Prog Metal Recommendations

Years ago I [foolishly] got rid of most of my prog metal collection and now I'm regretting it!  What are some good Christian prog metal bands you'd recommend?  I'm looking for something melodic, upbeat, and clean sounding with good lyrics.  Ideally, I'd love the lyrics to be straight-up worship but am open to other topics, so long as they're orthodox in nature (so Neal Morse and his unitarianism is out, for example).

I may just end up re-buying the same albums I sold off from Shadow Gallery and Pantommind, or possibly dig into Trytan some.  But I'd like to hear what y'all might recommend first.  Thanks!

Revelation Project is one that I think held up really well over the years.

Menahem and Narrow Gate are also really great.

Neal's beliefs don't heavily factor into his art, so you're overreacting imo. Never caused me to stumble anyway.

Neal is baffling, says some wonky stuff but does a whole album on Martin Luther. 
Maybe check out Narnia's, Course of a Generation which has German Pascual on vocals and I thought Desert Land by them had some Proggy moments.

I've long forgotten about these guys:




One of my favorites from the guys in Glass Hammer:




This is from the lead singer of Holy Tide.  He writes all the lyrics:




Salem Hill - more in the progressive hard rock vein:



Don't forget about Affector, Amram's Plight, Antithesis,and Harmony

Haven and The Sacrificed are great for a Queensryche vocals fix, but the music is mostly trad metal.

Big fan of Dark Water, Halcyon Way, and Divine Regale: their lyrics are pretty neutral, but have Christian members.

7 Days
America Ghomorrah
Visual Cliff
Acrolith
Aslan
Black Fate
EchoSoul
Gloriam Dei
Skys Over Betheny (can find them on bandcamp) Vocals are gutteral and clean but pretty good stuff and little known
Mirador
SorrowsJoy

Also check out Trinity Records and Productions

Might also look further into Cristiano Fillipinns Flames of Heaven. Havent had time to dig alot into the lyrics but pretty good so far,

And everything already posted.

forgot about 

Exit Strategy
Waken Eyes
Sangreal
Sunburst
Sola Scriptura
Soul Secret  Not a Christian band but hints at things and is good music

Sombre Holiday
Mindnight Worship
Transcendence (posted above but on Bandcamp










Sorry Im working late and waiting crap to update/load etc 

Most of all I posted are based on Metal-Archives searches about lyrical content keyword "Christianity"

I'd like to repeat the recommendation of Affector. One of my favourite metal albums in general even though I'm not too big on prog metal.

There's also Mehida by the way, short songs but they can be a bit out there at times. Great lyrics though.

The two Zero Hour releases with Chris Salinas would probably fit the bill.

I don't think here are any Christian lyrics on the first Power of Omens album, only the second IIRC.

I forgot about those Zero Hour albums, need to listen to those again.

Temple of Blood wrote:The two Zero Hour releases with Chris Salinas would probably fit the bill.

I don't think here are any Christian lyrics on the first Power of Omens album, only the second IIRC.

Oh gotcha.

So Zero Hour is Christian?

I don't think they are but the albums with Chris had his input so they reflected that.

Oh by the way, about Neal Morse. From what I've gathered he is neither trinitarian nor unitarian. Just someone who "isn't sure". Kind of weird though since he started his own church/worship center.

^Interesting...

Wow thanks everyone for the great recommendations!  There's a lot to sift through.  Some of these I'm really digging.

The first success was Revelation Project.  Thanks TOB!  I remember you mentioning them before but at the time, it wasn't what I was looking for I guess.  That's some good stuff.  I found the main guy on facebook and just ordered a CD from him.  I also ordered the CD from his solo project which I don't know much about but it sounds really great:



I'll keep looking into all these recommendations as time permits, but at least I've got something that'll scratch that itch for now.  

Neal doesn't think Jesus is eternal but was literally begotten by God.

