10 Progressive Metal Albums a Newbie Needs to Own! 

Obviously I meant John Petrucci in Dream Theater, not fusion bassist Patitucci….I got the olds.

1:29 Rush - 2112 (1976) 4:57 Queensrÿche - Operation Mindcrime (1988) 6:23 Fates Warning - Parallels (1991) 8:36 Dream Theater - Images and Words (1992) 10:48 Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy (1997) 12:59 Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe (2000) 14:18 Tool - Lateralus (2001) 15:45 Opeth - Ghost Reveries (2005) 18:41 Mastodon - Crack the Skye (2009) 20:27 Haken - The Mountain (2013)

Off the top of my head, I’d highly recommend these for anyone who’s getting into heavy progressive music 1. Devin Townsend ~ Ocean Machine 2. Thirty Seconds to Mars ~ 30 Seconds to Mars 3. Porcupine Tree ~ Fear of a Blank Planet 4. Riverside ~ Second Life Syndrome 5. Evergrey ~ Hymns for the Broken

I think a cool topic for a video series would be listing the "bait" song for a band. IOW, if you were trying to get a buddy to like a particular band, what is that ONE song you'd play for them that would reel them in?

I can't think of 10, but these deserve to be on anyone's list: Queensryche : Operation Mindcrime Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King Dream Theater - Images and words Symphony x - the divine wings of tragedy Fates warning - awaken the guardian

I approve of this list as a great list for newbies, especially as many of these bands are still active. OF course there are some I could add, like Watchtower, Atheist, Psychotic Waltz, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mr. Bungle, Imperial Triumphant, Oranssi Pazuzu, Dødheimsgard, Maudlin of the Well, Sigh, but really most of those I would only recommend to someone I knew already liked heavy, complicated and weird stuff. You hit the sweet spot.

THANKS FOR MENTIONING.... SYMPHONY X .... I MET THEM BACK IN 2009 ..REAL NICE TO HANGOUT WITH

I was never a huge Fates Warning fan until a few years ago when we all had tons of time to listen to new stuff. Being a thrash and death metal fan I grabbed on to “No Exit” first and my love for FW bloomed from there.

The first 2 Crimson Glory albums are a must have for Progressive Metal listeners. Thanks Pete great list!!!!

Knew you had to pick Rush and it had to be 2112. Very proggy, very heavy and probably the best starting point for Prog Metal and so, so influential! Bought it in it's first year of release and loved it ever since.

I left a comment on your newbie prog rock video saying how I have a hard time when it comes to prog. I also said maybe it’s just certain style of prog. Well thanks to this video I figured it out. I AM A PROG METAL FAN! Love all these bands you just mentioned. So I guess I just like my prog to be heavier and kick my ass than what prog rock does. Bored with most prog rock but all in with prog metal. Thank you Pete. 👍🏻All these sub genres just confuse the hell out of me sometimes.

2112 has been in my regular music rotations for many decades. I saw Rush play it live way back in the "dark ages" of the last millenium.

Summer of 77, my buddy Eddie Curth walked up to me with his cube 8-track player, shoved 2112 into it. Ka-pow, never looked back.

Voivod - Nothing face is an album I'd put fourth.

Thanks for mentioning Ayreon and Vanden Plas! Love both of them. New to me are Haken and Spiral Architect; will be checking both of them out. Thanks so much Pete!

Rush - Caress of Steel Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Fates Warning - Parallels Crimson Glory - Transcendence King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska Dream Theater - Images and Words Opeth - Blackwater Park Gojira - From Sirius Mastodon - Crack the Skye TOOL - Lateralus

I love how, across their first four albums, you can hear Rush slowly but surely hammering their early Zeppelin-esque sound into early Prog metal

Enslaved is for me the best metal 🤘 progressive you can find right now too much quality on they’re music 🎵 outstanding band ❤❤❤❤

Threshold's Wounded Earth is a good one for fresh ears of the genre.

Yes Pete 2112 is one of the foundational prog metal records among all the other great variety on it!! Good call I agree

Fates Warning 'Parallels' has got to be the perfect place to start for a newbie; you'd be hard pressed to find a more smooth and melodically inviting album than that; excellent choice! 👍 While I absolutely adore that one lone Spiral Architect album, I would maybe argue, that it's tech-metal complexity would be a bit much to embrace for a newbie? If not, you could argue why Watchtower 'Control & Resistance' is not included; maybe the world's first tech-metal album, and an album that surely paved the way for Spiral Architect... 🤔; All in all though, great choices, Pete! 👌

My favorite Rush Era ( 2112, Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves). Awesome.

My first album with Rush was Caress of Steel I bought it without Listning to it first came home and started to Listning to it and heard Geddy Lee for the first time and I still Love this band today this was 1976

Great list. I liked that you added Spiral Architect on this. Perhaps do a list with prog metal albums that are great but rarely mentioned on RU-vid. I can think of quite a few. It would be good for those who want to dive deeper into prog metal.

