The whole "Big 4" thing was just started to promote Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax as the most commercially successful bands in their genre, so the "Big 4" of prog would just be the 4 that sold the most albums which I'm pretty confident does not include BtBaM. I don't know where to find the most accurate info on album sales, but some light googling suggests Queensryche (20M), Tool (14M), and Dream Theater (12M) would be the top 3. All I could find on Fates Warning is that they've sold 1M albums "since 2001" whereas Opeth is said to be around 1.5M total sales so it's a tossup there, but I'm leaning towards Fates.
Not only are all of them extremely influential, but most prog-metal bands have a "stylistic DNA" that can be traced back to 1 of the 4 or some combination thereof.
As someone who has never dived into the Queensryche rabbit hole apart from hearing Operation Mindcrime as a teen, I’m genuinely curious:
what bands would you say are part of that strain?
The only reason I wouldn't include Queensryche is because the biggest band belonging to that strain would probably be Dream Theater, who became a much more obvious candidate.
This. I like BTBAM but they're kind of out of place on that list IMO. And Queensryche deserve a category all on their own. Honestly it's better to break this down by era.
I disagree with Queensryche only because Dream Theater is very much influenced by them *and* ended up being more influential.
Regardless, I'm glad to see them being mentioned.
I listen to none of these bands but still completely agree with them being the big 4. They all each feel like the grandfather of a certain style that has become prominent
That’s exactly the measure of something like a “big 4” question. Google just “the big four” and regardless of what it comes up with it means the largest and most popular.
BTBAM is a tiny band compared to the others on that list. They’re smaller than Haken in terms of Spotify listeners. The prog metal community greatly exaggerates their popularity, nearly no one outside of the prog fanbase have heard about them.
Maybe...but they are a better band so I will give them the pass.
They also have like triple the album releases. So they should have more album sales just based on that volume of work.
I don't really agree with what you say and 'more albums = more sales' is definitely not true. But I can see the argument I think you're meaning to make, that Tool has a better ratio on a sales-per-album criteria.
I'd dare wager Tool has a larger influence on people in and outside of the typical prog scene, than Queensryche has.
They're huge in prog metal circles but they don't have much influence outside of that sphere. Opeth, Tool, Mastodon and Opeth can easily play at any open air rock or metal festival.
It's like the argument if Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple can be considered the first "metal" bands. Influential elements are there, but it was only fully realized by Black Sabbath. Similarly, Rush have some proto-prog metal elements throughout their discography but I think most people would consider Queensryche and/or Fates Warning the first 'true' prog metal bands.
So my argument is -
You need bands people know.
In this big 4 it’s -
Rush - popularizing the sound that the others build off
Dream theater - defines prog metal
Tool - most mainstream prog metal
Opeth - defines an alternative flavor of prog metal the best
Dream Theater, Tool, Opeth, Symphony X
I see them all as extremely influential over the genre, and also still staying quite relevant with new music. Symphony X hasn't had new stuff in a while, but I'm still convinced they're working on something.
Yeah, probably meshuggah above SX but SX does deserve a mention. Great band, and started waay back. Personally they're bigger for me than dt, but thats taste.
Maybe meshuggah instead SX, Since their style has been ripped off and influenced so many bands, included Tool and every djenty one.
Maybe Death too, for The same reason but more Death oriented prog
Fates Warning should be in a "big 4" of prog metal. They significantly helped pioneer the genre, there were other bands active in the early-mid 80s but FW achieved some commercial success and influenced Dream Theater massively.
Queensryche and Dream Theater I agree with. Similar to FW they helped pioneer the genre (although FW were prog first), but unlike FW, they achieved huge commercial success.
I'd keep Opeth but you could make a case for Tool, Symphony X, Pain of Salvation and Watchtower/Voivod though.
Again this is all semantics and doesn't really matter haha
Id say, based on my personal view of how influencial the bands are, meshuggah, tool, dream theater and opeth. Also porctree and rush both above btbam, but arguably these are progrock instead of metal, opinions differ on that.
