of new music, they're a pretty new band.  I have a feeling they'll be moving their way up my list of faves as I am exposed to more of their inventive music and virtuosic playing.  It's hard to pin Between the Buried and Me into a specific subgenre, although they're unequivocally metal.  Maybe schizo-metal would best describe it as they're all over the map.  I suppose they'd be most accurately labeled progressive, with death a close second.  But there's really everything here: thrash, instrumental, classic and alternative metal all get quite a bit of time at the forefront.  And wow are they good.  They play all styles with great understanding, technical facility and swagger.

Ants of the Sky was the first BTBAM song I heard, and it's a doozy.  It leaps out of the blocks with an uptempo death-ish opening with guitar work reminiscent of Yngwie's blistering arpeggios and Children of Bodom's drive and screaming.  It quickly gets artier with a jazzy instrumental segment from 0:41 to 1:52, passing through a soft keyboard pad to an anthemic heavy rock fanfare and back to the fast opening feel.  The vocal sections are short; the song's really an instrumental epic with a few brief vocal bits of contrast.  I know it's a long song, but give it a listen through for some really interesting juxtaposition of styles from all over the map (the biggest shocker of which is the old-style country at 11:45) and some truly impressive playing. 

#68 - Psychotic Waltz

San Diego's Psychotic Waltz was never a widely-recognized band here in the States, but they developed something of a cult following on the back of their outstanding 1990 self-released debut album, A Social Grace.  They went on to release three more albums, the sophomore effort also self-financed and the final two on minor labels Zardoz and Intercord.  Their underground popularity prompted (and was helped along by) Metal Blade Records, who in 2004 re-released all four albums along with some bonus material.  It was around that time that I first heard them, and while sorry that I wasn't aware of them when they were active (and more importantly, touring), I'm sure glad I was fortunate enough to come across their music at all.  In some ways they throw back to the early metal and hard rock sounds of Black Sabbath (with detuned guitars playing in octaves with the bass and a manic vocal style) and Jethro Tull (lead vocalist Buddy Lackey even features on flute from time to time).  In fact I'd call those two bands, along with perhaps early Fates Warning, their main musical influences.  The four albums are solid efforts throughout, with the first two being the heavier and more progressive metal, and the latter two a bit more atmospheric and polished.  According to their website, they reunited a couple years ago and a new album is in the works.

My favorite Psychotic Waltz album is also the rawest, their debut A Social Grace.  It's packed with 13 varied, creative and thoroughly enjoyable songs, all very enthusiastically performed.  The song I'm including below - "In This Place" - is one of my favorites on the album, although all the songs are terrific with "I Remember" and "Spiral Tower" also deserving any additional online searching you might be willing to do.  "In This Place" starts with a quick drum intro and an angular opening riff in 4.  The verse enters shortly thereafter (0:29) in an odd and difficult 15/8 meter.  And it just gets twistier through the chorus and then the bridge at 1:35, after which a half-time section leads into a jam over which a bizarre narrative is spoken and an equally bizarre guitar solo is played.  Finally, the verse recapitulates at 3:22, followed by a final repetition of the chorus and a relentless instrumental outro to the exclamation point ending.  This thing is a roller coaster ride start to finish; go ahead and strap in and give it a listen.  I hope it's as fun for you as it is for me.

[Edit] - "In This Place" went away on YouTube, so I'm substituting the heavy "Spiral Tower" in its place for now.  Enjoy!

#69 - Crimson Glory

The under-appreciated early prog metal band, Crimson Glory, formed as early as 1979, solidifying their lineup and recording their debut album in the mid-80s.  (I first learned of them many years later, thanks to one of my metal mentors who I've mentioned before in this blog, Chris Hare.)  The sound was akin to early Queensryche, with maybe a slightly more power metal drive to it.  The goofy hair and costumes looked like a lot of the bands of that time, although the masks they wore pretty much all the time in public made them stand out for the extra helping of cheese.  But where they really stood out was in the vocal department: singer Midnight is surely one of the all-time greatest metal voices.  Unfortunately, he was pretty unreliable too, and so was in and out of the band until his untimely death in 2009.

Crimson Glory borrowed some of their early sound from the NWOBHM movement, and their driving, dual-guitar, riff heavy compositions on the first album are classic, both catchy and inventive for the time.  Their second album, Transcendence, is widely regarded as their best, but I'm including Mayday, off their eponymous debut, below.  I like the first album's pure, almost innocent, approach and the vocals are just amazing.  The song really shows off Midnight's pipes, and at 2:59 is the shortest (and fastest) song on the album.

