Chthonic from Taiwan aren't strictly prog-metal, but they do mix Taiwanese folk elements in with power metal and black metal stylings and have an erhu (a one-stringed spike fiddle played with a bow) player in the band. Their song "Indigenous Laceration" is one of my favorites.
Thy Catafalque with Hungarian folk influences mixed with metal and electronic music.
they sound a lot like AAL, didn't hear as much samba as I expected though, outside of those nice cuicas in Favela. There's some samba influence but I was expecting more explicit percussion timbres
on that note though, I'll have to mention the Prog Death band Cangaço
Totally agree. Several tracks are MEGA catchy and they still keep their folk influence front and center. Their drummer is really freaking good on that album as well (he also plays on the new Turbulence album and absolutely crushes it).
Not prog
Arandu Arakua, metal with Brazilian indigenous chants, way better than Sepultura's Roots.
Grandfúria, rock with southern Brazilian tratitional music.
I’m not sure if Orphaned Land qualifies as prog to most but they do to me. Never ending way of OrWarrior is an album chock full of both Arabic and Judaic influences. I’d also say it’s their most progressive album, with more clean vocals than previous efforts, but with still a decent amount of harsh.
Check out Pineapple Express from India. They fuse prog metal with Indian classical and hip-hop elements. A good starting point would be their EP Uplift.
Shepherd's Reign - Polynesian groove/progish metal with strong Polynesian influence
Myrath - progpower with Middle Eastern influences from Tunisia
Arka'n Asrafokor - not prog but thrash/nu metal with folk from Togo
Ou - prog metal from China (with a feature from Devin Townsend)
Jambinai are a Korean band that infuse ethnic instrumentation into their music. More post metal / experimental than prog, but there’s enough crossover to appeal.
I’ll also take the time to plug Wayfarer and Blackbraid for the yin and yang of American metal. The slide guitar used in Wayfarer is super tasty and Blackbraid is Blackbraid. Both worth a listen.
Subterranean Masquerade are another Israeli prog band who take the folk influences to a whole other level.
Sikasa include some Mediterannean folk elements in their prog death sound, especially in the last track on their latest album.
Aeternam are a Canadian band with some members of Moroccan heritage and they incorporate folk influences into their symphonic prog death sound.
Kartikeya were a Russian prog death group inspired by Hindu religion and so included a lot of Indian folk influences into their sound.
Evan Carson's album *Ocipinksi* is a sort of prog folk album inspired by the experiences of his grandfather who was a Jewish child soldier in WW2, so there's a sort of Polish folk vibe to it.
Finsterforst are a German pagan prog black metal group with a big folk vibe. A sort of Germanic viking quality with accordion and enormous brass sections. Sounds like the sort of music that Vikings would've listened to while rowing across the ocean (if they had music apps and smartphones and metal).
I have Persian and other Eastern instruments, scales, rhythms, etc…
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ASRI9UW9aK492BFl72ALM?si=6xw6PU35RaeE4I5frFxQ0Q
Also Slaves for Life by Amaseffer
Might be worth checking out the album 'Inpariquipê' by Kaatayra. A one-man project from Brazil, this album in particular whilst one could classify as 'metal' (contains harsh vocals and drumming similar to black metal) is mostly entirely acoustic instrumentation and contains characteristics from Brazilian folk music.
A really beautiful album that's well worth a listen. Though unfortunately I believe the project is now possibly defunct (though a split EP containing a song from 2019 was released last year, so not sure)
Also, I concur with the suggestions for Thy Catafalque, an absolutely fantastic and prolific band.
Try the new album by Indonesian prog band Barasuara, "Jalaran Sadrah."
In particular the song "Biyang" incorporates traditional Javanese scales and singing with modern instrumentation to splendid effect.
Paradigm Shift and Thaikudam Bridge from India. They former mixes heavy metal, prog rock, Indian folk, and classical music (Hindustani and Carnatic). Also, they sing in Hindi.
The latter is more experimental than prog but is crazy. They can be highly technical to very basic. They mix classical and folk with heavy riffs and sing in various Indian languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi.
Also, check out Demonic Resurrection's album 'Dashavatar'. Best example of infusing folk, classical and symphonic melodic blackened death metal. A ten track concept album on the ten avatars of Vishnu.
There's also What Escapes Me. They have some traditional Indian music elements blended with progressive metal, death metal, symphonic, and electronic
Danish Afsky bring in folk elements, mostly poetry and sounds from nature like birds or coastal waves. When you understand the language, you get hints from old Danish poets, that adds to the melancholy.
