[Charlo]

It's weird that you called most prog metal pretentious and then expressed admiration for the Animals as Leaders album. In my experience, most of the "anti-proggers" have listened to too much Dream Theater (who can come across as pretentious) and not enough of the good stuff (Pagan's Mind, Pyramaze, Adagio, Stride, Symphony X). I totally disagree that prog is pretentious.

Also, I find that Animals as Leaders is way more self-indulgent than most prog metal; lots of random chugging riffs, sporadic acoustic interludes and not much melodic substance. Just my thought. If you like that kinda crazy time-changing stuff, though, you should check out Planet X.