#70 - Liquid Tension Experiment

Liquid Tension Experiment is our first purely instrumental band on the top 100.  We've heard from a couple of instrumentalists, including one who recorded an excellent instrumental album, and we've heard from one or two bands with a vocalist who have put out some great instrumental songs.  LTE started as a 1997 side project for prolific New-York-based drummer Mike Portnoy, who has had more than his share of side projects over the years.  He recruited keyboardist Jordan Rudess, who at that time was playing with the Dixie Dregs, and in-demand session bassist Tony Levin, whose regular gig was with King Crimson.  Portnoy also attempted to get guitarists Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, Steve Morse, then playing with Deep Purple, and Jim Matheos of Fates Warning, but none of them were available.  He eventually settled for his virtuosic bandmate in Dream Theater, John Petrucci.

LTE, as with many instrumental rock bands, is loaded with chops.  In terms of metal subgenres, they're firmly in the realm of progressive, instrumental metal, heavy on keyboards and insanely fast and technical playing.  They're maybe a little less all over the place in terms of composition than a lot of progressive bands, and maybe a little more upbeat sounding than most metal bands, but there's still plenty to chew on (and rock out to) in their music.  Paradigm Shift is the uptempo opener to their debut, eponymous album.  It certainly comes charging out of the gate and doesn't relent until a half-time improvisatory section beginning at 2:06.  It's pretty feel oriented throughout, with the show-off-y playing generally subservient to the groove.  At 4:40, the band takes it down another notch to a relaxed funk beat that features Levin on bass, and then layers a guitar solo by Petrucci that builds back up to the first half-time feel at 6:56.  At 7:24, the tune shifts into a more proggy 7-feel bridge back to the opening up-tempo feel, with a blistering outro that recaps the intro from eight minutes earlier.

#71 - Linear Sphere

I think I first read about Linear Sphere sometime shortly before the release of their first album, Reality Dysfunction, in 2004 or 2005.  Somehow, I came across their name online as an up-and-coming technical/progressive metal band on which to keep an eye.  It may have been on an online forum for some other band where fans like me got together to lament the slow delivery cycle of said band and speculate as to why they weren't catering to our every whim, who might serve as an acceptable substitute for listening while we wait, and what they might like to eat for breakfast (fans are nuts).  Anyway, I managed to find at that time an exclusive release for the Dream Theater fan club from 2003 that was a collection of songs written and recorded to spec as part of a composers' competition.  The guidelines were based on a song that Dream Theater was in the process of recording at the time, called "Stream of Consciousness", but revealed in the competition only as "SoC".  Interestingly, a little known band named Redemption appeared on the CD of finalists, as did an even lesser-known band from London, Linear Sphere.

The name of the Linear Sphere track was "Scent of Carbonite" (SoC), and it blew me away.  It was technical progressive metal with a heavier jazz influence than other prog metal bands, and some terrific guitar playing by shredders Martin Goulding and Charlie Griffiths.  It's well worth checking out.

I'm not including that one below, mostly because the production, understandably, is pretty bad.  Instead, check out the opening track, Origin, from their second and most recent release, Manvantara.  Try to get past the obnoxious vocals... not easy to do, but if you can you'll be treated to some really unique and well-played technical prog fusion metal (they're in a genre all their own).

#72 - The Human Abstract

Another great hometown band from right here in L.A.  And you thought Mötley Crüe was the last bastion of artistry in this fine town.  I say nay!  The Human Abstract is a somewhat new band for me: I only stumbled on them around the release of their third and most recent album, Digital Veil.  Sadly, it might be their last, as there hasn't been any activity from them in about a year.  It's a shame, because they're clearly a talented bunch.  Rooted in the metalcore style (which is generally not a favorite of mine), The Human Abstract makes frequent forays into the complexities of progressive metal and the clear, melodic and fast soloing of the post-Yngwie movement.

Complex Terms is a track from that most recent album, Digital Veil.  Like a lot of metalcore bands, you'll hear the enraged growling/yelling juxtaposed against the clean, harmonized alternative rock vocals and the machine gun repeated staccato notes from the guitar and snare/bass drums.  Unlike a lot of metalcore bands, you'll also hear their characteristic compositional twists and turns, heavy use of mixed meters and copious neoclassical soloing.  The whole album sounds pretty much like this, and as a new band (to my library) they're definitely growing on me.  Here's hoping they get back in the studio and/or on the stage.  Enjoy.

#73 - Leprous

Back to Norway for this eclectic prog-metal band.  Leprous bounces around between lighter and heavy rock, using major and minor tonalities, sparse and dense textures, catchy and complex composition.  They manage better than most to impress without coming across as though they're trying to impress.  They're a newer band, and I don't know too much about them but I like what I know.  They're a band on the ascent in my book.

I could pick just about any of their songs to share with you: they're remarkably consistent in a very good way.  Below, I picked the title track from their sophomore effort.  It gives you a good taste of their simultaneously challenging and listenable style.  Note the easy 7-feel in the verse, the anthemic chorus, the development of the verse after the chorus and then the recapitulation of the verse at the end.  Enjoy!

