Hope this is ok with the mods if not than Im sorry in advance.

We are a new young irish band, releasing a demo around mid December. We are currently recording vocals. The style of our music is symphonic epic speed power heavy metal!!! or something!

If you're into bands like Iron Maiden, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Angra, Stratovarius, Freedom Call and you like melodic high vocals and big epic choruses, then please, download some short "teaser" clips from our new demo cd:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/dark_crystal2003

Website: www.dark-crystal.tk
Email: darkcrystal@eircom.net

CD release: TBA (mid december hopefully) with 6 songs

Hope you like the clips, and tell me what u think so far
Padraig

You're a regular poster, so I don't think it'll be a problem...it isn't with me.

__________________

gonna check that

__________________

just wondering, what makes a song progressive? wether it be rock or metal

__________________

Here's a good definition of prog I've gathered from other sites.......



No clear cut definition exists as to just what exactly is meant by the terms "progressive music," "progressive
rock," or "progressive metal." To get a true sense of what these terms mean one must take into consideration all
the sub-genres, properties, styles, characteristics, and all the other abstract qualities that surround it.


Progressive Properties
----------------------

To begin, I will list and define some of the general
characteristics of progressive music.

1) Longer songs
2) Time changes
3) More complex instrumentation/Superior vocals
4) More complex ideas/Lyrical content

1) Generally speaking, prog bands have a tendency to create
very long (epic) songs. Often these songs will be broken up
into parts, but usually not divided into separate tracks on the
cd itself; kinda like sub-albums. On average most songs by prog
bands are somewhere between 5 - 10 min long. The extreme cases
as mentioned before are sometimes 20+ min long.

2) One element that can dub a band or song "progressive" is
the time change or odd-beat characteristic. I'm not going
to pretend to know everything about this, but there is a
noticeable difference between the structure of songs with
really common beats (like 4/4) and those that use diverse beats
or switch between diverse beats. Many prog bands have very
talented drummers and are able to put it all together very
nicely. Yet, at first, many (myself included) may find
certain bands or albums hard to "get into." This usually
stems from songs with odd beats that take a little work to
follow along with. Within a few listens, though, it usually
clicks.

3) The instrumentation is another element that will separate
ordinary rock/metal from *progressive* rock/metal. Commonly,
one will find strings (violins, cellos, etc), keyboard, synth,
piano, flute, etc, mixed in with the guitars and drums typically
found in rock and metal to produce the "progressive" sound. This
powerful and beautiful mix of rock and symphonic elements was my
initial draw to prog. There is a certain higher standard of talent set by
many progressive artists. Many of the musicians are considered
virtuosos, with both passion and wonderful technical ability.
Basically, progressive music will tend to have a more classical
influence than would your typical, blues-based rock music.
There is NO three-chord song in the world of prog.
Another aspect of prog is the incredible range and singing
ability of the vocalists. Multi-part vocal counter-melodies and
other layered vocal arrangements and choirs are also sometimes
used.


4) For the most part, prog bands seem to undertake massive
projects in developing ideas in their songs and albums. Some of their
lyrics are fantasy based, some are pure original fiction, and some
deal with heartfelt human emotion. Yet, no matter what the case,
like true poets usually these ideas are not blatantly brought out
to the forefront. Instead they are set back - not really hidden,
but not always completely obvious, either - waiting to be
discovered (and duly interpreted) by the listener.
A somewhat common element of progressive music is the concept
album (or rock-opera), which is basically a storyline or theme-based
work in which the individual songs on an album all relate to each
other to develop a story or describe some event or emotion, etc.

__________________

holy crap, thats a long definition. prog metal is basically : clean vocals, more keyboard use, slower drum beats ( not necessarily slower, but less blast beats and less reliance on double bass), and guitars with a more "regular" sounding distortion. and also more clean and acoustic guitar use.

symphonic is basically the same, only more keyboards, and using the keyboards to replicate other instruments (wood and string instruments) and more orchestrations. think Symphony X and Nightwish. some may think nightwish to be power metal, but if you listen to Century Child you will see it is far from it.

__________________

I really liked ya stuff, nice guitaring and very powerful music all together, wish you had a full song up

__________________

cool that you like it dude, full songs coming soon although the vocals are gonna be very dream theaterish (clean) so hopefully itll still appeal to you than and most ppl who are used to growled vox when y hear the vox.

Good shit!! I definitly want to hear some full songs too!

cool thx for listenin, we got nothin but good feedback so far, and wll def be postin the songs.

Ill be lookin forwards to em, I have no problem with clean vox because I listen to alot of power and prog metal

__________________

Sounds really great!

__________________