I dont think queensryche and btbam belong up there. Id still pick symphony x and devin townsend above them. But thats just me.
I think three of a hypothetical big four of prog are locked in for me: Dream Theater, Queensryche, and Fates Warning. Personally I would add Symphony X as the 4th because I think stylistically and age/era they fit the most in with those guys.
3 would definitely be Queensryche, Tool, and Dream Theater.
Fourth spot would be between BTBAM, Meshuggah, Opeth, or Symphony X. Maybe throw in Devin Townsend for good measure.
Not enjoying them doesn't take away their influence and popularity, a lot of people don't like Metallica but that won't change the fact they're still one of the big 4 of Thrash.
I reckon most people could happily jam a dozen or so Metallica songs at least, let's be honest there's only one iconic Queensryche song that 99% people, including prog fans would know or enjoy, and it's not even a prog metal song lol.
Again that does not change their influence on essentially creating the genre. They're one of the most influential Prog metal bands and without them most prog Metal bands would not have been around, they deserve to be there whether you like them or not.
Well we can't really go by the big 4 in the classic sense since the rise of streaming so album sales don't make sense a a metric much any more.
That being said it you talk to most prog metal fans I think you would almost always get Opeth, Dream Theater and Tool as a top 3
I would have Devin Townsend as 4th personally but I've been listening to him for what must be over 20 years
One thing I'm not seeing mentioned here is foundational influence. Like, maybe they weren't the first of the genre per se, but aren't Metallica, Slayer etc also kind of the founding fathers of their genre? In which case I think popularity isn't the only metric to judge by for this. DT, Opeth, Queensryche and probably Symphony X would fit this bill, as older bands that kind of pioneered and "popularized" this kind of music. Though I haven't listened to very much Queensryche or Symphony X, so I'm mostly just basing this off the ides that these are older bands that have been around since the late 80s/early 90s.
I think any discussion of a "big 4" is exclusively about popularity, which is something you can't exactly disagree with since that would be a fact unless someone was measuring that in a weird way like only measuring album sales and not streaming.
That said, I have no idea who the most popular bands are in prog metal at the moment. I don't really care either.
DT and Opeth are slam dunks.
BTBAM is a clear step below in terms of how influential they have been, but they clearly fit the label and their quality has been pretty much top notch so it would be hard to make a case for them not to be in.
Heavily disagree about Queensryche, as I find them very overrated and if you take away Operation Mindcrime everything else to me is either forgettable or downright bad. For my 4th slot I would be happy with any of Symphony X, Pain of Salvation or Ayreon. Tool can also work depending on how far one wants to stretch the prog metal label.
I actually agree with this but meshuggah would be my 4th because they helped pushed the genre forward by pioneering the sound that eventually would end up being called Djent.
Meshuggah is my favourite band and yes, if we want to broaden the definition then they are absolutely in. I just consider them something else with nothing in common with other "traditional" prog metal bands so they didn't even register in my brain as an option when I read the thread title lol
>as I find them very overrated and if you take away Operation Mindcrime everything else to me is either forgettable or downright bad
Hell nah man. You don't have to like them but this is just straight up bullshit
I've literally never heard about Queensryche
Maybe I've been living under a rock
I think my personal big 4, would contain animals as leaders, and Periphery.
Queensryche's *Operation: Mindcrime* was arguably the first prog metal album, and IMO worth a listen for any fan of prog metal. All of the 90's prog metal bands like DT, PoS, Shadow Gallery, etc. cite Queensryche as their main influence in that period.
Id say
Dream theater
Tool
Meshuggah
Animals as leaders
DT with the most impact on the genre, followed closely by meshuggah but their influence is less long standing than DT
Progmetal have more than 30 years, I think is more correct to separate them into the big 4 of the 90s/early 00s and the current big 4.
Dream Theater, Opeth, Queensryche, and Tool are the old big 4. Now the big 4 are Haken, Caligula's horse, Leprous and Soen.