#74 - Gracepoint

Gracepoint is essentially a local Minneapolis band that really hasn't been able to break out of the confines of the scene there.  It's unfortunate, because they've got a lot going for them that a lot of more widely recognized bands don't.  First of all, they've got what seems to me to be a pretty marketable sound: something along the lines of a late 90's post-Creed thrashy pop-metal sensibility.  Or maybe it's more of an Armored Saint vibe.  It may be that their window has closed, but for a while there, that was all the rage.  Secondly, they play the crap out of their instruments, and aren't afraid to mix up the meter into some really interesting and enjoyable grooves.  A seriously under-appreciated band...

Case in point, the title track from 2000's "Science of Discontent".  This is especially nice, because it forgoes the, in my opinion, weakness of the band: the vocals.  But it also highlights everything that is great about this band.  Inventive time shifts, funky bass playing, and a twisty, interesting overall form and aesthetic.  You'll hear a lot of odd meters here, but my favorite part is the heavy, surprising and totally effective shifts between 6/8 and 4/4 beginning at 3:15.  The whole song is similarly clever, but that section is one of those magical moments that brings a smile to my face every time... check it out and see if you're similarly moved.

#75 - Yngwie Malmsteen

As comical as Yngwie Malmsteen - the character - is, there's no denying his virtuosic performance on the guitar, nor his influence on legions of metal guitarists since his first solo effort in 1984.  Known for his pristine technique, smooth and facile phrasing, and above all for his ultra-fast picking and arpeggiating, Yngwie set a bar for guitar virtuosity which, amazingly, really hasn't been topped in the 30 years since that debut.  Plus, check out the ruffly cuffs on that shirt!

Yngwie takes heat for a lot of things, I think mostly because he seems not to be a very nice guy.  I don't know how accurate that reputation is, but one thing he's criticized about that I agree with is his songwriting, which is pretty formulaic and often cheesy.  His songs are usually just a framework upon which to show off his incredible facility on the instrument.  For this reason, I tend to prefer his work on other people's music, including cover versions of classic songs.  Fortunately for me, there are plenty of examples of just that.  I'm including below one of my favorites: his partnership with Ronnie James Dio on the Aerosmith classic, Dream On.  As I'm sure you know, the original is a great piece of music and a solid execution.  To these ears, this cover takes it up about five notches with just awesome performances by two of the greatest in the history of rock.

#76 - Circus Maximus

Back to Norway, for prog metal band Circus Maximus, who debuted with The 1st Chapter in 2005.  I picked up this one right away too, although I can't remember how I heard about them.  It was probably Amazon and their deadly accurate recommendation system.  The album is a polished collection of melodic and fairly technical songs; well thought out, played and produced.  The style is pretty much right down the middle of the norm for the genre, featuring ample keyboards, meter changes and capable soaring clean vocals.  They've since released two more albums, and I've only heard the middle one.  It's similar to the first; maybe slightly lighter and catchier.  I prefer the debut for its freshness, but they're both solid releases and well worth checking out.

The opening track, "Sin", is probably the heaviest (but not the prog-iest) on the debut album.  If you've been following me for the past 24 bands, you may have realized that I prefer heavy, so I'm including the song here.  It's a pretty busy song, with loads of meter and feel changes (again right up my alley).  The sound is pretty thick, thanks to the heavily orchestrated keyboards and lots of overlain sound effects and guitar and vocal texturing.  Circus Maximus manages the line between tricky and listenable pretty well in general, and particularly on this song.  Hope you like it as much as I do.

#77 - Blind Guardian

Germany's Blind Guardian is my favorite pure power metal band, although I've got a couple bands higher up my list who owe a lot to the genre.  I first came across them relatively late in their career, when they were already well-established as one of the most pioneering and influential power metal bands around.  It was a genre that I had almost no exposure to at that time in 2001, and my introduction to them opened the door to a whole new spectrum of bands I previously had no idea about.

Jennifer and I had recently moved to Germany and were playing in a joint concert with a regional band from the Trier area.  The musicians in the group were all pretty young, and I hit it off with one of the trombonists who was also a metal enthusiast and just a really nice guy named Timo Becker.  During some rehearsal, I was lamenting the demise of heavy music as I did a lot in those years.  Timo gave me a kind of confused look and politely asked me what the hell I was talking about.  He then launched into a dissertation on the merits of modern metal, paying particular attention to the still-thriving tradition of power metal in Germany.  The next rehearsal, he presented me with a mixed CD of all German metal, and all (at that time) recorded in the previous few years.  The first (and best) on the compilation was Blind Guardian.

I eventually got all of Blind Guardian's albums (I think I'm a few behind now though), and my favorite was the concept album, Nightfall In Middle-Earth, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.  The album is densely orchestrated, with lots of choral backing vocals, as you'll hear below.  After a spoken introduction, "Into the Storm" is the first track on the album.  It was also the first song by Blind Guardian that I ever heard.  What an excellent introduction.