I Recommend...

I have many more to recommend, but due to personal obligations I will postpone it a bit, but I will return with some "new" stuff to tell about, including my latest purchases:

Eider Stellaire

Side 1

1. Onde (P. Gerard-Hirne)
2. Arctis 6e יphיmיride (M. LeBars)

Side 2

1. Lיgende (M. LeBars)
2. Tיtra (P. Gerard-Hirne)
3. Nihil (M. LeBars)

So folks, before going on with other recommendations I was thinking that it would nice if anyone would like to tell us if they found any recommendation in this thread useful. If you found an album or band through this thread, tell us about it. Did you find it good or bad? did it make you go look deeper into genres and bands from countries you previously did not look deep enough?

1. La Maschera Di Cera:  LuxAde,  Italian bands new release and its incredible.  This band plays a retro symphonic prog reminiscent of Banco.  They definitely add their own flavor and I never grow tired of their music.  All three of their studio releases are excellent with their latest being the best.  I can't say enough good things about this band.  Excellent analog keyboards, tons of flute, great rumbling bass, good drums and very good to excellent singing.  Very much in the classic 70's Italian sympho vein.  A mixture of Banco, PFM, Il Balletto Di Bronzo, and most important their own flavor.  Long epic songs full of passionate playing by all band members.  I just love the analog symphonic keyboards.  Great stuff!!! 
2. SBB:  Pamiec,  Classic Polish prog band playing an exciting mixture of symphonic/jazz fusion prog, if you can imagine that.  Their first three releases are excellent and you can't go wrong with any of these.  A three man band with incredible musicianship.  I'm still in the process of getting all their releases so I can't comment on other releases only to say stay away from their release called Welcome which is more commercial.
3. Exodus: The Most Beautiful Day.  Another Polish band from the 70's like SBB.  They play an exciting mixture of symphonic/space-prog.  I have their box set entitled "The Most Beautiful Dream Anthology 1977-1985."  Excellent 5 CD set full of above average unreleased material along with all their previous studio releases.  Definitely worth it if you can find it.  These guys are very original sounding and like SBB sing in their native language, though most of their stuff is instrumental.  Comparable too Floyd and Eloy to some extent. 
4. The Tangent:  A Place In The Que.  Excellent English band playing in the style of Caravan.
5. Ozric Tentacles:  Jurassic Shift.  Excellent English band playing space/psychedelic rock.
6. 35007:  Phase V.  Another excellent space/psychedelic band playing in the style of the Ozrics with tracks running longer.  Excellent stuff well worth your hard earned cash if into long psychedelic spacey jams full of excellent musicianship.
7. Anekdoten:  From Within.  Awesome symphonic prog in the style of King Crimson only more melancholic and definitely not a clone or neo band.  All of their albums are essential in my book.  These guys are from Scandanavia and play dark, compelling, melancholic symphonic prog full of melletron and cello.  Also excellent guitar in the style of Robert Fripp, heavy distorted bass, and the drummer is very good.  Other great releases include Vemod, Nucleas, and Gravity. 
8. Sinkadus: Aurum Nostrum.  Another excellent Scandinavian band much like Anekdoten but more like Anglagard.  Long epic songs full of alternating heavy mellow passages. 
9. Uriah Heep:  Salisbury.  Great hard rock/prog from England.  Wonderful choral like vocal harmonizing and excellent vocals from David Byron.  Great  symphonic keyboards and Hammond organ from Ken Hensley.  Awesome band.  You can't go wrong with any of their releases up to and including The Magicians Birthday.
10. Mezquita:  Recuerdos De Mi Tierra.  Great great Spanish prog.  These guys just cook on their instruments.  Very original including ethnic influences I find wonderful.  Great vocals in Spanish. 
11. Granada:  Espana, Ano 75.  Another excellent Spanish prog band with wonderful ethnic touches.
12. Gualberto:  Vericuetos.  Excellent Spanish prog.
13. Finisterre:  La Meccanica Naturale.  Excellent Italian Symphonic prog in a bit more of a modern style but keeping all the good attributes of the classic era.  Great band with very relaxing electronic atmospherics added to the background of much of the album.  A class act.