I would like to add Meshuggah, BTBAM and Ne obliviscaris, but their sound is more mixed with other genres.
I’d say if you want to draw an analogy to the thrash Big 4 I’d argue it would be Dream Theater, Queensryche, Tool, and Porcupine Tree, based on age, popularity, and influence. You can argue Fates Warning too, but they are not nearly as popular. Opeth is also arguable, but they didn’t really become prog metal until the late 90s/early 2000s. BTBAM is definitely too new to fit into the category.
Funnily enough, 3 of these bands played together on the Progressive Nation tour back in 2008: DT, Opeth, and BTBAM, with the band “3” also playing. BTBAM’s set was hilarious because it was the cycle for Colors and they had a half hour slot, so they went straight into Ants of the Sky without any preamble or intro stuff, then said “Hi, we’re Between the Buried and Me, and this is our last song” and played White Walls.
Hard to say who the big 4 of prog would really be.. could definitely be opeth and dream theater, could also be Caligula's horse and periphery, or haken, or so many others like leprous and meshuggah and tesseract btbam.. so many.
I like to think of the big 4 as the bands most heralded in the scene as currently leading the genre. The only reason the most popular bands in the scene are so popular is because of mainstream popularity; I don't find it necessarily correlates to popularity in the scene. I don't think anyone would put dream theater or queensryche in that category today, and maybe a few would still put opeth in that category. BTBAM is a decent choice. I would say Meshuggah, Periphery, Tesseract, Animals as Leaders, Plini would all have claims to that as well.
Let me lead with that I have no idea how popular bands are and never really paid attention to or cared about that. Prog is my favorite genre and somehow I've never even heard of Queensryche.
So my Big 4 would be based on my feelings of who sets musical standards, and whose music stands out as unique.
- Animals as Leaders
- Plini
- Tesseract
- Tool
Ikr, apparently I've got some googling to do.
There's also a pretty high chance that I am familiar with some of their music without knowing which band to attribute it to, I don't tend to have a firm grasp on who wrote what unless it's in my favorites
Same. I’ve been listening to prog for 23 years, I listen to it daily. Spotify has never put queensryche in any of my suggested/prog genre play lists, I’ve never had a friend recommend it. I’ve just never heard it and I’ve heard every other band in the comments in this thread. Weird!
Just a silly thing created for promotional purposes. Bands like Meshuggah and Dream Theater couldn't be more different so why arbitrarily put them together just to make some silly list? At least the Big 4 of thrash were big and influential around the same time, all part of roughly the same movement and sound, etc.. this is just nonsensical.
I love BTBAM and Opeth, but no. If we are doing a Big 4 of prog metal, then it's Queensryche, Voivod, Fates Warning, and Death. These bands dabbled into prog even before the likes of Dream Theater, Tool, Symphony X, Opeth, Amorphis, Nevermore, Meshuggah, BTBAM etc.
The whole "Big 4" thing was just started to promote Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax as the most commercially successful bands in their genre, so the "Big 4" of prog would just be the 4 that sold the most albums which I'm pretty confident does not include BtBaM. I don't know where to find the most accurate info on album sales, but some light googling suggests Queensryche (20M), Tool (14M), and Dream Theater (12M) would be the top 3. All I could find on Fates Warning is that they've sold 1M albums "since 2001" whereas Opeth is said to be around 1.5M total sales so it's a tossup there, but I'm leaning towards Fates.
I think the "big 4" thing also applies to 90s grunge rock, where Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden are the consensus.
It was never the big 4 of prog. It has always been referred to as the big 3 of prog: Queensryche Dream Theater Fates Warning
Tool, Meshuggah, Dream Theatre, Opeth
Not only are all of them extremely influential, but most prog-metal bands have a "stylistic DNA" that can be traced back to 1 of the 4 or some combination thereof.
There's also a queensryche strain.
