I tend to gravitate towards heavy metal and
I love Sabaton’s style they sing mostly about war and I’ve actually learned a bit of history from listening to them. Powerful songs to jumpstart your day but at times they show the human side of war and the tragedy of it. The stories they sing get heart-wrenching at times.
Dream Theater is one of my all time favorite bands. They’re progressive metal similar to Rush and they blow me away with the epics they compose. Dream Theater tends to be more of an acquired, niche taste because active listening is required from the audience in order to truly understand their masterpieces.
What do I mean by active listening? If you have a basic understanding of the technical side of music then you would appreciate Dream Theater more than the average rock fan. They take their musical process seriously, similar to the great classical composers. Think of Dream Theater as the classical music of the metal world.
Many of their songs have these strange time signatures like 13/8. Some of their songs also have time signatures that change over 100 times! Compare that to most songs we hear which typically use 4/4 or common time.
These unusual time signatures are very tricky to pin down even for experienced musicians.
These time signature changes might be overwhelming and off-putting for someone new to Dream Theater, but once you listen deeper you’ll appreciate the dynamism it creates. I find the strange and frequent time changes refreshing and unique.
Tom Sawyer by Rush was one of the first songs I heard from this band. They’re also prog rock and they’ve inspired the style of other bands like Dream Theater.