^Doesn't surprise me tbh. Any source for that as far as you can remember? If not, no problem. My knowledge of his christology consists of facebook posts and old forum posts so I'm not that great at that either.

Andreas89 wrote:I'd like to repeat the recommendation of Affector. One of my favourite metal albums in general even though I'm not too big on prog metal.

There's also Mehida by the way, short songs but they can be a bit out there at times. Great lyrics though.

I heartily 2nd the recommendation for Affector.  They are the best choice for what you are looking for.

Others I would recommend / 2nd the recommendation for are:

7 Days
Mehida
Gloriam Dei
Menahem
Salt Of The Chief Cornerstone
Narrow Gate
Symakya
Armed Ark 
Seven Horizons
Efrata
Essence Of Sorrow (not totally Christian, but another project from Jani Stefanović)
Ecthirion
Afterwinter
Divine Regale  (also not really a Christian band, but Christian-friendly)

Some of the bands previously mentioned are not Christian, but you'll figure out which are which.

Black Rider wrote:Neal doesn't think Jesus is eternal but was literally begotten by God.

Yikes.  Yeah that's a no-go for me unfortunately.  I hope he finds the right way.

Constantine wrote:

Andreas89 wrote:I'd like to repeat the recommendation of Affector. One of my favourite metal albums in general even though I'm not too big on prog metal.

There's also Mehida by the way, short songs but they can be a bit out there at times. Great lyrics though.

I heartily 2nd the recommendation for Affector.  They are the best choice for what you are looking for.

Affector sounds great!  I appreciate the biblical lyrics too.  It's added to the top of my want-list and I'll probably be ordering it soon... 

Also I should mention that the Portrait Of A Zebra lyrics aren't Christian at all and most actually give quite the opposite vibe: asking open-ended, existential questions of someone seeking truth but without any apparent Christian foundation.  Here are a couple excerpts:

I don't want to die, cross to the other side,
And find I missed out on what life is for.
But it's so hard to believe in things we're
told will be
In stories from thousands of years ago.
Truth is lost in history and we're left with
a mystery
We may not understand until it's too late

And

For the one who always stands by my side,
For the one who will carry on my name when I die,
For the bread on my table and the roof overhead,
I don't know who I'm thanking but I'm thankful anyways.

Musically, it's a very good album but lyrically not what I was looking for at all.

Thanks for the info man. Very disappointing!

Yeah sure thing.  I figured folks here would want to know - especially since this is the Christian section of the forum.  I was pretty bummed out by the lyrics, especially coming off the heels of my very discouraging interaction with Wovenhand on FB.  But I suppose that serves me a good reminder not to elevate/idolize any music/musician.  And who knows, most of the lyrics are vague enough that perhaps he's getting at something I'm missing, but taken at face-value they'll leave the Christian listener feeling less than encouraged.  The lyrics to the track Father And Son are especially puzzling: it's a story of a "son" who sacrifices his life to defeat evil and bring freedom to all but rises again (sound familiar...?) to fight his sinful "father" who sent him, "wielding the ancient and mystical power the father had unknowingly given him."  Maybe it's referencing some fantasy novel or something and just uses some Christian verbiage for aesthetics, but it does leave a strange taste in my mouth I can't say I'm too comfortable with...

On a brighter note, I ordered the Affector CD.  Thanks to everyone who recommended it to me!

Andreas, he had a question/answer thing and someone asked him about it. Try googling Neal Morses' views on the trinity and see if it comes up.o

Don't forget about our Indian brothers from Slain:



Tons of Youtube comments - these guys really had an impact in India.

Upfront Christian lyrics, top-notch musicianship, soulful singing, and unique songwriting.  This can't miss:  https://slain.bandcamp.com/

Wow - slain is really good!!

I was going to suggest Teramaze, Theocracy, Lance King, and Souljourners (Mind Control) - highly recommend.  These guys out of Cali only did one album that I know if, but very well done.  We did a gig ot 2 with them. Great band!!