And these too:

1. Trance of Mine:  Reflections.  I'm very impressed with this Gothic prog metal/hard rock band.  I'm not familiar at all with the Gothic scene and don't really like straight Gothic metal.  This band mixes just the right amount of prog to keep me hooked.  They have a lady singer with a very nice voice.  She creates melodies in counter to the music being played on the instruments which keeps things very interesting.  Her voice is truly another instrument.  These guys really can't be considered metal, though they have a hard metallic edge.  Theres an epic at the end of the album and its a good one.
2. Novac:  Tales From the Soul.  The lead singer has a great original voice.  File these guys under melodic prog metal.  Very infectious melodies being created by this band.  I'd compare them to vanden Plas.  If you like them then you'll dig this band.
3. Pantommind:  Shade of Fate.  Atmospheric prog metal for lake of a better word.  They incorporate some cool synths in the background.  The keyboard player is pretty good.  I just love keyboards in my metal and these guys come through.  The singer has a good voice with some decent range.  Very metallic guitars crunch in counterpoint to soft mellow synths.  These guys are very technical too and mix it perfectly with beautiful melodies.  Great band.
4. Ephemeral Sun:  Broken Door.  Electronic prog metal/hard rock band.  These guys are really good and original.  The electronic aspects aren't overdone and are in a Pink Floydish spacey manner.  The singer is a women again with a wonderful soprano voice.Theres an epic at the end of the album.  Very melodic and dreamy with a lot of keyboards and an atmospheric synth always playing in the background.  Great band on par with Trance of Mine only more progressive.
5. Green Carnation:  Light of Day Day of Darkness. Gothic Prog Metal.  Awesome single song album.  That's right, one song clocking in at a respectable one hour plus.  This album is a masterpiece in my opinion. Very atmospheric and dark with choirs and dreamy symphonic keyboards playing in counterpoint to metallic guitars.  A male singer with a low pleasant voice sings with a beautiful choir and female vocals too.  No prog metal collection is complete without this album.  It takes repeated listening to get this release.
6. Indukti:  SUSAR.  Not really metal but more of a hard prog in the Red era King Crimson style.  Though I use the Crimson reference these guys are very very original.  Excellent first release from a band mixing hard semi metallic guitars with great violin and cello playing.  These guys play a complicated prog that always keeps my interest.  Excellent new Polish band staying away from the prevalent neo prog styles so prevalent from Poland.  Another essential release.
7. Riverside:  Out of Myself.  Excellent Polish Symphonic Prog metal/hard rock band.  The male vocalist sings in a dreamy emotional and very pleasant style mixing various heavier tones in when it suits the music, never sounding harsh.  Great Gilmourish guitar.  Very symphonic keyboards.  I love how emotional the singer and guitar player are.  They really take this band too the next level.  Another essential band from Poland.  Poland has some excellent talent coming through the airwaves.  I only wish radio played music this good. 
8. Threshold:  Hypothetical, Wounded Land.  Classic prog metal band playing a very melodic style so file under melodic prog metal.  I need keyboards in my metal and Threshold comes through.  The keyboards are very modern sounding but not in a bad way.  They are perfect for this bands style.  The lyrics usually deal with whats going on be it negative or positive in society or certain issues people generally take sides on and I like this because it makes you think.  I'm thinking of other albums here too.  For example the Wounded Land release deals with how people can abuse our Earth with pollution etc.  Great melodies abound with a great metallic guitar tone and lively bass.  Wounded Land was an awesome debut album and I'd start with this and Hypothetical since both are essential in any prog metal collection.
9. Atomic Rooster:  Death Walks Behind You.  One of the first prog metal bands.  I'd call them proto prog metal/hard rock.  Vincent Crane played an awesome Hammond organ doubling bass duties with the bass petals on the Hammond.  I wish I was old enough back then to see these guys.  They play in a Sabbath style only with keyboards added to the guitar and much more progressive than Sabbath.  Their first two albums are essential.
