The 10 Best Progressive Metal Albums Ever

Another of my favorite genres that often uses fantastic themes and lyrics (for a power metal top 10 look HERE) is Progressive Metal. Many of my favorite bands and musicians actually belong to that genre - Dream Theater, Symphony X, Shadow Gallery and others.

Fantasytree tip #6: One of the very best progressive metal albums - actually one of the best albums ever made, that I never get tired of and actually listened to this very morning - is Images and Words by Dream Theater. If you haven't heard this album... drop everything you have at hand and head for nearest record store. It's THAT marvellous. Promise me you'll hear it all the way through at least 3 times before deciding what you think of it, though (This album is rated as #16 in the progressive metal chart and as #919 overall at rateyourmusic.com).

These are the 10 highest rated Progressive Metal albums on rateyourmusic.com right now:

1. Opeth - Still Life (1999)

2. Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001)

3. Edge of Sanity - Crimson (1996)

4. Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)

5. Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime (1988)

6. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)

7. maudlin of the Well - Leaving Your Body Map (2001)

8. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory (1999)

9. Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse (1998)

10. Tiamat - Wildhoney (1994)

Of these I have heard and own albums by Opeth (but the only Opeth album I have is "Deliverance", not one of these three), that I find a little too brutal and dark; Queensrÿche and Dream Theater - but I do not really like the concepts of either one of these two, although they are great (Queensrÿche) and brilliant (Dream Theater) musically; Tiamat - the only album I've heard, an old one that I think was entitled "Clouds", was too much towards the black metal genre for my taste.

Number one in my Progressive Metal chart is - as already mentioned in the tip above - "Images and Words" by Dream Theater.

Which Progressive Metal album is the best ever in your opinion?