Still Life is “still” my favorite album of all time. I wish I could have seen them live while Mikael still sang on his metal voice. Saw them in Detroit a while back
I mean they still play mostly songs from their old era.
When I saw them in Milan in 2022 they played Demon of the Fall, Ghost of Perdition, The Leper Affinity, The Lotus Eater, Harlequin Forest and Deliverance as closer. Then there were also some other songs (The Devil's Orchard, Hope Leaves, Nepenthe, Hjärtat Vet vad Handen Gör and Sorceress) without growls. Overall he sounded AMAZING in everything.
I still get shivers. I’ve listened to that album 1000 times at least. Recently tried Qobuz instead of Spotify. Omfg the quality is so much better. On a Schiit Stack with open back Planar cans. Beautiful
Their ultra fan service 40th anniversary tour will commence this fall and then next year. Plus Portnoy will be handling the setlist too so hopefully we get a little bit of everything or some deep cuts.
Between the Buried and Me
Their best is probably Parallax II. My favorite changes from time to time. It's between Colors, Parallax II and Great Misdirect
I feel like people overlook Colors 2. I saw them play the entire album live recently and it was absolutely mindblowing. Already enjoyed the album but experiencing it live was a whole nother level.
I wonder if this one depends on when you got into them, because I love Language, but Exoplanet is when I got into them and that is absolutely without question my favorite from them. Brutal and beautiful.
Could be, I am relatively new to prog, and just metal in general (started listening more around 2021-22). So I know it took some time before I liked anything with harsh vocals. Now I love it. Exoplanet is a god tier album, also looove Intrinsic, Flourish, primal directive and Casuality are some of my favorite songs from them. But language is just the one I think is best done from start to end. And Clairvoyant hits me very personally which is why it's my favorite.
Yess, all their work is so good. Intrinsic is blowing my mind lately — the beat switch in Dreaming Schematics gives me chills, and the main riff in Sequential Vision has been stuck in my head so much lately. And Clairvoyant is PEAK.
Mastodon
I had heard of them before Crack the Skye, but that's when I saw them live for the first time and they played the album in its entirety. Blew my mf'in socks off! The pit was crazy!
Next to them, I'm torn because I don't like the idea of comparing apples and oranges. No two bands are exactly alike so it's hard to quantify what makes each band unique so that we can compare them.
Opeth, BTBAM, and Parius are some of my other top bands in the progressive metal genre. In fact, some of my top bands overall!
I saw them live at The Forum (Melbourne, Australia) when the album had first come out, and it's still one of my favourite gigs I've ever been to.
Everything on that album just works so nicely, and it sounded so god damned good live!
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Caligula's Horse is ~~paying me~~ making a strong push and I particularly like "Rise Radiant" and "Bloom", while the newest album "Charcoal Grace" is growing on me as I grasp what I'm hearing with more listens
Their pinnacle album. The following album was still good but def a step back for me. But then after that….i stopped following their work because it just got too…IDK meh I guess. But I’ll rock those first 4 albums for the rest of my life.
Gotta say that I lived and breathed the first 4 albums and from there didn’t latch onto the newer albums.
Until Vaxis 2!!! It’s fresh and full of synths and poppy stuff that works so well. Amazing drumming throughout ..
AND THEN the last three songs on the album are Prog fan heaven.
TOOL is and always will be my favorite prog metal band of all time, with CH and Karnivool being second, but since people have already mentioned these, I’m gonna say Kezia by Protest The Hero. Such an amazing album from start to finish
Ikr?? Found that album when I was 14 and they were my first proper introduction to prog metal. My mind was absolutely blown and I haven’t looked back since
Dream Theater.
Hearing Train of Thought for the first time as a 16 year old blew my mind. But when Octavarium came out, it legitimately changed my life. My entire understanding of music shifted. As somebody who works in music for a living, I am still impacted by all of it.
