Best progressive metal bands and albums

Mastodon"s entire collection has kept its fans on their feet, changing their sound from album to album. Great band, released some of my favorite albums of all time.

 

Agreed. I really liked their newest album, Once More. Great variety of tunes that mixed the new with the old well.

Bunch of BS they didn't win the Grammy...

 

I suggest to check out the band Redemption

Discography:
Redemption, s/t studio album (2002)
The Fullness of Time, studio album (2005)
The Origins of Ruin, studio album (2007)
Snowfall on Judgement Day, studio album (2009)
This Mortal Coil, studioalbum (2011)

 

I enjoyed the new album to! It got mixed reviews from old fans but I really liked the Psych vibe on it. I liked it more than the hunter.

I did not watch the grammys, they won all of the grammys in my head

 

I concur with Sabotage. Along with The Groundhogs 'Hogwash', THE best metal prog lp's of all time. Every song on Sabotage is killer: Dense textured production, great use of echo and reverb, tons of overdubs, mellotron. Doesn't get any better than this in my book.
If anyone knows of strictly progressive-metal lp's that are any better than these two killers and worth checking out, please respond.

 

I've been meaning to check out Redemption; some people seem to like them better than Fates Warning. I still haven't heard the Arch/Matheos album either!

 

Another vote for Ayreon. I get most of my progressive metal fill from his albums "Into the Electric Castle", "The Human Equation", "01011001", and "The Theory of Everything". Perfect stuff. Plus, these are all double albums.

Enslaved is also good. I've been following them since nearly the beginning when they were more straight up black/viking metal. I even got to watch them record their "Monumension" album at the famous Grieghallen Studios in Bergen, Norway. The shift towards progressive occurred on "Mardraum" and, for me, matured fully on "Isa" which remains my favourite album of theirs from their progressive era.

The last two Opeth albums are good. Probably more prog than metal. Haken "The Mountain" doesn't do it for me at all.

Edited to add: I've tried a bunch of Dream Theater albums and none of them do anything for me...except for..."Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory" which I view as true progressive metal excellence.

 

Normally not my thing, but for some reason I really dig Periphery.

 

Yes. Soen is one of the best bands out there right now. Their new album, Tellurian, is the best album to come out in a very long time. Actually, it's probably the best album to come out since their debut album, Cognitive.

 

Another cool prog/technical metal band is Watchtower. Definitely worth checking out if you're into Rush, Yes, Fates Warning, or Death (Chuck was a big Watchtower fan!).

 

That's certainly one of their best. I'd say the other two essential ones from them are Images & Words and Octavarium.

 

Haken, one of the most talented Progressive Metal acts today. And agreed about Threshold too btw. Love that band!

 

Thanks! I'll definitely check out Redemption. Liking what I am hearing so far from This Mortal Coil.

I didn't watch it either, but their snub was all over metal news.

I like that DT album as well as Train of Thought, largely because it's their heaviest and least 'operatic'

I've given them a try numerous times. I can't seem to enjoy their vocalist, but they sure can play.

Haken FTW.

 

Highly, highly recommend this band, especially for those who love Opeth.

 

Also, this may interest many of you, new music surfacing from the super group with Dan Carey of Tool and Brent Hinds of Mastodon.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/02/members-of-tool-and-mastodon-join-forces-for-new-supergroup/

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present The Gentle Storm and their concept album The Diary. This is a collaboration between Ayreon musician Arjen Lucassen and The Gathering singer Anneke van Giersbergen.

Here is some background into the story of love, separation and sadness portrayed in the album.

And a review.

It really is quite stunning.

 

I like Shadow Gallery's Tyranny, Room V and Digital Ghosts very much.

 

I have an original vinyl pressing, and IMO, it isn't a terrific improvement over the CD. But if BoB is working with a true master, they may have gotten more out of it. But I was going to add Queensryche to this list, but someone beat me to my favorite album: Promised Land. Definitely among their least 'metal' releases, but some powerful stuff there.

If you're having trouble getting into DT because it isn't emotional (and I'd agree, their later catalog isn't), their most emotional albums IMO would be Awake and Falling Into Infinity. The former album has some of Kevin Moore's best songwriting before he left the band, and is definitely emotional.

 

Thanks for the advice, man! Appreciate it! Going to have to give those a listen!

 

The Groundhogs are not Metal in any way shape or form.

 

Thanks for the thread, added a lot to my "what to look for" queue!

 

If you like instrumental progressive rock, check out Sean Ashe - very talented guitar player

 

While a style I don't listen to much any more, I know and enjoy much of the music mentioned, especially Opeth, Pain of Salvation, Death, Meshuggah, even Dream Theater.

But the most progressive of all the metal bands in my mind is Fates Warning because they play with song structure in a way that is incredibly haunting to me. They sound like basically a normal metal band- no "cookie monster" vocals, no makeup, no weird synth sounds, just guitars and drums and singing. But I'll be listening to their stuff sometimes and be, I dunno.. disturbed. It's very uncomfortable, they way they change riffs oddly or something, the way that ideas don't resolve. While other bands bludgeon me into submission, Fates creeps me out.

Perfect Symmetry especially, that album is the master piece, and it's like they're their own genre.

 

If you like Fates Warning, check out Watchtower. Especially the album Control and Reistance