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Please recommend very diversified neo-prog albums
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Rexorcist View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 19 2025 at 20:52
I tend to get annoyed when an album gets samey.  As much as I love prog, it's gotten in the way of me enjoying neo-prog to the same extent.

Currently, my favorite neo-prog album is Arena's Immortal for this thread's titular strength.  And right now I'm listening to Frost's Experiments in Mass Appeal to see if it holds the same standard.  I don't need every song to be a different genre, but some obvious variations will easily help.

Here's an example of what I'm looking for: My number 1 album, Led Zeppelin IV's track-by-track tagging pretty much goes:

Black Dog: Hard Rock / Blues Rock
Rock 'N' Roll: Rock 'N' Roll / Heavy Metal
Battle of Evermore: Folk
Stairway to Heaven: Folk Rock / Prog Rock
Misty Mountain Hop: Hard Rock
Four Sticks: Hard Rock / Prog Rock
Going to California: Folk
When the Levee Breaks: Blues Rock / Hard Rock

And this last bit isn't really necessary, but I tend to prefer symphonic prog, jazzy prog and prog-metal.  But I'll except more pop or AOR-rooted stuff.


Edited by Rexorcist - February 19 2025 at 20:53
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Wow,  you aren't asking for much are you? Lol. While I like neo prog I wouldn't say it tends to be very diverse in it's sound. I recommend checking out the latest Unitopia but not sure if that's neo prog. I can't actually think of many neo bands where every song sounds different. 
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  Aaah, What the heck...
Variety Guaranteed.
https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024
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Points: 29452 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 19 2025 at 22:45
Last years Infringement album Black Science and White Lies was a very nice surprise. From Norway they embrace quite a broad range of musical influences. It's not typical 'neo' I think.
Although classed on PA as 'Symphonic' the Netherlands band Mangrove put out their masterpiece Bridge To Fiction also last year. That to me is more 'neo prog' although whether it's diverse enough I'm not sure. Don't get hung up on labels is my advice, just listen to the music.
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Sanguine Hum - A Trace of Memory
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The 1986 debut album by UK female-fronted band Edge, "Suction 8," has a sound that was unique in the original neo-prog movement. It pulls from that, for neo prog quite usual, classic late 70s Genesis influence but also has a dash of jazz rock and dips into what would later become the 90s alt-rock.
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Points: 45 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rexorcist Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2025 at 05:38
Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Wow,  you aren't asking for much are you? Lol.

This is easily one of those times where I admit I need some help.  You should've seen the reddit thread I made for this same purpose, but for trance instead 


Edited by Rexorcist - February 20 2025 at 05:39
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Points: 37232 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2025 at 05:51
A quite diverse albums (I like the folk and jazzy qualities along with its symph qualities) included in Neo-Prog that I have heard and like is Solstice. I like the debut album from 1984, Silent Dance. A significant Yes influence to it.



Edited by Logan - February 20 2025 at 05:53
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Artificial by Unitopia is imo a great album, which also blatantly displays traditional Neo-Prog tropes.
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Points: 18943 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2025 at 07:02
^Yeah, I already mentioned Unitopia although I really only know their last album which was a double.
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In a similar vein to Unitopia, I'll suggest United Progressive Fraternity.  Another Australian band with ties to Unitopia.

Edited by rushfan4 - February 20 2025 at 08:10
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So, Mr. So & So was this cool neo-prog band from England that dropped three albums between 1992 and 2000. They played a tonne of shows all over the UK and even were an opening act for Marillion at one of their tours. Mr. So & So's sound on those albums definitely has a strong It Bites vibe going on. Fast forward to 2009, and the band got back together to put out two more albums. Their last release, Truths, Lies & Half Lies, came out in 2013 and is quite eclectic. It mixes a bunch of styles, so besides the neo-prog sound, you can also catch some prog-folk, progressive metal, art rock, and beyond.
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Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

^Yeah, I already mentioned Unitopia although I really only know their last album which was a double.
Aight. So, I can assure you that Unitopia is pure Neo-Prog, even though it's assigned to Crossover Prog here on PA for some reason.
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Originally posted by Hrychu Hrychu wrote:

Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

^Yeah, I already mentioned Unitopia although I really only know their last album which was a double.
Aight. So, I can assure you that Unitopia is pure Neo-Prog, even though it's assigned to Crossover Prog here on PA for some reason.