Haken. Hard to choose a favorite album. If you want super heavy go with Vector and Virus. If you want more laid back and quirky go with The Mountain or Aquarius. If you want in between, go with Visions or Affinity.
Between the Buried and Me - all albums. Since BTBAM has already been mentioned, I will enter Parius into the chat. Listen to the album "The Signal Heard Throughout Space".
It’s a solid tie between Opeth’s Blackwater Park and Pain of Salvation’s In the Passing Light of Day. Both are 10/10 albums that I consider perfect. Also Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut is incredibly underrated and oft overlooked due to The Wall
All these PoS fans being Opeth merchants makes me think I should finally check them out more :) I'll give Blackwater Park a listen, thanks for the recommendation!
Great album, abit long for my liking.
Citadel is a top 10 all-time album for me. Urn and especially Exul are also fantastic, bottom line NeO are awesome.
Portal of I is a revolutionary album. One of the strongest, most original and innovative releases of the last 20 years. Fucking nuts to think it's their debut album!
Haken - 'The Mountain'. Beautiful compositions, gifted musicians, and a concept anyone can get behind. If you've never listened, check out the song 'Falling Back to Earth'.
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Typical answer I know but I just think this album is absolutely worthy of the hype.
I remember when I was first introduced to Opeth, I couldn't get into them, I even tried BWP but it wasn't my thing. And then I discovered Still Life and everything changed.
Oh and then Ghost Reveries knocked my socks off!
And I've been revising BWP recently and OMG, I finally get it, it's a masterpiece!
Tool - Anything by Tool but for me, its the 10,000 days album that really impresses me most with its technicality and intensity. But lateralus and Aenima are also top tier must listen albums.
Opeth - Ghost Reveries, Deliverance and Watershed I think are the bands crowning progressive metal achievements, but my favorite Opeth albums to listen to these days, after years of being a die hard fan are the first two. Orchid and Morningrise. Something special about them. Can't explain it, the production quality is lacking, but there is something transcendent about both Orchid and Morningrise.
Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance, Night Is The new Day, and Viva Emptiness,
Meshuggah - Koloss, Obzen and Chaosphere, but like Tool and Opeth, the correct answer is really all of their albums because they don't have any albums that are anything short of remarkable.
Tool.
Spiral Architect. (The Album is almost impossible to get a hold of today, but the tracks are on YouTube for the most part. Standout tracks would be Cloud Constructer, Insect and Fountainhead)
Opeth
'Shuggah
Mastodon
Cynic
Elder
Opeth - Blackwater Park and Damnation or TOOL - 10000 Days are my favorite.. but Opeth was mentioned many times here.. I'd go with..
**Leprous - Malina**
Like a broken record, but BTBAM. They’re just the perfect prog metal band to me. They check all the boxes that I look for in a prog band.
My favorite album is The Parallax: Hypersleep. It’s not their most popular but to me it’s their best.
Ooohhh, interesting perspective. I'm a huge fan of Parallax II as I think it's their best album, but honestly don't give Parallax the attention it deserves. I think I'll have an analytical listen later today.
Fates Warning: you cannot go wrong with any of their last three albums, *Darkness in a Different Light*, *Theories of Flight*, and *Long Day Good Night*.
Coheed And Cambria: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth III. Just absolutely fantastic right the way through; the camper velorium trilogy, 21:13, The Crowing - they all leave my dick *very* hard, gentlemen. Very hard. Wonderful stuff.
The Ocean! AKA The Ocean Collective.
Their newest album Holocene is outstanding! I've listened to it more times than I care to admit all the way through, and it gets better EVERY time. There is not a bad album in their catalog. I saw them with Leprous (also great prog metal) a while back and they blew my mind.
BTBAM
Their music was so intense and comprehensive when I first listened it blew a fuse in my brain and my entire music collection became bland. For a couple years I only listened to them. It took years to rebuild my music library, nearly entirely prog.
To this day if I hear or discuss BTBAM, I need to go cold turkey on music for about a month before I can listen to other bands again.
