Just like Atheist, they paved the way for the progressive metal to come during the 90’s. Subgenres(s): Progressive death metal, progressive rockĬynic is a band so influential that it has to be on a list like this. It’s a solid progressive metal album (again a bit similar to Nevermore) with insane musicianship. Recommended album: The Fragile Art of Existence (1999)Ĭontrol Denied was the traditional progressive metal outlet for Death’s Chuck Schuldiner, and released one album entitled “The Fragile Art of Existence”.

Norway’s Communic can be accused of sounding a tad too similar, but on the other hand they write classy progressive metal that would be a sin to not include on this list. There are very few bands that sound like Nevermore, and even fewer that can rival them in quality.

Recommended album: Conspiracy in Mind (2005) Subgenres(s): Progressive power metal, progressive thrash metal Their strongest songs are a perfect mix of death metal, doom metal and folk metal goodness. After recruiting Hamferð vocalist Jon Aldara, they grew into so much more. Subgenres(s): Progressive death metal, melodic death metalīarren Earth started out as a progressive metal project for those who hadn’t quite gotten enough of Amorphis and Opeth. They were highly creative and helped pave the way for Death masterpieces like “Human” and “Individual Thought Patterns”. They’ve done everything from old school death metal to doom metal, folk metal and progressive metal, and most of it has been great.Ītheist is a highly influential early 90’s death metal band that incorporated jazz and other progressive tendencies into their sound. Recommended album: Tales of the Thousand Lakes (1994)įew bands have a more fitting band name, as Amorphis have tried out many styles during their long career. Subgenres(s): Progressive metal, progressive rock, melodic death metal, folk metal

A way to describe them fast would be a way more extreme version of Opeth, but that doesn’t really do their sound justice. Recommended album: Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (2005)Īkercocke is one of the most original bands in extreme metal, playing a mix of death and black metal with strong progressive influences. If you’re searching for new music in the style, it would be awesome if you listened to my stuff on: This is one of the ways I promote Soliloquium, my progressive death/doom metal band. I’m Stefan Nordström, an aspiring musician and content creator. Instead of making it a countdown, I will do this list in A-Z. It will include everything from extreme metal to bands that fit just as well under the progressive rock tag. The progressive metal genre classification is pretty difficult to narrow down so I’ve done my best to include the bands I deem progressive metal. This my list of the 30 best progressive metal bands, I hope you can find something interesting.

Best prog metal albums