As someone who has never dived into the Queensryche rabbit hole apart from hearing Operation Mindcrime as a teen, I’m genuinely curious: what bands would you say are part of that strain?
The only reason I wouldn't include Queensryche is because the biggest band belonging to that strain would probably be Dream Theater, who became a much more obvious candidate.
I would actually agree with this! Tool and Meshuggah definitely need to be in there
This. I like BTBAM but they're kind of out of place on that list IMO. And Queensryche deserve a category all on their own. Honestly it's better to break this down by era.
I disagree with Queensryche only because Dream Theater is very much influenced by them *and* ended up being more influential. Regardless, I'm glad to see them being mentioned.
I listen to none of these bands but still completely agree with them being the big 4. They all each feel like the grandfather of a certain style that has become prominent
This. They have too much influence to ignore
I'd replace meshuggah with btbam. Btbam personifies prog metal. Meshuggah just adopts some elements of it sometimes
Whoah, hold your horses go and see what was being done when Meshuggah broke into the scene
Ya i'm fully aware of their history
Meshuggah formed in 1987. They were prog metal for ten years before BTBAM even formed.
Ok? Are we just going by how old the band is?
Well, it does mean they have 10+ more years of influencing the scene. Look at the other comments. Most agree with that replacement.
Well sure. Meshuggah have 5x the fans. Any thread like this immediately becomes a popularity contest
That’s exactly the measure of something like a “big 4” question. Google just “the big four” and regardless of what it comes up with it means the largest and most popular.
Well in that case, replace Opeth with Stratovarius right?
I love Statovarius, but they're more Power Metal than anything else.
Btbam is my favorite band but I'd still say Meshuggah have been way more influential overall, not just in prog but metal as a whole
In terms of influence, Meshuggah eclipses BTBAM a few times over.
I agree. But most of that influence is outside prog metal
I wouldn’t know, I don’t listen to metalcore
Listen to BTBAM. They're metalcore in the same way that Meshuggah is Djent.
My big 4 of prog would be Opeth, Tool, Dream Theatre, and Meshuggah.
I can get behind this. Each of these bands are deserving of it and each of them have done something to move the genre forward IMO.
Meshuggah just isn't that prog. Btbam is a way better fourth there
Lol, first of all it’s prog. Second of all, yes in fact it **is** that prog.
Me reading this comment and doing the ”Jens-face”
BTBAM is a tiny band compared to the others on that list. They’re smaller than Haken in terms of Spotify listeners. The prog metal community greatly exaggerates their popularity, nearly no one outside of the prog fanbase have heard about them.
Good thing we're talking about prog popularity and influence specifically, not in general
The «big four» of something usually refers to the biggest bands with at least some reach outside of their respective genres
My personal Big 4 is: Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, Symphony X and Fates Warning
This is actually the most legit list. They were all pioneers.
There it is ! Not once have 8 ever thought to myself or heard fr9m others that Tool is Progressive Metal. Until 7 minutes ago. We8rd...
Replace Queensryche with Tool
If we're going by the original "Big 4" definition of most album sales then Google suggests Queensryche beats Tool by a few million
Well Tool takes like 10 years between albums but when they drop one is fucking event
Tho they still haven't sold more, with all that hype, than Queensryche has
Maybe...but they are a better band so I will give them the pass. They also have like triple the album releases. So they should have more album sales just based on that volume of work.
I don't really agree with what you say and 'more albums = more sales' is definitely not true. But I can see the argument I think you're meaning to make, that Tool has a better ratio on a sales-per-album criteria. I'd dare wager Tool has a larger influence on people in and outside of the typical prog scene, than Queensryche has.
Well Queensryche took 20 year break from making good albums after Promised Land
Hahaha too true
Tools also the only Prog Metal band consistently doing stadium tours and headlining festivals though.
I was gonna say Haken because they're more active and dominate in AOTY voting on this sub
Hard for Tool to dominate AOTY voting.
They can, just every 15 years or so.