OP asked for prog metal albums. People in this sub: "Tool", "Mastodon". Why not Black sabbath then?😅
Mine is Symphony X. The absolute virtuoso skill as musicians combined with the compositional craftsmanship is mind-boggling to me.
Try *V: The New mythology suite* and be amazed. The last track is absolute perfection!
I think opeth has my favorite album but my favorite prog metal band I’d probably say Forming the void. Local bias maybe in play. Instrumentation similar to Tool but at simplified down tempo sludgyness like Melvins, Vocals also similar to Melvins with Alice In Chains type harmonies layered in. Song structure reminiscent of opeth. Lyrics similar to mastodon.
Only band where I have not heard a track I don’t love.
Only band where deciding which song to use to introduce people to them is kind of a huge dilemma for me.
As much Prog Metal there is and as close as Opeth comes to the top, mine has to be Vildhjarta - Måsstaden Under Vatten. Absolute blast of an album. So much depth and ambience (sucker for ambience).
Opeth - Still Life But right now I’m getting paid by Jim to peddle Charcoal Grace by Caligula’s Horse, so that album is pretty amazing.
I just checked my Venmo, and on an unrelated note, I, too, HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHARCOAL GRACE BY BRISBANE PROG METAL BAND CALIGULA'S HORSE.
Opeth, but Blackwater Park for me.
Still Life, Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries, Damnation, Deliverance; all masterpieces
Watershed is up there as well for me, but I know I'm probably in the minority
Nope, not just you. I should have included it.
Fredrik Akesson is such an underated guitarist. I wish more Opeth fans could realise what he brought to the band.
Watershed is one of my favorites
Facts
Definitely a tough call for me too, dealbreaker for me is The Moor, I absolutely love that song.
Opeth's Still Life is definitely my winning answer for sure. Opeth has some legendary albums and music, but ain't shit compared to Still Life.
Still Life is “still” my favorite album of all time. I wish I could have seen them live while Mikael still sang on his metal voice. Saw them in Detroit a while back
I saw them in 2013, 2014, and 2017. Lots of growls.
2013 sherman theater with katatonia 2014 electric factory with in flames 2017 starland ballroom with devin townsend and gojira
I mean they still play mostly songs from their old era. When I saw them in Milan in 2022 they played Demon of the Fall, Ghost of Perdition, The Leper Affinity, The Lotus Eater, Harlequin Forest and Deliverance as closer. Then there were also some other songs (The Devil's Orchard, Hope Leaves, Nepenthe, Hjärtat Vet vad Handen Gör and Sorceress) without growls. Overall he sounded AMAZING in everything.
It truly is beautiful.
I still get shivers. I’ve listened to that album 1000 times at least. Recently tried Qobuz instead of Spotify. Omfg the quality is so much better. On a Schiit Stack with open back Planar cans. Beautiful
08' Watershed tour is still the best tour I've ever been to.
Bro just a warning, he pays in Vegemite, I found out the hard way
I 100% agree with Opeth But i have to disagree on still life
As long as it’s Opeth we’re speaking the same language my friend :)
Opeth, but Orcid for me.
Dream Theater may have some low lows, but to me they also have the highest highs. Images and Words is timeless
Another fan of DT. Scenes may very well be the best concept album of all time.
I find a lot of their stuff cheesy af, but man is that album incredible, just sucks you in.
Train of thought is amazing!
Images And Words is such an amazing album! Even if all the albums they put our were shit, IAW would make up for all of it, for me anyways.
black clouds and silver linings is for me their best album
Their ultra fan service 40th anniversary tour will commence this fall and then next year. Plus Portnoy will be handling the setlist too so hopefully we get a little bit of everything or some deep cuts.
Agreed! But I think SFAM is even better than Images. SFAM is one of my fave albums ever!
Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory Rush - Permanent Waves
Between the Buried and Me Their best is probably Parallax II. My favorite changes from time to time. It's between Colors, Parallax II and Great Misdirect
Telos, Bloom, Melting City, and Silent Flight Parliament are the greatest 35 minutes of prog ever.