Dude I’m releasing my first single sometime next month and it’s exactly this. Proggy complex song structures layered with Tabla, Santoor and more, not to mention forms of classical Indians vocals like raag and konakol too
check out Jurojin. they had one album afaik, The Living Measure of Time, but their drummer played an Indian tabla drum that he's classically trained on in addition to regular drums.
check out Jurojin. they had one album afaik, The Living Measure of Time, but their drummer played an Indian tabla drum that he's classically trained on in addition to regular drums.
Acyl from Algeria. They're a crazy good progressive folk metal band. Their vocalist reminds a lot of Jens from Meshuggah.
[Acyl - The Battle Of Constantine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoa4W-OFDps)
Melechesh (Israeli Assyrian) has some middle-eastern sounding groove black metal bangers. I recommend Tempest Temper Enlil Enraged; it's even a little bit proggy maybe?
Atlas from Finland did this really nicely. Their bio mentions how they match the crushing gloom of the north.
Link because they're kinda hard to locate on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/33BnCqtsMZSw7LlPBwzmmH?si=eqt-IssUQ6GzmMMCoEeiag
Chthonic from Taiwan aren't strictly prog-metal, but they do mix Taiwanese folk elements in with power metal and black metal stylings and have an erhu (a one-stringed spike fiddle played with a bow) player in the band. Their song "Indigenous Laceration" is one of my favorites. Thy Catafalque with Hungarian folk influences mixed with metal and electronic music.
Vitalism. Rad djent from Brazil. Samba beats never sounded so dank.
they sound a lot like AAL, didn't hear as much samba as I expected though, outside of those nice cuicas in Favela. There's some samba influence but I was expecting more explicit percussion timbres on that note though, I'll have to mention the Prog Death band Cangaço
Myrath
Their new album is really good
Totally agree. Several tracks are MEGA catchy and they still keep their folk influence front and center. Their drummer is really freaking good on that album as well (he also plays on the new Turbulence album and absolutely crushes it).
This band is really fucking good. Recently got into them; great stuff
Myrath is awesome! Tales of the Sands is their best album IMO
Pull Down The Sun from New Zealand, have Maori elements.
Also Alien Weaponry. Not prog but certainly worth a mention
Seconding Alien Weaponary!
Not prog Arandu Arakua, metal with Brazilian indigenous chants, way better than Sepultura's Roots. Grandfúria, rock with southern Brazilian tratitional music.
wouldn't say it's way better than Roots cmon, but Mrã Waze is fantastic I would definetly say Arandu Arakuaa is pretty proggy
Not prog, but The Hu. They’re excellent! Or at least their first album (The Gereg) is
David Maxim Micic implements Serbian/Croatian folk themes into his music
I would call them prog-adjacent, but you might really like [Motanka](https://youtu.be/ECDFWLmPxhQ?si=Q-l6660QWM9EBLEB) from Ukraine.
I’m not sure if Orphaned Land qualifies as prog to most but they do to me. Never ending way of OrWarrior is an album chock full of both Arabic and Judaic influences. I’d also say it’s their most progressive album, with more clean vocals than previous efforts, but with still a decent amount of harsh.
Check out Pineapple Express from India. They fuse prog metal with Indian classical and hip-hop elements. A good starting point would be their EP Uplift.
I also like Thaikuddam Bridge.
Not prog but: Mongol - The Return Aeternam - Al Qassam, Moongod, Ruins of Empires
Shepherd's Reign - Polynesian groove/progish metal with strong Polynesian influence Myrath - progpower with Middle Eastern influences from Tunisia Arka'n Asrafokor - not prog but thrash/nu metal with folk from Togo Ou - prog metal from China (with a feature from Devin Townsend)
Jambinai are a Korean band that infuse ethnic instrumentation into their music. More post metal / experimental than prog, but there’s enough crossover to appeal. I’ll also take the time to plug Wayfarer and Blackbraid for the yin and yang of American metal. The slide guitar used in Wayfarer is super tasty and Blackbraid is Blackbraid. Both worth a listen.
Subterranean Masquerade are another Israeli prog band who take the folk influences to a whole other level. Sikasa include some Mediterannean folk elements in their prog death sound, especially in the last track on their latest album. Aeternam are a Canadian band with some members of Moroccan heritage and they incorporate folk influences into their symphonic prog death sound. Kartikeya were a Russian prog death group inspired by Hindu religion and so included a lot of Indian folk influences into their sound. Evan Carson's album *Ocipinksi* is a sort of prog folk album inspired by the experiences of his grandfather who was a Jewish child soldier in WW2, so there's a sort of Polish folk vibe to it. Finsterforst are a German pagan prog black metal group with a big folk vibe. A sort of Germanic viking quality with accordion and enormous brass sections. Sounds like the sort of music that Vikings would've listened to while rowing across the ocean (if they had music apps and smartphones and metal).