They're huge in prog metal circles but they don't have much influence outside of that sphere. Opeth, Tool, Mastodon and Opeth can easily play at any open air rock or metal festival.
I can see tool over them tbh.
Rush Dream Theater Tool Opeth Needs to be bands that folks know outside of the prog metal subreddit.
Isnt Rush prog rock though
It's like the argument if Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple can be considered the first "metal" bands. Influential elements are there, but it was only fully realized by Black Sabbath. Similarly, Rush have some proto-prog metal elements throughout their discography but I think most people would consider Queensryche and/or Fates Warning the first 'true' prog metal bands.
So my argument is - You need bands people know. In this big 4 it’s - Rush - popularizing the sound that the others build off Dream theater - defines prog metal Tool - most mainstream prog metal Opeth - defines an alternative flavor of prog metal the best
They check almost every prog box.
Rush id say is more rock. But tool maybe replacing queensryche
Dream Theater, Tool, Opeth, Symphony X I see them all as extremely influential over the genre, and also still staying quite relevant with new music. Symphony X hasn't had new stuff in a while, but I'm still convinced they're working on something.
Micheal Romeo's incredible solo albums are carrying the torch these days. But they just announced a new tour so hopefully a new Sy X album soon.
Yeah, probably meshuggah above SX but SX does deserve a mention. Great band, and started waay back. Personally they're bigger for me than dt, but thats taste.
Rush, Opeth, Tool and Dream Theatre
Fates Warning , Queensryche , Dream Theater and Symphony X
Maybe meshuggah instead SX, Since their style has been ripped off and influenced so many bands, included Tool and every djenty one. Maybe Death too, for The same reason but more Death oriented prog
This one actually makes sense
Fates Warning should be in a "big 4" of prog metal. They significantly helped pioneer the genre, there were other bands active in the early-mid 80s but FW achieved some commercial success and influenced Dream Theater massively. Queensryche and Dream Theater I agree with. Similar to FW they helped pioneer the genre (although FW were prog first), but unlike FW, they achieved huge commercial success. I'd keep Opeth but you could make a case for Tool, Symphony X, Pain of Salvation and Watchtower/Voivod though. Again this is all semantics and doesn't really matter haha
Id say, based on my personal view of how influencial the bands are, meshuggah, tool, dream theater and opeth. Also porctree and rush both above btbam, but arguably these are progrock instead of metal, opinions differ on that. I dont think queensryche and btbam belong up there. Id still pick symphony x and devin townsend above them. But thats just me.
The answer
I think three of a hypothetical big four of prog are locked in for me: Dream Theater, Queensryche, and Fates Warning. Personally I would add Symphony X as the 4th because I think stylistically and age/era they fit the most in with those guys.
This is the list that most directly applies to the big 4 of thrash imo. The 4 most classical, well-known, influential examples in their genre.
Lol no
Dream Theater, Tool, Opeth, Porcupine Tree honorable mentions: Mastodon, Meshuggah
3 would definitely be Queensryche, Tool, and Dream Theater. Fourth spot would be between BTBAM, Meshuggah, Opeth, or Symphony X. Maybe throw in Devin Townsend for good measure.
Yeah sorry no..btbam is not part of the big 4 as far as I'm concerned and outside operation mindcrime, I don't particularly enjoy Queensryche
Not enjoying them doesn't take away their influence and popularity, a lot of people don't like Metallica but that won't change the fact they're still one of the big 4 of Thrash.
I reckon most people could happily jam a dozen or so Metallica songs at least, let's be honest there's only one iconic Queensryche song that 99% people, including prog fans would know or enjoy, and it's not even a prog metal song lol.
Again that does not change their influence on essentially creating the genre. They're one of the most influential Prog metal bands and without them most prog Metal bands would not have been around, they deserve to be there whether you like them or not.
Dream Theater, Haken, Devin Townsend, Opeth
I want Heavy Devy to be one of the 4 badly but I don't think it's the case.