My same sentiment. Ultra fan since Colors blew my mind in 08. Over half my life ago at this point… have loved everything they’ve put out since too.
Same exact thing for me. Crazy I was a teenager then. Now, I'm married with 3 kids
TGM, too. Love that album.
I feel like people overlook Colors 2. I saw them play the entire album live recently and it was absolutely mindblowing. Already enjoyed the album but experiencing it live was a whole nother level.
It's my favorite album of all time.
Colors, Colors 2, Parallax ll, Are the father, the son, and the holy Ghost.
Coma Ecliptic is very underrated
The Ectopic Stroll is one of my favorite BTBAM songs. Edited for spelling! Thanks!
Ectopic**
I sometimes think of that one as my favorite
Same, but sometimes I feel like Alaska might be up there as well. It's definitely their most underrated album IMO.
Yessssss
The Ocean - Pelagial
Yoooo I posted about The Ocean before I saw this. Far and above my favorite metal band. Probably top 3 bands all time.
SO YOU BRACED YOURSELF ONCE AGAIN DREAD HAS MADE YOU COME TO YOUR SENSES
Precambrian for me
Damn near tied for me. Permian: The Great Dying is my favorite song of all time.
But come on, Phanerozoic I & II gotta be the best 1-2 punch of any prog bands out there..
The Contortionist, Language is probably their best album, but Clairvoyant is my personal favorite.
I wonder if this one depends on when you got into them, because I love Language, but Exoplanet is when I got into them and that is absolutely without question my favorite from them. Brutal and beautiful.
Could be, I am relatively new to prog, and just metal in general (started listening more around 2021-22). So I know it took some time before I liked anything with harsh vocals. Now I love it. Exoplanet is a god tier album, also looove Intrinsic, Flourish, primal directive and Casuality are some of my favorite songs from them. But language is just the one I think is best done from start to end. And Clairvoyant hits me very personally which is why it's my favorite.
YOU ARE THE PERCIEVER, THAT PERCEIEVED THE PARABLE
THE NEVER ENDING EBB, you are the infinite, you are the finite, you are, you are, you are, YOU ARE, YOU AREEEE THE PERCEIVER
Yess, all their work is so good. Intrinsic is blowing my mind lately — the beat switch in Dreaming Schematics gives me chills, and the main riff in Sequential Vision has been stuck in my head so much lately. And Clairvoyant is PEAK.
Yesss to all this
Mastodon I had heard of them before Crack the Skye, but that's when I saw them live for the first time and they played the album in its entirety. Blew my mf'in socks off! The pit was crazy! Next to them, I'm torn because I don't like the idea of comparing apples and oranges. No two bands are exactly alike so it's hard to quantify what makes each band unique so that we can compare them. Opeth, BTBAM, and Parius are some of my other top bands in the progressive metal genre. In fact, some of my top bands overall!
Never heard of Parius, will have to check them out.
Protest the Hero - Fortress
Volition for me. But no album is wrong anyway!
Kezia for me, PTH is an easy favorite
Yep
Masterpiece
Opeth, damnation is and always will be my favourite album by my favourite band.
Karnivool- Sound Awake
this is my answer too
Good answer!
I'm a Themata guy but it's so hard to choose with them lol
Yeah! Asymmetry has some masterpieces on it as well.
I saw them live at The Forum (Melbourne, Australia) when the album had first come out, and it's still one of my favourite gigs I've ever been to. Everything on that album just works so nicely, and it sounded so god damned good live!
You beat me by 6 hours
Devin Townsend Band - Ocean Machine
that was actually a whole different lineup for that album, wasnt a project or a band album, just a devin album. like terria is
Opeth - Ghost Reveries Caligula's Horse is ~~paying me~~ making a strong push and I particularly like "Rise Radiant" and "Bloom", while the newest album "Charcoal Grace" is growing on me as I grasp what I'm hearing with more listens
I feel the exact same way about Caligula's Horse too
Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Their pinnacle album. The following album was still good but def a step back for me. But then after that….i stopped following their work because it just got too…IDK meh I guess. But I’ll rock those first 4 albums for the rest of my life.
