according to the 101 rules of progressive metal, you must be boring and ignore the crowd on stage, something devin does not do, therefore he is not progressive metal

Dream Theater are anything but boring. Doesn't mean you have to like them (I don't know, maybe you do, just being general) but to call them boring is simply wrong

It's all a matter of personal choice. I know lots and lots of people who find Dream Theater boring; I'm not one of them, but I can imagine that if you don't like prog music, you'll find it boring.
And those 101 rules are ofcourse very generalised; there are always exceptions. I mean, Dream Theater doesn't ignore the audience either.

First of all, it's not by a strange case of luck if Devin got distributed through Inside Out (a prog label). This really is near from Prog'metal to my ears.
Albums like Ocean Machine, Terria & Accelerated Evolution are not really what you may basically call "Metal" in itself. There are LOADS of other elements in it.
What is progressive music? A MELTING POT of many styles. It's a progression in itself - I mean, the fact of using any music genres in one and breaking all genres barriers in the meanwhile. That's also a contradiction, because bands taking the freedom to do so are then categorized as "progressive". When progressive music has the will to break all musical barrieres & categories....
Progressive music is really the natural progression of the POP MUSIC you buy everyday... In progressive music, you can jump from an pure ROCK part to a JAZZY part using a CLASSICAL MUSIC filler. There's no limit to styles you can use in Progressive Music.
The wrong thing with progressive music is that people associate it with Technique. OK, Kansas were technical killers, Rush too, Dream Theater as well, but there is also less show off from some other bands... For example Marillion, YES, Pink Floyd.
A GOOD TECHNIQUE NEVER MEANT PROGRESSIVE. In this case, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD would be progressive, most of the jazz fusion & black metal bands as well. SLAYER would be progressive etc.
That's nonsense guyz. forget it, technique and "progressive" are two different things.
You know the cause? In prog'rock you may use different time signatures than the usual 4/4's you have to stick to in most of the other music styles all the time (not including jazz and classical music).
With a prog rock song, you can find yourself tapping on the floor with your feet and suddently become off the beat....that's because progressive music is a progression in opposition to the current music styles you can listen everyday on TV etc. (always in 4/4 or 3/3)
BUT some musicians today have problems with odd times signatures, I mean, beat changes (7/4 parts, 9/8 parts etc.) and to some people it sounds weird or ... there you have it : "technical".
In progressive music, you can put down any barrier...like a track's lenght. In progressive music, you can make a 30 MIN song without care. Ok, Manowar did it, some other bands, but it's really really rare.
I just want to say this:
Devin is a music lover, he takes everything he listen and it's "part of the system" then. A good song is a good song, whatever style it is. When you love music at this point, you don't care what style / what genre you play. You just wanna make the song you want, whatever beat it is, whatever lenght it is, whatever melody/style it is. People have to admit they like quite a big ranges of styles even if they pretend not to. They can listen really different stuff.... So what abuot a passionate musician creating?
That's the magic progressive music
NO LIMITS! Devin Townsend COULD be filed under progressive.

Frankly I think people who flat out reject genre terms are just as silly as those who use them to make their band sound cooler or whatever.

Sure they are abused, but labels can be very useful to rapidly identify what an artist or band sounds like. Simple as that.

No matter how ridiculous, these metal subgenres are good for quickly identifying the sound of a band if you're familiar with the style.

BUT some musicians today have problems with odd times signatures, I mean, beat changes (7/4 parts, 9/8 parts etc.) and to some people it sounds weird or ... there you have it : "technical".

Hmmm - very interesting argument and you are of course correct in most of what you say. The only thing is when you say that progressive doesn't refer to technical competence, I think the term has evolved over time to mean just that. Like I said in my original post though the term progressive by it's true meaning should encompass any music that pushes the barriers, in which case of course Devin would be progressive.

The other thing is the quote above - well I don't consider anyone who has trouble with odd time signatures (ie anything that's not 4/4) to be a musician. Time signatures are not difficult. Polyrhythms yes but time signatures really just take a bit of simple education. So if there isa drummer for instance who can't play 6/4 or 7/4 for example then he's not really a drummer is he? I mean just becaue I can pick up a guitar doesn't make me a guitarist. I don't know why I pointed that out, just bored I guess.

With a prog rock song, you can find yourself tapping on the floor with your feet and suddently become off the beat....that's because progressive music is a progression in opposition to the current music styles you can listen everyday on TV etc. (always in 4/4 or 3/3)

Actually, a song in 3/3 is quite progressive. The differrence is how it is written. For example, the beat in 3/3 would be two-beat triplets.