Top 20 Albums of the Decade

Rush - Vapor Trails

Here are several that would come into the reckoning for me (in no particular order):

Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness - Green Carnation

K.A - Magma

The Human Equation - Ayreon

Odyssey The Greatest Tale - Various Artists

Hinterland - Wobbler

Si Partie 1 - Nemo

Doomsday Afternoon - Phideaux

Report From Iron Mountain - Date Course Pentagon Royal Garden

Discesa agl'inferi d'un giovane amante - Il Bacio Delle Medusa

Il Nome Del Vento - Delirium

4th - D.F.A.

The Hazards Of Love - The Decemberists

Capitolo 7 Tra Le Antiche Mura - Il Castello Di Atlante

Metamorphosis - Magenta

The Dark Third - Pure Reason Revolution


Edited by Takeshi Kovacs - July 13 2011 at 16:41

This may be to long, I though the original poster had a good list and was curious what he and the rest of you thought of the following. It took me some time to think of this, there were some I really wanted to put on here but they were circa 1999 or 1998, so close : (

1.       The Mars Volta De Loused in the Comatorium : I love the blending of so many styles and emotions. The energy is phenomenal. I really got into more prog because of this album, the modern day equivalents of Pink Floyd and King Crimson in pushing the boundaries and having a real emotional depth to their music.

2.       Transatlantic The Whirlwind: The great feel of classic Yes and Genesis yet with a heavy touch and the skill of very talented members all from talented bands.

3.       Travis Larson Band  Rate of Change: Great instrumental fusion work by very talented trio. Travis Larson has really matured into a skilled guitarist with his own unique style. Jennifer Young plays the bass as more than just a rhythm piece, though she knows when to blend in with drummer Dale Moon, she also knows when to shine. Dale Moon lays down a great beat and can play any style with ease, comfort and great talent.

4.       Between the Buried and Me Colors: BTBAM create music on their own terms, taking a bit of this and that and playing the hell out of their instruments, Great buildups, transitions and ambient moments. Colors was crafted as an album, not just a bunch of random songs thrown together.

5.       Mastodon Crack the Skye: Maintaining the groove of their previous efforts and adding more layers of sweeping sound scapes and a great story.

6.       Between the Buried and Me The great Misdirect: Take the same elements of Colors  add Genesis, Pink Floyd and King Crimson influences and pour in some growth in both technical skills and compositional chops on behalf of all the players. Blend all of this together and you have one unique album.

7.       Coheed and Cambria Entire Discography: It may sound like a cop out to not pick one album yet I have my reasons. CAC took on an interesting endeavor that really makes one look at their music in a different way than most bands. The five albums tell one continuous sci fi story revolving around a couple, Coheed and Cambria, who give birth to a son who is prophesied to change the world. The music is a mix of metal and punk, yet time signature changes and various suites, motifs, and movements abound. Songs reflect the views of various characters in the story at various times and trials in their life.  For a modern band that has gained radio play and MTV exposure ( I’m not gonna comment on whether that’s a good or bad thing) CAC has done something very unique and pushed what a band can do with music as an art form.

8.       Baroness Blue Record: A modern progressive metal masterpiece that flows between grooves, melodies and harsh attacks effortlessly.

9.       Astra The Weirdening: A Brilliant Debut by a gifted modern Symphonic Prog Band, the playing and production are flawless. Can’t wait to see what’s next from this talented group of young lads.

10.   Rush Snakes and Arrows: They still got it. The Second Holy Trinity ( Father, Son and Hold Ghost being the first) have been around for some time but they still kick it into high gear and show that they will always be musicians of the highest caliber.

11.   Dream Theater Six Degrees of Inner turbulence: A great melding of their metal direction and admiration for symphonic and heavy prog. The whole band shines not just in their playing but in their writing, both instrumentally and lyrically.

12.   Fair To Midland Fables From a Mayfly What I tell you three times is true: A great blend of alternative rock with intricate guitar and keyboard work. Fair to Midland aren’t afraid to push the limits of the modern rock world and intricately link songs together with intriguing instrumental passages and go from loud harsh vocals to sweet melodies with soulful introspections.

13.   Devin Townsend Ziltoid The Omniscient: A great progressive metal ode to the cheesyness and camp that has always been a subtle part of some of the best progressive rock and classic rock concept albums. Townsend weaves a enjoyable tale of sci fi humor with an emotional depth underlying mans struggle against a intergalactic guitar master who wants some coffee!

14.   Riverside Ano Domoni High Definition: A great blend of space, jazz, speed, thrash and electric sounds.

15.   Porcupine Tree Fear of a Blank Planet: One of those great albums that you can’t really classify, Wilson and company take what they love from their classic prog influences and mix it with modern electric, metal and alternative sensibilities to create something truly unique.

16.   Iron Maiden Brave New World: The return of the classic Iron Maiden lineup. Subtle synth additions married with the classic golden era Maiden sound.