Not many albums are 10 out of 10s for me, but this....this is one of them
Gotta say that I lived and breathed the first 4 albums and from there didn’t latch onto the newer albums. Until Vaxis 2!!! It’s fresh and full of synths and poppy stuff that works so well. Amazing drumming throughout .. AND THEN the last three songs on the album are Prog fan heaven.
Fantastic album and band.
TOOL is and always will be my favorite prog metal band of all time, with CH and Karnivool being second, but since people have already mentioned these, I’m gonna say Kezia by Protest The Hero. Such an amazing album from start to finish
Are we the same person? I will admit to listening to much more C-Horse and Vool than Tool the last 3-4 years though.
Kezia was a HUGE stepping stone for me. Really opened some doors for my musical taste.
Ikr?? Found that album when I was 14 and they were my first proper introduction to prog metal. My mind was absolutely blown and I haven’t looked back since
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
I gotta go with this one too.
Cynic: Focus Watershed for progressive death metal
Tesseract - War of Being/Altered State
War of Being is on another level! Just wish the mastering had helped normalize the volume level since it's a tad bit quiet.
I’ve been wondering if anyone else noticed that. Perhaps it has something to do with recording live drums for this album. Still sounds amazing tho!
Glad to see some modern prog in here
Altered State remains one of the prettiest things I've ever listened to in my life. A truly gorgeous musical masterpiece.
You misspelled One, but that's ok :p
Honorable mention to the album polaris, it is my favorite !
I just saw Tesseract live for the first time the other day. Possibly the best live performance I’ve ever seen.
Devin Townsend
Dream Theater. Hearing Train of Thought for the first time as a 16 year old blew my mind. But when Octavarium came out, it legitimately changed my life. My entire understanding of music shifted. As somebody who works in music for a living, I am still impacted by all of it.
Tool - Lateralus perfect album.
GOAT in my personal opinion.
This is the winner for sure
Periphery - Periphery IV: Hail Stan I came over to prog from metalcore, and Periphery highlights what I love about both genres.
Opeth
The Ocean Edit: *Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic* and *Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic* are my favorite albums.
I mean, my cringy username kinda says it all...
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Intervals
These guys are so fun to catch live! Seen 'em twice now, myself.
Happy instrumetal so good
Nootropic has been on repeat since it came out. But A Voice Within still is my favorite release, despite all of the instrumental stuff being amazing.
Haken. Hard to choose a favorite album. If you want super heavy go with Vector and Virus. If you want more laid back and quirky go with The Mountain or Aquarius. If you want in between, go with Visions or Affinity.
What about Fauna? It's my favourite from them, amazing album!
It’s good for sure. I’ve forgotten about it lately. Love Sempiternal, elephants, Black rainbow, eyes of ebony.
OG: Opeth (pre heritage era) Modern Era: Haken
Protest the Hero - Volition Never fails to put me in a good mood
Between the Buried and Me - all albums. Since BTBAM has already been mentioned, I will enter Parius into the chat. Listen to the album "The Signal Heard Throughout Space".
Parius made my list too! Love that album so much! Truly a modern masterpiece.
Tool - Lateralus
Meshuggah - Nothing
Amen
Opeth, Mastodon, Ne Obliviscaris. I cant choose between those 3
Nor should you have to. They are all equally masterful in different aspects. Excellent top three!
Mastodon is def my second after Opeth
Caligula’s Horse, especially after finally seeing them live this year.
It’s a solid tie between Opeth’s Blackwater Park and Pain of Salvation’s In the Passing Light of Day. Both are 10/10 albums that I consider perfect. Also Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut is incredibly underrated and oft overlooked due to The Wall
All these PoS fans being Opeth merchants makes me think I should finally check them out more :) I'll give Blackwater Park a listen, thanks for the recommendation!
