Your Favorite Prog Metal Albums

Wow, Ben. You and me must have really similar taste. Twilight is also my favorite SX album (I went with V just because it's more "prog," but I love the songs on Twilight). Temple of Shadows is my favorite Angra (Again, I listed Rebirth for the same reason). Symbolic is my favorite Death album, and honestly, I'm a huge fan of LD50. What a solid and interesting album with some seriously great moments.

Very true.

forgot to put on here:

Opeth - Blackwater Park & Still Life Two amazing progressive death metal releases that offer some of the most amazing folk parts and heavy parts over two albums.

Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane POS have always been something that is technically great but I have never really connected with the 'emotion' they display in their music. Daniel's delivery to me has always sounded a bit fake but on this album the band hit the mark, very good music and very consistent.

Andromeda - Chimera I know the first two albums are generally a bigger hit in prog circles but I definately think Andromeda left a mark with Chimera. Every song is very well written, well performed, very memorable and every song is seperable from the last. Its just a great and varied prog album.

Evergrey - Dark Discovery, Solitude Dominance Traged & In Search Of Truth Generally not one of the first bands I would mention when talking to about prog but these three albums have some really good and moody progressive music on them.
 
Ayreon - The Human Equation
Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Allen/Lande - The Battle
Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera
Royal Hunt - Paradox
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
Serenity - Fallen Sanctuary
 
I forgot to add this:

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Dream Theater - 6DegreesofInnerTurbulance, Best DT album
Queensryche - Operation Mind crime, Classic Metal
Death - The Sound of Perseverance, One of the best Progressive albums
Symphony X - The Odyssey, Heavy as Fuck, Progressive Ear Candy
Evergrey - In Search of Truth, Dark prog at it's finest
Cynic - Focus, ahead of it's time
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, not all prog but the proggy moments here are some of my fav ever.
Blind Guardian - A Night at the Opera, One of the most complex mind boggling albums
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, pretty says it all in the title...If you like Dream Theater or Symphony X, The Perfect Element fits in nicely with the best ever.
Into Eternity - Buried in Oblivion, Dream Theater on crack, newer albums aren't as good.
 
death - individual thought patterns
symphony x - the divine wings of tragedy
adagio - underworld
tourniquet - stop the bleeding (its pretty proggy sounding to me)
 
Prog metal. Yes, well, ok. In no particular order, here's a few I'll start with:

Symphony X - V | If it wasn't for this album, I'd probably think that Symphony X would be a mediocre band today. This album alone makes them one of my favorite bands. Or was, if they continue down the path of Paradise Lost (meheherp).

Mechanical Poet - Woodland Prattlers/Handmade Essence (2cd compilation) | I think I'm the only person in the world who enjoys listening to this band. Think Alice in Wonderland-prog metal. Strayed Moppet, Natural Quaternion and Hermetical Orchard are awesome one-of-a-kind songs. This band turned into shit when they switched vocalist and stuff so avoid this band like the plague unless it's one of these two albums (or both, as I have them on a 2cd thingy).

Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness | Most people consider this a prog metal album, even though it's very heavy on the doom and gloom. A masterpiece that I haven't heard a single person not like, once they've given it a listen. Excellent guitar solos and amazing vocals... for 60 fucking minutes straight.

Dream Theater - Scenes from a memory | I consider this their magnus opus. If they release anything better than this I will eat my own penis. The best concept album with a 'story' I've actually been arsed to follow and go in-depth with. Even the gay songs on this one are A++.

Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle | It was a tough decision between this one and Universal Migrator pt1. But in the end, this one holds the best standard, even though I really like both albums. Damian Wilson (Threshold) and Fish (Marillion) are two of my favorite vocalists and they sing on the same fucking tack. Like, twice. I think. The Human Equation and 101010whatever haven't got shit on these two albums once you've really listened to them.

Vision Divine - The Perfect Machine | It's like a danish fucking James LaBrie singing (hahahahaha), but he can hold a fucking tone that's for sure. Great musicianship and a lot of catchy melodies. I actually consider this band to be a little underrated, and anyone who's into SX/DT/shit should give it a quick listen. If you don't strangle yourself after a minute, chances are you actually like it.

Communic - Waves of Visual Decay | Communic is a stupid fucking name because it doesn't mean anything and it's not really that cool. However, Fooled by the serpent from this albums is really fuckin cool. The songs are all like 6 minutes long (or longer) and pretty repetitive but it's all good stuff.

A.C.T - Silence | Underrated band. Chances are you've never heard of them before. Swedish Dream Theater copy-cats, but with jazzish influences, and really not that heavy. Actually they're quite poppy at times. But the musicianship is ace and so are all the fucking songs on this album. The Last Epic is another great album from these guys.


edit: I was listening to this now so I'll add it as well:
Conception - Parallel Minds | Great shit featuring that norwegian guy singing for Kamelot (Khan, is it?). So, yeah, except for Siege Perilous, Epica and the Fourth Legacy, I actually prefer this album and another Conception album called Flow. It's a little more pop, yet a little more raw. Beats the hell out of Ghost Opera/The Black Hole. And after they're done with the beating, they shit all over them. Wolf's Lair from this album is actually Khan's best song he's been involved in except for King's Eyes (Siege Perilous(.. of course)).

Well good news for you! You can start eating your penis because DT came with a better album if you ask me. 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings' especially the song called 'the count of tuscany' is one of their best ever made! To bad the album is only 6 numbers long :(
 
Well good news for you! You can start eating your penis because DT came with a better album if you ask me. 'The Count of Tuscany' especially the song called 'the count of tuscany' is one of their best ever made! To bad the album is only 6 numbers long :(

Hey guy, glad I didn't!
 
my favorite prog metal albums:

Symphony X - V - The New Mythology Suite

Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Balance of Power - Perfect Balance

Narnia - Enter The Gate (altough they have a new album now which i haven't listened yet so perhaps the new one is even better)

Opeth - Damnation
 
Lanfear - Zero Poems is my favorite progressive metal album of all time, but if you give it a try, realize that it'll take a lot of time, and also probably isn't going to be in the style you would expect for progressive metal.

Towers is also amazing, and even though the production is bad, it still rocks my world. I wish I could buy a copy of it somewhere.

Try both of these.
 
Symphony X - The Damnation Game
I realize a lot of people don`t like this, and Twilight in Olympus, as much as the other Sym. X albums. Hmm, maybe because of the production?
Either way, this was my first Symphony X album and I still love it :).
Actually, I`m going to go as far as to say that V is one of my least favourite Symp. X albums, unlike most people in the forums, worst than that only Paradise Lost, but that`s my opinion anyway.

Dream Theater - Images And Words, Scenes from a Memory
Maybe a little too many ballads, but who cares? Metropolis, Under a Glass Moon, Strange Deja-Vu, The Dance of Eternity and Home are all top songs.

Symphony X - The Odissey, The Divine Wings Of Tragedy
Need I say more?

Liquid Tension Experiment
The best of the best team-up for some improv.

I still have to get more prog albums, tough.
 
Dream Theater-Awake & Scenes from a Memory
SX-TDWOT, V, Odyssey & Paradise Lost
Ayreon-The Universal Migrator, Into the Electric Castle & The Human Equation
Opeth-Still Life, Blackwater Park & Watershed
Tool-Aenima, Lateralus & 10,000 Days
Devin Townsend-Terria, Synchestra & Ki
 
Cynic - Focus
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
Dan Swanö - Moontower
Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Ulver - Shadows of the Sun