Queensryche Rage For Order. Mindcrime is the better album but Rage came first. Seventh Son (fight me, Maiden are prog metal) Permanent Waves (Natural Science is where the genre begins) Nothingface by Voivod Affinity by Haken

I really appreciate Mastodon being included here! Thank you!

I know they aren't for newbies, but Meshuggah has to be mentioned IMO. You did a great job on this btw. I would have thought about adding from: Leprous Soen Devin Townsend Baroness Tesseract

Three vocalists in Mastodon, eventually. Love Brann’s vocals in the latter part of the catalogue.

I would just throw people straight to Colors by BTBAM, haha. I understand why you only have them as an honorable mention here, but somehow that's the album that got me into prog metal and my favorite to this day. All the albums you listed here are terrific picks! Images and Words is next in line after Colors in my book.

Savatage - Streets is a must have in my opinion.

I'm not a prog metal newb, but it definitely isn't my thing. So I'll use an outsider's definition to make a list (from a virtual newb): Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Rush - 2112 Shadow Gallery - Carved in Stone Symphony X -The Odyssey Tool - Lateralus Opeth - Blackwater Park Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve Dream Theater - Images and Words King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska Voivod - The Outer Limits

Thank you for making this series Pete 🙏 From your presentation of albums in this episode..you made me want to check out Fates Warning first 🙏🙏

In honorable mentions, I'd have included Zero Hour (I'm partial to Towers of Avarice), and British band Threshold. But very solid list nonetheless.

Very helpful, Pete, thanks. I've heard some of these, but not others, like Fates Warning and Symphony X

For me this has been a mysterious realm for too long, thanks for the many albums mentioned in here.

This newbie series is such a great idea. very useful!

Pete, this was one your best shows. Excellent content and choices.

Love these Newbie series! Look forward to the Newbie Psych album list!

When discussing prog metal, I'm very surprised that Devin Townsend wasn't mentioned. Only been doing it since 1993. Just my opinion

As someone that admittedly is, prog is lost on me. I might not be what’s considered a newbie but something like this has always been an inner hope for a video or stream.

I agree Pete. Rush MUST be included here. 2112 or Kings are a great introduction to the genre. I love this series to see how many of these I own and love.

All incredible albums Pete! I love that you've included "The divine wings of tragedy" (many people miss it). That and "Images and words" make me love this "substyle" many years ago.

Possibly the best explanation for WHY Rush was left off of the Progressive Rock list, and an excellent point that Rush encompasses so many genres. In the words of Gene Simmons, "Rush is Rush.'

Love that you started with 2112

Prog Metal is not a genre I am overly familiar with(apart from Rush) so I will check out the albums mentioned here-Thanks Pete

Prog metal is one of the biggest sections of my CD collection, but it’s just five bands: Rush (my favorite band in any genre), Dream Theater, Tool, Queensryche, and Coheed and Cambria. I have all or most of the albums from each. Aside from Rush this genre rarely gets played on the radio, and I don’t do streaming services, so it’s hard to know where to go from those five. Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely try them out. Liquid Tension Experiment (an off shoot of Dream Theater) could also be in this section, but I put them in my instrumental section, which is another of my biggest. I would like to see a similar video for instrumental guitar rock. In that section I have Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, The Hellecasters, Peter Banks, Jeff Beck, and Ronnie Montrose. The discography of the latter two isn’t completely instrumental, but they each have four albums that are.

The one I always recommend first is Evergrey’s ‘Recreation Day’

Really excited for this one! So far the genres have been ones I already know about or am heavily into, so I was approaching it as someone already converted and just excited to hear about some of the genre classics. For prog metal, I know some, certainly Rush and some Dream Theatre, but a lot of it is still new to me and it's nice appreciating the videos from different perspectives.

Thanks, Pete. I have been meaning to check out this kind of stuff a bit more and your recommendations (and the comments) give me a great steer. At the end of the day, the genre definitions, boundaries and opinions don't really matter too much - what matters is giving a listen to some great music that might become personal favourites.

I love progressive metal, love complex arrangements, can't do Cookie Monster vocals. Great video.

Great list Pete. You are right about 2112. A couple of my favourites not on the list are Leprous - The Congregation and Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

Hey Pete…I was driving home from work and tried to anticipate the bands on your list. Again wanted to extend kudos for including Tool. I listen to your channel faithfully and appreciate that you enjoy them but rarely hear you talk about them as frequently as other bands. I was worried you may overlook them but your thoughtfulness prevailed again. Well done!

Ayreon ("Universal Migrator"-Albums) and Star One ("Space Metal") were my start, by the way.