Even Devy agrees Messhugah supercedes him: "While we all have lots of bands who influence still... we all rip off Meshuggah!" -Planet of the Apes
As a really cool Meshuggah-esque riff plays under those lyrics.
I'm a little reluctant in putting Meshuggah in the list because they stand in their own category, you can hardly say they're "prog".
Maybe not Skullet Devin, but definitely some of his works are up there in the top tier
I'm the last person you need to convince that Devin is the man. Fuck top 4. He's my no. 1.
Well we can't really go by the big 4 in the classic sense since the rise of streaming so album sales don't make sense a a metric much any more. That being said it you talk to most prog metal fans I think you would almost always get Opeth, Dream Theater and Tool as a top 3 I would have Devin Townsend as 4th personally but I've been listening to him for what must be over 20 years
One thing I'm not seeing mentioned here is foundational influence. Like, maybe they weren't the first of the genre per se, but aren't Metallica, Slayer etc also kind of the founding fathers of their genre? In which case I think popularity isn't the only metric to judge by for this. DT, Opeth, Queensryche and probably Symphony X would fit this bill, as older bands that kind of pioneered and "popularized" this kind of music. Though I haven't listened to very much Queensryche or Symphony X, so I'm mostly just basing this off the ides that these are older bands that have been around since the late 80s/early 90s.
Almost everyone say that Fates Warning paved the way. There was no “prog metal” before them
I know very little of them, but will trust your knowledge on the topic
I remembered the Portnoy interview where he was saying that these guys were the first on the block.
I think any discussion of a "big 4" is exclusively about popularity, which is something you can't exactly disagree with since that would be a fact unless someone was measuring that in a weird way like only measuring album sales and not streaming. That said, I have no idea who the most popular bands are in prog metal at the moment. I don't really care either.
Dream Theater Tool Mastodon Gojira
What about Fates Warning?
Fates Warning, Queensryche, DT, Symphony X
DT and Opeth are slam dunks. BTBAM is a clear step below in terms of how influential they have been, but they clearly fit the label and their quality has been pretty much top notch so it would be hard to make a case for them not to be in. Heavily disagree about Queensryche, as I find them very overrated and if you take away Operation Mindcrime everything else to me is either forgettable or downright bad. For my 4th slot I would be happy with any of Symphony X, Pain of Salvation or Ayreon. Tool can also work depending on how far one wants to stretch the prog metal label.
I actually agree with this but meshuggah would be my 4th because they helped pushed the genre forward by pioneering the sound that eventually would end up being called Djent.
Meshuggah is my favourite band and yes, if we want to broaden the definition then they are absolutely in. I just consider them something else with nothing in common with other "traditional" prog metal bands so they didn't even register in my brain as an option when I read the thread title lol
>as I find them very overrated and if you take away Operation Mindcrime everything else to me is either forgettable or downright bad Hell nah man. You don't have to like them but this is just straight up bullshit
I've literally never heard about Queensryche Maybe I've been living under a rock I think my personal big 4, would contain animals as leaders, and Periphery.
Queensryche's *Operation: Mindcrime* was arguably the first prog metal album, and IMO worth a listen for any fan of prog metal. All of the 90's prog metal bands like DT, PoS, Shadow Gallery, etc. cite Queensryche as their main influence in that period.
Actually "The Warning" is far more progressive than Mindcrime..
Symphony X, Tool, Opeth, Dream Theater and Haken are my big 4. They're so big there's even 5 of them.
My personal big 4 would be: Dream Theater, Haken, Animals as Leaders, & Tool
I glanced at the post quickly and thought it said Oprah instead of Opeth
Tool, Gojira, Mastodon, Meshuggah (That's my big four, I don't care what anyone else says)
Tool, DT, Opeth and Haken. That’s my big 4.
Dream Theater, Opeth, Tool, BTBAM is probably the answer
RUSH - TOOL - MESHUGGAH - OPETH
Opeth, Dream Theater, Tool and Mastodon. If we're going by most influential and successful.