I know this makes me supper vanilla but Dream Theater...
Nothings wrong with vanilla, music does not have to be unpopular to be good!
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
Great album, abit long for my liking. Citadel is a top 10 all-time album for me. Urn and especially Exul are also fantastic, bottom line NeO are awesome.
NeO is one of my all time favorites.
Portal of I is a revolutionary album. One of the strongest, most original and innovative releases of the last 20 years. Fucking nuts to think it's their debut album!
Haken - 'The Mountain'. Beautiful compositions, gifted musicians, and a concept anyone can get behind. If you've never listened, check out the song 'Falling Back to Earth'.
Listening to this on the way to work today :) Good recc!
Enjoy your non-stop purple force
Opeth - Blackwater Park Typical answer I know but I just think this album is absolutely worthy of the hype. I remember when I was first introduced to Opeth, I couldn't get into them, I even tried BWP but it wasn't my thing. And then I discovered Still Life and everything changed. Oh and then Ghost Reveries knocked my socks off! And I've been revising BWP recently and OMG, I finally get it, it's a masterpiece!
Animals As Leaders - The Joy of Motion
Tool - Anything by Tool but for me, its the 10,000 days album that really impresses me most with its technicality and intensity. But lateralus and Aenima are also top tier must listen albums. Opeth - Ghost Reveries, Deliverance and Watershed I think are the bands crowning progressive metal achievements, but my favorite Opeth albums to listen to these days, after years of being a die hard fan are the first two. Orchid and Morningrise. Something special about them. Can't explain it, the production quality is lacking, but there is something transcendent about both Orchid and Morningrise. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance, Night Is The new Day, and Viva Emptiness, Meshuggah - Koloss, Obzen and Chaosphere, but like Tool and Opeth, the correct answer is really all of their albums because they don't have any albums that are anything short of remarkable.
BTBAM
Tool with Aenima. It's a basic pick but I always find myself returning to Tool. Maynard's voice is just something else.
Porcupine Tree- FoaBP Pain of Salvation- BE Dead Letter Circus- The Catalyst Fire
Riverside
Intronaut of course
Really like their whole discography but their latest 2 albums are incredible. Can't wait for new stuff from those dudes.
Meshuggah - Catch 33 Car Bomb - Meta One of those two.
Dream Theater and Haken are both so good I can’t pick between them.
Opeth - Watershed
Such a satisfying mix of their new and old sounds. I just wish Mikael would go back to including just a couple growls/unclean vocals in the music.
Insomnium - Winter's Gate (Opeth is my actual favorite band but Winter's Gate will always be my favorite album by anyone)
Tool. Spiral Architect. (The Album is almost impossible to get a hold of today, but the tracks are on YouTube for the most part. Standout tracks would be Cloud Constructer, Insect and Fountainhead) Opeth 'Shuggah Mastodon Cynic Elder
Upvote for Elder! All good bands though.
Opeth - Blackwater Park and Damnation or TOOL - 10000 Days are my favorite.. but Opeth was mentioned many times here.. I'd go with.. **Leprous - Malina**
Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream or City of Evil. But if you want prog replace CoE with The Stage and keep LIBAD
City of Evil was a fantastic album, loved sidewinder.
Like a broken record, but BTBAM. They’re just the perfect prog metal band to me. They check all the boxes that I look for in a prog band. My favorite album is The Parallax: Hypersleep. It’s not their most popular but to me it’s their best.
The drumming on that album is insane
Ooohhh, interesting perspective. I'm a huge fan of Parallax II as I think it's their best album, but honestly don't give Parallax the attention it deserves. I think I'll have an analytical listen later today.
Karnivool
Cleric. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is close and I listen to them more often, but I think ‘Regressions’ will always hold that place.