Good list. I bought Operation: Mindcrime when it came out and it's still one of my favourites. I really liked Rage For Order but OM is still the best. I found Empire pleasant but a little too commercial. I think Promised Land is often overlooked and definitely was the last time Queensryche did a great album.

A few morefor consideration. Ark - 1999 - st Symphony X - 2000 - V Shadow Gallery - 1995 - Carved In Stone Fates Warning - 1989 - Perfect Symmetry Andromeda - 2003 - II = I (Two Is One) A.C.T. - 2001 - Imaginary Friends Pain Of Salvation - 1998 - One Hour By The Concrete Lake Haken - 2010 - Aquarius Age of Nemesis - 2002 - Eden! Circus Maximus - 2005 - The 1st Chapter

Glad you picked 2112. Rush was the band that started it all for me in music and guitar. The first 4 albums on your list are all time faves of mine. I agree with those for sure. The others I don't have in my collection but will check them out. Thanks P.P. keep up the good work

My personal fondness for John Arch would not have let me chosen the FW you did. Parallels is great, but Awaken the Guardian and Spectre Within are equally awesome. Your Dream Theatre choice was spot on.

I’m not going to give my 10 as I would repeat many of the ones listed already, but one I will add that I haven’t seen mentioned is Celestial Entrance by Pagan’s Mind. Certainly not a well known band but I believe it to be an excellent example of early 2000s prog metal. And dare I say the contender for greatest prog metal vocalist?

Thanks Pete for these vids. I have a minimal knowledge of music and "newbie" albums in the different sub genres are most welcome.

enjoying these videos Pete. I started to listening to Queensryche a few years ago due to this channel but they've really clicked with me lately and I've been listening nonstop. I feel like Mindcrime definitely has the most fully realized story I've heard in a concept album

Your early picks were my road map to prog metal. I’m not disputing your picks, but I’d like to add Crimson Glory: Transcendence to the list. Amazing and very accessible album.

This is a pretty good list, but I would definitely make room for "Into the Everflow" by Psychotic Waltz - one of the original milestones of prog metal. Very original, very trippy and psychedelic and very well played.

Hats off to you good sir! While no list will be perfect, this hits all the importants for me, and even managed to sneak in Spiral Architect for good measure. A truly obscure gem of the genre that made me light up when you picked it for the list. Well done, Pete!

Of all the sub genres I was looking forward to most it’s this one, as it’s the one I get the most pleasure from. I would have added Riverside with Anno domini high definition or second life syndrome, and thought you would overlook Threshold …..again, the forgotten band of prog metal, their latest album lives on my turntable - dividing lines, not really extended tracks, but every track is banging. Thanks though Pete, it’s always an honour to watch these RU-vid videos. Must check out Spiral Architect though, that was new to me.

Since i started watching the video i was about 8 out of 10 on the albums you were gonna recommend and my mind was going off about Pain of Salvation and CYNIC..Such great unique sounding bands worth talking about

My first encounter with Opeth was Black Water Park - it floored me. Odessy by Symphony X was the start for them. Both of those albums are my favorites of theirs.

Great Prog-Metal Starter Kit! It is good to find Spiral Architect, didn't know them.

Gotta say Pete u NAILED this list, would not change a choice on this list Stellar List for Newbies!!

The first two ice age albums are also a great thing to check out.

Great video Pete! Every single album you talked about are 10 for me, and Crack The Skye is my favorite album of all time! Followed by Lateralus probably.

Before my picks I'm going to preface it with this: I'm sticking to the way Pete is doing all these videos, by not necessarily going with the favorites, but what you would start someone with. It's fun to see everyone's picks, but some of these choices are favorites and some are mine too. I also think people believe just because a band uses keyboards or makes a concept album that they're progressive. Was QR really that progressive other than Rage for Order which is much more progressive than Mindcrime while the Warning was really just metal. Symphony X is certainly in the category though I'd argue they were more of a neo-classical metal band. QR has kind of come back to a more progressive sound (thank you TLT), while SX has gone more metal, not that they hardly ever put out albums. And Rush, King's X, Savatage, Big Elf, Porcupine Tre, etc., are decidedly not metal. You might as well throw King Crimson's Red in there if you're going to include Rush. While there certainly could be "metal" tendencies they are not metal. While I absolutely understand the importance of Rush, it's just not progressive metal. Gonna disagree with Pete on this one. Pete already covered PT in prog rock so I think he would agree here. With that said here's my list that I'd go with for a newb of which almost none are my favorites, and not repeating bands. Dream Theater - Images and Words Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane Symphony X - the Divine Wings of Tragedy Watchtower - Control and Resistance Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry Haken - Aquarius Mastodon - Crack the Skye Opeth - Blackwater Park Redemption - the Fullness of Time

For anyone thinking that Rush is zero prog metal, listen to "Double Agent" from their _Counterparts_ album. Serious shredding going on by Alex. Wanna listen to some proto-shredding? Look no further than "The Necromancer" from _Caress of Steel_ !