Good. Then I guess we both made a good call on that one. There can be a thin line between crossover and neo-prog anyway.

Another band I only have one album by is IO Earth. Any opinions on them?


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 20 2025 at 09:40
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I'll be checking out recommendations as soon as I'm done with Frost, who's kicking ass in this department thus far.  As far as Milliontown goes, I'm willing to forgive an art pop song in the middle if it's around 8/10, and it's the shortest one.  Honestly, when you take into account the amount of tracks, the middle-section makes up about eight minutes total, and right now I'm nine-minutes into the titular epic, which really needs to screw something up if I'm not to give this album a 100.  So currently, Milliontown is the new standard for neo-prog albums to beat in my opinion.

Don't worry, I haven't been ignoring your suggestions.  I wanted to see what the most popular recommendations would be before anything.  So Unitopia is first.  And any bands that have only been mentioned once, I'll go down the thread for recs.
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Points: 29452 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2025 at 20:50
Arena and Frost* have something in common - John Mitchell. May therefore be worth checking out It Bites - The Tall Ships. I love that album personally and another great example of brilliant song writing in the 21st Century. There are also his Lonely Robot albums, some nice things there and he also guests on last years Legacy Pilots album. One of the best modern(ish) guitarists imo. 
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Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

Arena and Frost* have something in common - John Mitchell. May therefore be worth checking out It Bites - The Tall Ships. I love that album personally and another great example of brilliant song writing in the 21st Century. There are also his Lonely Robot albums, some nice things there and he also guests on last years Legacy Pilots album. One of the best modern(ish) guitarists imo. 

That actually explains quite a bit.  Currently, Frost and Arena are two of the top neo-prog bands on my chart, although I'm still a bit new to them.  My current top 3 neo-prog albums are Milliontown, Immortal and Experiments in Mass Appeal.  I've also found that I'm partial to Marillion's Seasons End as opposed to their Fish era.  Seasons End just made #4.

So, update: I checked out the Unitopia debut, More Than a Dream.  It's more of an "art rock" album than a "prog album" to me, but damn was it good.  Fine sense of spirit, the variety I favor, hell Take Good Care's tribal sound after the classical intro was unexpected.  And if the ratings are to be believed and that in fact IS their worst, I'm in for a good time.
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Dave Kerzner
and his album with Phil Collins' son : Dimensionaut

Edited by mellotronwave - Yesterday at 14:00
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Points: 29452 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 hours 29 minutes ago at 20:16
^ Sound Of Contact. That is a great sci fi themed album. Collins also put together an album a few years ago as eMolecule with another SOC ex member Kelly Nordstrom called The Architect. I have it on vinyl. Kerzner also did a couple of albums as In Continuum. Both of those are the remaining strands of the Sound Of Contact project and are good imo. I would also mention Kerzner's album New World that I found out via a Keith Emerson radio broadcast. He called it 'Space Opera' if I remember correctly and made a small guest appearance on it. These are all sci-fi themed albums and are well worth checkng out.
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The South Wales neo-prog band Ezra was active in the UK music scene in the 90s. Ezra's official debut album, Shapes, was released in 1994, and their sophomore release, Big Smiley Sun, hit the shelves in 1999. The band reunited in the mid-00s for two more albums. 
Drawing inspiration from the ethereal sounds of late 70s symphonic rock legends like Genesis, as well as being influenced by late 70s Pink Floyd, to the vibrant British guitar rock of the 90s, their music is eclectic yet always captivates listeners with its dynamic flair.
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