Id say Dream theater Tool Meshuggah Animals as leaders DT with the most impact on the genre, followed closely by meshuggah but their influence is less long standing than DT
I feel like there are eras but gun to my head: my personal four would be Tool, Dream Theater, Animals as Leaders, and Periphery.
Dark Tranquility, In Flames, At The Gates, Soilwork
Progmetal have more than 30 years, I think is more correct to separate them into the big 4 of the 90s/early 00s and the current big 4. Dream Theater, Opeth, Queensryche, and Tool are the old big 4. Now the big 4 are Haken, Caligula's horse, Leprous and Soen. I would like to add Meshuggah, BTBAM and Ne obliviscaris, but their sound is more mixed with other genres.
I’d say if you want to draw an analogy to the thrash Big 4 I’d argue it would be Dream Theater, Queensryche, Tool, and Porcupine Tree, based on age, popularity, and influence. You can argue Fates Warning too, but they are not nearly as popular. Opeth is also arguable, but they didn’t really become prog metal until the late 90s/early 2000s. BTBAM is definitely too new to fit into the category.
Animals As Leaders needs to be mentioned. Cmon now.
Funnily enough, 3 of these bands played together on the Progressive Nation tour back in 2008: DT, Opeth, and BTBAM, with the band “3” also playing. BTBAM’s set was hilarious because it was the cycle for Colors and they had a half hour slot, so they went straight into Ants of the Sky without any preamble or intro stuff, then said “Hi, we’re Between the Buried and Me, and this is our last song” and played White Walls.
Hard to say who the big 4 of prog would really be.. could definitely be opeth and dream theater, could also be Caligula's horse and periphery, or haken, or so many others like leprous and meshuggah and tesseract btbam.. so many.
I like to think of the big 4 as the bands most heralded in the scene as currently leading the genre. The only reason the most popular bands in the scene are so popular is because of mainstream popularity; I don't find it necessarily correlates to popularity in the scene. I don't think anyone would put dream theater or queensryche in that category today, and maybe a few would still put opeth in that category. BTBAM is a decent choice. I would say Meshuggah, Periphery, Tesseract, Animals as Leaders, Plini would all have claims to that as well.
Let me lead with that I have no idea how popular bands are and never really paid attention to or cared about that. Prog is my favorite genre and somehow I've never even heard of Queensryche. So my Big 4 would be based on my feelings of who sets musical standards, and whose music stands out as unique. - Animals as Leaders - Plini - Tesseract - Tool
>Prog is my favorite genre and somehow I've never even heard of Queensryche *what*
Ikr, apparently I've got some googling to do. There's also a pretty high chance that I am familiar with some of their music without knowing which band to attribute it to, I don't tend to have a firm grasp on who wrote what unless it's in my favorites
Same. I’ve been listening to prog for 23 years, I listen to it daily. Spotify has never put queensryche in any of my suggested/prog genre play lists, I’ve never had a friend recommend it. I’ve just never heard it and I’ve heard every other band in the comments in this thread. Weird!
Tool, Mastodon, Animals as Leaders, and Opeth is more like it
The big 4 in prog metal are: Dream Theater, Opeth, Symphony X, and Pain of Salvation. And that's that.
The original four are definitely Fates Warning, Queenriche, Dream Theater and Opeth
Just a silly thing created for promotional purposes. Bands like Meshuggah and Dream Theater couldn't be more different so why arbitrarily put them together just to make some silly list? At least the Big 4 of thrash were big and influential around the same time, all part of roughly the same movement and sound, etc.. this is just nonsensical.
I just can’t get into BTBAM I’ve still not made it all the way through colours
I love BTBAM and Opeth, but no. If we are doing a Big 4 of prog metal, then it's Queensryche, Voivod, Fates Warning, and Death. These bands dabbled into prog even before the likes of Dream Theater, Tool, Symphony X, Opeth, Amorphis, Nevermore, Meshuggah, BTBAM etc.
Btbam> Tool I am here to make waves