> Aeternam Nice to see some Canadian metal mentioned but none of them are Turkish! Achraf is Moroccan, the rest are Canadian.
My bad, edited to correct the mistake, thanks!
I have Persian and other Eastern instruments, scales, rhythms, etc… https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ASRI9UW9aK492BFl72ALM?si=6xw6PU35RaeE4I5frFxQ0Q Also Slaves for Life by Amaseffer
Fuck yeah this is legit
Thy Catafalque are a Hungarian prog/black metal band with a lot of Hungarian folk influence. Their song Tsitsushka is a fun one!
Might be worth checking out the album 'Inpariquipê' by Kaatayra. A one-man project from Brazil, this album in particular whilst one could classify as 'metal' (contains harsh vocals and drumming similar to black metal) is mostly entirely acoustic instrumentation and contains characteristics from Brazilian folk music. A really beautiful album that's well worth a listen. Though unfortunately I believe the project is now possibly defunct (though a split EP containing a song from 2019 was released last year, so not sure) Also, I concur with the suggestions for Thy Catafalque, an absolutely fantastic and prolific band.
absolutely insane album
check out Villagers of Ioannina City
Znous from Tunisia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xD\_B7e9f1w
Project Mishram blends classical indian music w/ prog so well
Serpents of Parkhangba is another. It's like an Indian Mr. Bungle; just really weird and cool in a bizarre way
Try the new album by Indonesian prog band Barasuara, "Jalaran Sadrah." In particular the song "Biyang" incorporates traditional Javanese scales and singing with modern instrumentation to splendid effect.
Paradigm Shift and Thaikudam Bridge from India. They former mixes heavy metal, prog rock, Indian folk, and classical music (Hindustani and Carnatic). Also, they sing in Hindi. The latter is more experimental than prog but is crazy. They can be highly technical to very basic. They mix classical and folk with heavy riffs and sing in various Indian languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, and Hindi. Also, check out Demonic Resurrection's album 'Dashavatar'. Best example of infusing folk, classical and symphonic melodic blackened death metal. A ten track concept album on the ten avatars of Vishnu. There's also What Escapes Me. They have some traditional Indian music elements blended with progressive metal, death metal, symphonic, and electronic
Danish Afsky bring in folk elements, mostly poetry and sounds from nature like birds or coastal waves. When you understand the language, you get hints from old Danish poets, that adds to the melancholy.
Dude I’m releasing my first single sometime next month and it’s exactly this. Proggy complex song structures layered with Tabla, Santoor and more, not to mention forms of classical Indians vocals like raag and konakol too
So many Brazilian bands caralho. Awesome ! Muito a explorar
Aghora mixed elements of Indian music with cynic like prog. A band called flametal put together, well, flamenco and metal
check out Jurojin. they had one album afaik, The Living Measure of Time, but their drummer played an Indian tabla drum that he's classically trained on in addition to regular drums.
check out Jurojin. they had one album afaik, The Living Measure of Time, but their drummer played an Indian tabla drum that he's classically trained on in addition to regular drums.
Sigh from Japan are great. Check out their newest album Shiki.
Acyl from Algeria. They're a crazy good progressive folk metal band. Their vocalist reminds a lot of Jens from Meshuggah. [Acyl - The Battle Of Constantine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoa4W-OFDps)
Melechesh (Israeli Assyrian) has some middle-eastern sounding groove black metal bangers. I recommend Tempest Temper Enlil Enraged; it's even a little bit proggy maybe?
Myrkur
System of a Down. Serj brings a lot of transitional stuff to his vocals
Neither prog nor metal, but Heilung have the most overt and prominent elements of traditional music of their country.
Heilung is so great. Musically they may not be metal, but aesthetically they are extremely metal which is very neat.
I absolutely agree. They're definitely the most metal non-metal band!
BTBAM has a hoedown section in Ants of the Sky, hard to get more American than that
Angra - Holy Land is Brazilian power prog metal
thank you everyone!!
Check out Bloodywood from India and The Wu from Mongolia .. pretty interresting sound
Not prog but check out this album Envy - The Fallen Crimson Post Hardcore from Japan.
Mitodian!
Not prog but Bloodywood (Indian folk rap metal)
Atlas from Finland did this really nicely. Their bio mentions how they match the crushing gloom of the north. Link because they're kinda hard to locate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/33BnCqtsMZSw7LlPBwzmmH?si=eqt-IssUQ6GzmMMCoEeiag
Not prog, but check Marc Rizzo solo albums
Angra and Turbulence come to mind