Back at the dawn of history – well, the 1970s – prog and metal were distant cousins. Prog OGs such as King Crimson and Rush fused heavy riffs with dazzling musicianship and boffin-level lyrics, while metal forefathers such as Black Sabbath made the occasional incursion into prog territory (check out The Writ from 1975’s Sabotage album). But ultimately, they were two separate and distinct branches of the same family tree.
All that started to change in the 1980s, when mavericks such as Voivod., Fates Warning and Queensryche began splicing together these two musical forms. This new hybrid genre, eventually dubbed prog metal, grew in popularity through the 1990s and into the 2000s. Today it’s become one of the most vibrant and forward-looking scenes around, its tentacles in everything from Sleep Token to Polyphia.