10. Anathema:  Judgment.  Atmospheric prog rock.  Though people call them a metal band I just don't hear it.  Very moody and dark music often dealing with topics such as death, suicide, and loss.  The acoustic guitar is used to good effect with a very Floydian feel to the music.  Sometimes I need to feel or get in touch with some of the pain and loss in my life and this band really hits the spot.  I've actually been brought to tears when certain  songs by this band got me in touch with the recent loss of my grandfather.  This music moves me.  Its not real complicated or even progressive in a new groundbreaking sense but these guys definitely have their own sound and I like it.
11. Andromeda:  Extension of the Wish.  Melodic/technical prog metal.  I guess if I had to compare them to another band it would be Dream Theater yet they definitely aren't a clone at all like so many other prog metal bands, such as Dreamscape, who I happen to like a bit.  The guitar player is pretty awesome and theres a lot of keys played which I love.  These guys play a pretty technical style but never loose touch of the melodies.  This album is definitely an essential purchase in the prog metal genre.
12. Evergrey:  In Search of Truth, Recreation Day.  Awesome Swedish melodic prog metal.  In Search of Truth is my favorite.  It has a very original mellow keyboard almost always playing in the background in counterpoint to the heavy music.  It sounds so cool.  Englund's voice is very original and not amazing for range or anything but just sounds really good.  You definitely won't get him mixed up with other vocalists because nobody sounds like him.  Essential if your a prog metal head.
13. Day Six:  Eternal Dignity.  Prog Metal.  Concept album dealing with Egypt.  The music has an Arabic tone to it which is very cool.  Long songs filled with alternating passages and symphonic keyboards.  Some pretty cool sound effects and the guitar sounds pretty awesome.  Great release.
14. Dead Soul Tribe:  A Murder of Crows.  Prog metal sounding much like Tool.  Slow Sabbath like heavy rhythms with absolutely awesome drumming and the occasional flute.  Buddy Lacky has a very pleasant and relaxing voice which he uses to create some beautiful melodies.  He is another very original vocalist.  A Murder of Crows is a great release.
15. Fates Warning:  A Pleasant Shade Of Grey.  Masterpiece, masterpiece,masterpiece.  Technical prog metal.  These guys started the prog metal genre along with Queensryche and Dream Theater.  I can't praise this concept album enough.  It's one song broken up into different sections, each section taking a life of its own.  The album goes through different shadings, heavy, soft, of music with a general theme(melody) bookending the album.  Excellent drumming from Mark Zonder.  He is a master with the cymbals using them a lot to great effect.  Matheos doesn't shred like on prior releases( No Exit) but uses his guitar to complement the other instruments.  Kevin Moore, Dream Theater, contributes some great atmospheric keyboards much like Matheos's guitar.  These guys perfectly complement each other.  I can't wait for the next OSI release.  Joey Vera plays some awesome bass using the slap technique at times.   This release takes many spins to sink in.  I couldn't figure out what the big deal was about after the first few spins but, wow, did it take affect soon after.
16. John Arch:  A Twist of Fate.  John was the original vocalist for Fates Warning putting out three albums with them.  What an awesome voice he has and I'm so glad he's back.  His voice sounds better than ever and this release is awesome featuring two epic songs which make up the very long EP.  This is very much in the Fates Warning/Dream Theater style and rocks very hard.  Excellent guitar, keyboards, and drums with his vocals stealing the show.  ESSENTIAL.
17. OSI:  Office of Strategic Influence.  Electronic prog metal/hard rock.  Kevin Moore and Jim Mattheos steal the show here.  This is very cool stuff with Moore using many samples and atmospheric keyboards which put me in another world.  This is so much better than Chroma Key, his other project.  It's basically a mix of this and Fates Warning and it works excellently.  The song with Steve Wilson singing is definitely cool.
18. Opeth:  Damnation.  Progressive Death Metal.  (Damnation is much different from their other releases and I'd file it under progressive rock).  This is a beautiful dark release full of melletron and great clean guitar work.  The drummer warrants special mention  as he keeps things very interesting as the music is pretty mellow and laid back.  This is one of my all time favorite albums and puts me on another world.  Steve Wilson plays some beautiful mellotron and produced the album.  The subject matter is very dark and kinda like fairy tales for lack of a better term.  I feel like I'm in Sweden during a cold dark winters night strolling through the woods full of goblins and demons.  ESSENTIAL!