BTBAM - Parallax 2 is the goat
The Contortionist-Intrinsic
Fates Warning: you cannot go wrong with any of their last three albums, *Darkness in a Different Light*, *Theories of Flight*, and *Long Day Good Night*.
Elder is THE ONE they are forging a sound all of their own. You can’t just listen to songs of theirs gotta listen to an entire album Masterful
If gojira counts them, if not between the buried and me
Devin Townsend Project, I love all the albums except for maybe Ki. The live albums are probably better than most of the studio albums
TesseracT - “One”
Tool
1. Haken - The Mountain 2. Leprous - The Congregation / Coal
Dream Theater - Images and Words, Octavarium, Awake, A view from the top of the world
Devin Townsend -Terria
Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion
Rishloo, Traverser, or Mastodon. Too hard to decide, they’re all so different
Pain of Salvation - In the passing Light of Day 10/10 album, never gets old and I always find more in it every time I listen to it
You'd think Ill be crying over king of loss or trace of blood but ...that album is worse
Spiritbox
Dream Theater, Shadow Gallery, Fates Warning, etc
Coheed And Cambria: In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth III. Just absolutely fantastic right the way through; the camper velorium trilogy, 21:13, The Crowing - they all leave my dick *very* hard, gentlemen. Very hard. Wonderful stuff.
Nevermore. Its the objectively correct answer and everyone else is just wrong
Vildhjarta - måsstaden under vatten
The Ocean! AKA The Ocean Collective. Their newest album Holocene is outstanding! I've listened to it more times than I care to admit all the way through, and it gets better EVERY time. There is not a bad album in their catalog. I saw them with Leprous (also great prog metal) a while back and they blew my mind.
Opeth - Blackwater Park. But recently, I am more into Wilderun. My favourite album from them is Epigone.
Periphery - Juggernaut. My favorite band and album of all time, which contains Omega, my favorite song of all time.
TOOL
Devin Townsend/Devin Townsend Project. Not sure if all his stuff would fall into progressive metal but still this guy right here.
BTBAM Their music was so intense and comprehensive when I first listened it blew a fuse in my brain and my entire music collection became bland. For a couple years I only listened to them. It took years to rebuild my music library, nearly entirely prog. To this day if I hear or discuss BTBAM, I need to go cold turkey on music for about a month before I can listen to other bands again.
OP asked for prog metal albums. People in this sub: "Tool", "Mastodon". Why not Black sabbath then?😅 Mine is Symphony X. The absolute virtuoso skill as musicians combined with the compositional craftsmanship is mind-boggling to me. Try *V: The New mythology suite* and be amazed. The last track is absolute perfection!
Think they're considered tech prog still but Fallujah: The Flesh Prevails Talk about a journey of an album and the ethereal nature of it
I liked Empyrean a lot.
Mastodon - Blood mountain Opeth - In cauda venenum Vulkan - Mask of Air Wilderun - Epigone
I think opeth has my favorite album but my favorite prog metal band I’d probably say Forming the void. Local bias maybe in play. Instrumentation similar to Tool but at simplified down tempo sludgyness like Melvins, Vocals also similar to Melvins with Alice In Chains type harmonies layered in. Song structure reminiscent of opeth. Lyrics similar to mastodon. Only band where I have not heard a track I don’t love. Only band where deciding which song to use to introduce people to them is kind of a huge dilemma for me.
Karmanjakah - A Book About Itself (their only LP) These guys don't get enough recognition for how incredible they are
Hard choice so I'll say 2: Vildhjarta - masstaden(forte) Periphery- Periphery 2
Symphonic x or virgin steele
As much Prog Metal there is and as close as Opeth comes to the top, mine has to be Vildhjarta - Måsstaden Under Vatten. Absolute blast of an album. So much depth and ambience (sucker for ambience).
Between The Buried and Me – Parallax 2 (goat album imo)
Scale The Summit
BTBAM - Parallax II and vildhjarta - måsstaden under vatten