Greatest Tech/Extreme Prog Metal Bands

Atmospheric, dark progressive death metal at its finest. The songs often have elements of beauty among them, courtesy of Mikael Åkerfeldt's incredible voice, capable of producing chilling death growls and some incredible clean passages. Their sound is also quite diverse in this area, with some early works sounding more like melodic black metal along the lines of Dissection. They have also gone the opposite way and made some fairly decent standard prog rock, along with the amazingly haunting Damnation.

While their early albums were pure death metal, from Human onwards, they began adding more progressive elements to their music. These albums are where I personally find that Death shines brightest, as the instrumentation is incredible for the most part, transitioning from section to section extremely clearly. They constantly maintain a high level of intensity, providing a fairly unique sound in death metal, especially when considering the cleaner production compared to most death metal bands.

What this band does best is creating amazingly heavy music, with a particular focus on bone-crushing riffs. The production and mixing give their music an extremely large, spacious feel, further increasing the intensity and making each note feel incredibly impactful and powerful. They also weave in some more emotional, beautiful moments in songs such as Global Warming and The Gift of Guilt.

The way this band transitions from one riff or section to another seamlessly, no matter what the change is - ranging from heavy death metal breakdowns to bluegrass - makes it an incredibly interesting listen. Each song is incredibly dynamic, going from riff to riff extremely quickly, while still keeping it sounding excellent throughout. The clean sections also tend to be great, breaking up particularly intense parts and bringing in some amazing melodies in the process.

I politely disagree that what they do isn't incredible:

1. They perform duets between clean and unclean vocals - the clean and harsh vocalists sing simultaneously, harmonizing their vocal lines. Can you name another prog metal band that does this?
2. Many metal bands use violins occasionally and usually in the background as part of the arrangement. But Ne Obliviscaris uses violins all the time and offers dueling solos between a guitar and a violin, and sometimes between a violin and a bass.
3. Their composing skills are incredible, and one of their songs is studied at a Music Conservatorium for its composition.

Extremely challenging, dissonant music in every way, like what Captain Beefheart would have sounded like if he wrote death metal. The songs seem to transition every 5 - 10 seconds, introducing new, heavy riffs. It almost feels like it doesn't work properly, yet it always manages to come together, providing the listener with a feeling that is hard to create, often leaving them slightly off-kilter due to the music's unpredictability.

One of the least accessible metal bands ever, which is a compliment in a metal context.

If you want to hear how to correctly incorporate jazz elements in extreme metal, listen to their song Diluvium (2018). The jazz elements don't make the song lose its metal feel, tempo, or technicality. I needed to say this because many metal bands who try to incorporate jazz often end up sounding like bands playing cheesy lounge music.

I haven't listened to much of their work so far, but I really love what I've heard (specifically Nothingface). I've heard them described as Gentle Giant if they went metal, and I can somewhat see the comparison. Both bands favor shorter stretches of music filled with many different ideas and embrace the quirkier side of their respective genres.

Each album they make is quite difficult to get into, and each is different from the other, but always very complex and interesting. The band always sounds very fresh and innovative, never seeming as if they've hit a roadblock. Some albums focus more on vocal harmonies and a slightly symphonic sound, while others delve deep into extremely dark atmospheres, clearly maturing with each album.

While a couple of their later albums are somewhat questionable, in general, this band has released some incredible material. Their music ranges from extremely heavy, chaotic, and aggressive to sludgy and more prog-focused. The technicality they display provides for some great songs, especially in terms of the riffs the band comes up with.