Best Progressive Rock + Metal Album of Each Year Since 1983

Here is the best progressive rock/metal album of each year since 1983.

Given its penchant for bizarre concepts, vast track lengths and intimidatingly complex musicianship, it’s little wonder why progressive rock – which began in the late 1960s – is usually met with either fanatical admiration or unmitigated rejection.

It was during the 1970s that progressive rock truly blew up, with artists such as ELP, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, Jethro Tull, VDGG and Yes increasing its scope and popularity through genre-bending and wholly distinctive approaches. For instance, many artists combined psychedelia, jazz, classical and/or folk into their compositions. Although they kept going as the decade concluded, however, their work largely lost creative and commercial appeal due to the rise of more accessible styles such as new wave and punk.

Luckily, the 1980s saw IQ, Pallas, Twelfth Night and Marillion successfully merging the sounds of those ‘70s staples with the fresher techniques of the era in what became known as neo-prog. Around the same time, the raucousness of heavy metal was merged with the elaborateness of prog rock when artists such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning and most overtly/importantly, Dream Theater came onto the scene.

In fact, it was Dream Theater’s initial two LPs – 1989’s When Dream and Day Unite and 1992’s Images and Words – that fully fused the hostility of Metallica and Iron Maiden with the intricate playfulness of Rush and Gentle Giant.

READ MORE: 11 Seriously Underrated ’70s Prog Bands

Since then, hundreds of groups have looked to those artists for inspiration as they put their own spin on the prog landscape. Despite varying greatly in terms of their subject matter, instrumentation, ferocity and numerous other elements, BTBAM, Opeth, Spock’s Beard, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta, Haken, Ayreon and Riverside (to name a few) have kept progressive rock/metal going strong.

It’s only natural, then, for there to be some debate regarding which albums still reign supreme, and that’s exactly what we’re going to look at with the following list.

To keep things manageable and fair, though, we’re only going back to 1983 since that’s essentially when the first progressive metal records emerged to even be contenders.

Whether they’re obvious picks, controversial choices or albums that too few fans have heard, the following records surely represent the peak of prog during their respective years. As always, though, we’d love to know if you agree with our decisions or if you’d make some changes along the way.