19. Pain of Salvation:  Remedy Lane.  Prog metal.  Great band with a very talented vocalist/ guitarist.  He reminds me of Geoff Tate at times but has a much more original voice which takes on many faces.  This is a concept album about a girl who commits suicide.  This is a very deep album.  The music is very involved and complicated yet also very melodic.  These guys are very original and one of the best bands out there.  All band members are experts at their instruments with the vocals standing above all else.  Daniel is one of the best vocalists in metal.  ESSENTIAL!
20. Shadow Gallery:  Carved In Stone, Tyranny.  Melodic prog metal.  Classic band.  Cliffhanger is a great epic song with an awesome, heavy, metallic  guitar melody.  They sound a little like Dream Theater's more melodic side.  Tyranny is an excellent concept album which is more in the hard prog rock vein.  It's part one of a concept finished with their excellent new release.  Carved in Stone is more in the prog metal vein.  Baker is an excellent vocalist with very good range. ESSENTIAL!
21. Spiral Architect:  A Sceptics Universe.  Technical metal.  This is one of my favorite genres of metal which I especially like when mixed with melodic prog metal like Dream Theater and my favorite metal band does being Fates Warning.  Well these guys are pretty much straight tech metal and they cook.  Some amazing stuff going on with the bass player.  He is absolutely incredible making the bass sound like a whole different instrument.  Sometimes tech metal can be too technical and unmelodious.  This is not the case here.  Every part is played for a reason and its not a w**k fest to any degree.  Each instrument complements the other.  Good stuff.
22. Zero Hour:  Towers of Avarice.  Technical Metal.  This is my favorite straight tech metal band though with their last release they are more in the mixed tech melodic camp.  Again, excellent bass playing.  These guys are the most melodic straight tech metal band and this is why they are my favorite.  Some absolutely stunning, crushing guitar work and the vocalist is pretty good for this genre.  ESSENTIAL!!!
23. Time Machine:  Revivescence.  Melodic prog metal.  Great Italian prog metal.  Most of their releases are concept albums.  Just a great all around band.
24. Superior:  Ultima Ratio.  Melodic prog metal.  Excellent concept album from this German band.  Great melodies and all band members are decent musicians.  Theres some cool sound effects in the Pink Floyd The Wall style.  Good but non essential.
25. Symphony X:  V The New Mythology Suite.  Neoclassical prog metal.  Masterpiece folks.  Romeo is the best guitar player in this genre without question.  This guy shreds and I put him in a class with the likes of Yngwie and Blackmore.  Another concept album about myths and legends.  Russel Allen is the best vocalist in prog metal in my opinion.  This guy has an amazing, powerful voice.  Keyboards are used extensively and sound excellent.  I love these guys and they are from my beloved state of New Jersey.  ESSENTIAL!!
26. Dream Theater:  Scenes From A Memory.  Technical/melodic prog metal.  Masterpiece.  Awesome concept album with mellow and heavy parts.  Starts off sounding like Pink Floyd circa Animals(Pigs on the Wing) then all references to Floyd are gone as we have Dream Theater.  This has got to be the all time ultimate prog metal release along with A Pleasant Shade of Grey.  Two very different albums though.  I love the keyboards on this release and the guitar is awesome. Petrucci is up there with Romeo if not a better all around player.  Beautiful melodies abound on this release.  I actually like Labries vocals on this release as other releases leave me kinda cringing at times.  I like Dream Theater a lot but am not a fan boy by any extent.  This is an ESSENTIAL release!!    

Ok, instead of making a list (to me lists do not seems very helpful), I will only post about one forgotten gem tonight.



Two Rainbows Daily is a forgotten Canterbury gem, recently reissued if I remember correctly. Alan Gowen and Hugh Hopper collaborate on this beautiful early 80's Canterbury album, full of wonderful keyboards played by the late Gowen (of Gilgamesh and National Health fame) and Hopper on bass of course. This album is much more easy to listen than Hopper's 1984, for example, which I consider to be the early beginnings of RIO, along with Wyatt's The End of an Ear. Definitley worth a listen for all those already initaited with the famed groups these two musicians came from, a very unique and interesting listening experience.