17.   BeardFish Sleeping in Traffic Part 2: Takes the heavy prog of Rush, adds the humor of Frank Zappa, and shifts with styles and emotions, all while maintaining its own identity.

18.   Fromuz Overlook: A great work that blends so many styles, is all instrumental and has phenomenal production value.

19.   Tool Lateralus: Tool takes their time between albums. It was six years after Anemia that they finally released Lateralus. Definitely worth the wait though. Tool blends and melds so many emotions, styles and various lyrical subject matter that one fears it will all fall apart. It never does though. A band that truly understands how to balance all of their skills and ambitions, Lateralus is wonder to hear and like all the albums on this list, it stands as something that warrants repeat listening as you’re bound to discover more and more with each listen.

20.   Animals as Leaders Animals as Leaders: Fusion, Jazz, Metal, new wave. Tosin Abasi and co take it all and create something that will blow your mind and make you scratch you head as you enjoy the sweet ride.

21.   Galahad Empires Never Last: A clever commentary on the political scene of its time, Empires never last manages to evoke questions while treating ones ears with a blend of symphonic, metal and electric prog.

22.   Spock’s Beard Snow: A great double album that draws on Tommy and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, yet creates a deeper story and maintains all the trademarks that made Spock’s Beard of the most important bands that brought about the revival of symphonic prog in the 90’s. Though this was Neal Morse’s last album with the band, he left on a high note.

23.   Radio Head Hail to the Thief: Rock isn’t dead, it just gets reinvented and its staple instrument, the guitar is used in new and interesting ways. Radiohead is always evolving and changing their sound, yet never seem to fall flat on their faces. A enjoyable eclectic piece of work.

24.   Kamelot The Black Halo: Grand Operatic Symphonic Metal. Those four words should be enough for one to think “I bet there’s some awesome theme, singing, skilled playing, intense, haunting and sweeping melodies on this album.”  To that I say.  “You bet your ass there is!!”

25.   Blotted Science The Machinations of Dementia: Extreme Technical Death Metal minus the growls. This all instrumental album is brutal, scary, eerie, fast, thunderous and at times will break into a soft slow relaxing mood.

26.   TouchStone Winter Coast: A great crossover prog band with some skilled players and a powerfull female lead.

27.   Coldplay Viva La Vida or Death and all his friends: A good indie/alternative band that tends to dwell on the softer and more soul felt part of rock teamed up with Brian Eno. The result was an album that explored various sound scapes, delved into various themes, flirted with time signature changes, had interesting bells and whistles and fooled around with various aspects of prog. Though not committed to Lady Prog enough, it attempted to show her a nice time and created something better than its proceeding albums but retained the charm of the bands subject matter and lyrics.

Really ? Have you heard Leading Vision ? 

Fantastic album. At least listen to the song "Hidden Genocide".

This is pretty good, probably take a few more listens for me to like it but I'll definitely give the album a few spins.

ctfod

harmonium.ro wrote: darkshade wrote: Yea I dont agree with it either. They have their own thing going on, if anything, the regular prog-metal genre is probably the best, as they aren't post-metal (though they are experimental), and they really do push the boundaries of metal. Though with the new album coming out, it's going to be harder to categorize them. Either way, they still should'nt be in the Tech category. I remember when they were moved from Prog-metal to Tech/extreme, and I didn't agree then. They weren't "moved" to Tech/Extreme, the tech/exteme bands (who were dumped along with prog-metal, post metal, avant-metal, metal-fusion etc. bands in the same category) got their own category. And Opeth isn't Tech but is Extreme. It would take a long series of albums for Opeth to stop being regarded as a death metal band primarily. PT were moved out of Psych/Space when they had 5 completely non-Space/Psych albums (counting from SD to FOABP).

Right, forgot about that.

Opeth are extreme when they're being extreme. I would say about 50% of their material is not quite extreme. I guess there's no better place to put them

I'm hoping for Second Utterance 

Triceratopsoil wrote: I think it's because the elderly folks are scared of the vocals

Triceratopsoil wrote: I think it's because the elderly folks are scared of the vocals

Yea I dont agree with it either. They have their own thing going on, if anything, the regular prog-metal genre is probably the best, as they aren't post-metal (though they are experimental), and they really do push the boundaries of metal. Though with the new album coming out, it's going to be harder to categorize them.

Either way, they still should'nt be in the Tech category. I remember when they were moved from Prog-metal to Tech/extreme, and I didn't agree then.

Triceratopsoil wrote: darkshade wrote: Because I listed the top 20 albums of the 2000s and the list mostly included Tech-extreme bands It's not "mostly" tech/extreme bands, only 5 of them.  Besides, there is no way Opeth is anything but progressive; I'm not familiar with most of the other tech/extreme bands there.  Enslaved might be debatable but I consider what they do progressive.  It's not like the list is a bunch of Necrophagist and Arsis albums.

Is Opeth still in that category? I thought they had been moved. If you saw my list of Top 20 prog albums 2000-2009, you would see Opeth made my top 10