I am familiar with, love, and agree with a lot of the list. The big surprise was Spiral Architect, whom I've never heard of. Just gave them a try - I wouldn't put them on a prog metal list for newbies for two reasons: 1) no further catalog to dive into, 2) it feels not terribly newbie friendly. That said, it's great and I love the rec! The bass work and tone is awesome (and it's almost misbalanced in the bass's favor), and reminded me of some of Cynic (didn't surprise me to learn Sean Malone was on a track.)

Rush 2112 is the Daddy of all prog metal. One very underrated album is Queensryche's Empire. I also think Led Zep's Achilles Last Stand in Presence and the stuff in In Through the Outdoor were kinda progressive too.

Great list Pete. Only thing I’d do is try and find a place for some 90s Savatage. Love Prog Metal.

I was just thinking a few days ago about that Spiral Architect album and how I really need to pick it up before it becomes impossible to find. I think you convinced me to do it.

For those interested, my 10 basic punk albums every beginner should own: 1. Never Mind the Bollocks...Here's the Sex Pistols 2. London Calling (Pete can swap this one out for The Clash's self-titled debut) 3. Rocket to Russia - Ramones 4. Machine Gun Ettiquette - The Damned 5. Songs the Lord Taught Us - The Cramps 6. Germ-Free Adolescents - X Ray Spex 7. Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedys 8. The Stooges' self-titled debut 9. Rattus Norvegicus - The Stranglers 10. We Are...The League - The Anti-Nowhere League Too many honorables to name. Have at it!

Good list. Would add in Kings X and "Gretchen goes to Nebraska", Such an underatted band that is still making great music today.

Aftet listening to your Prog Metal albums, I headed straight to RU-vid for Vanden Plas - "My Icarian Flight" - Official Music Video. AWESOME!!!!!!

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime Voivod - The Outer Limits Porcupine Tree - In Absentia Savatage - The Wake Of Magellan Dream Theater - Images And Words Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Space Metal Bigelf - Cheat The Gallows Opeth - Damnation Conception - Parallel Lines Royal Hunt - Paradox

I still remember that one Sunday late night driving home from my girlfriend (now my wife) in 1994 and hearing eyes of a stranger on radio. Note that I stay in a country not big on metal. I mostly listened to Priest, Maiden, Dio and Metallica. I was stunned, shocked, amazed, flabbergasted I really do not know what but I had to get it the next day, found a casette and since then have most formats of the album and still have that tape I bought in 1994. In my top 3 albums of all time along with Painkiller and Boston.

Definitely some good ones mentioned here. Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime is the GOAT for me and an absolute must have album. Also cool to find Vanden Plas in the Honorable Mentions. A rather late discovery for me, and I've only really listened to their two latest releases, but it's melodic and majestic without beeing unnecessarily complex. Quality stuff in my book.

Great list! I’d probably pick most of this albums to help guide a newbie into the sub-genre. Especially Rush, Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater. The other picks are also good. I’d then guide new fans to listen to Threshold, Shadow Gallery, Seventh Wonder, Circus Maximus, Riverside, Voyager, Pagan’s Mind, and Caligula’s Horse. So many great bands and albums.

YES !!! I knew Symphony X needed to be in there, love it. Pete, have you thought about doing a starter for songs? More in particular, prog songs that are 15 minutes or longer in length.

Queensrÿche- Operation: Mindcrime Dream Theater- Images and Words Rush- 2112 Tool- Lateralus Voivod- Nothingface Mastodon- Crack the Skye Symphony X- The Divine Wings of Tragedy Opeth- Blackwater Park

Let’s get this over with prior to the show airing “.How dare you Pete pick these selections?? LOL. 👍💯

4:46 Cannot be _over-stated_ ! Fun video... I don't know much about this genre so might check these out

I’ve always considered myself as more of a heavy metal fan much more than prog metal, yet your first 3 picks represent 3 of my favorite bands. So maybe I need to reassess? I also like dream theater in small doses. Never heard any of the others.

Looking forward to this one 11 25 pm here in UK but I'm staying up for this one 💯💯🤘🤘🤘

2112 the first Rush album I bought, at secondary school, so about 1980 ish, was huge to me. It amazed me and I still love it and love Rush. Right up there, for me, with The Clash, the Jam (a few others too), Motorhead and Iron Maiden first album when it came out.

Many have commented to this...but you are 100% correct that 2112 is start of prog-metal. Side 1 is all you need...side 2 is really just hard rock sans Tears.

I would add something from Pain of Salvation, but great list.

Other great prog metal starting point: Angra: Holy Land Tesseract: Polaris Orphaned Land: The never ending way of warrior Ayreon: The source

Awesome list 🤘 a lot of favorites right there

Not a newbie but I still revisit all of these stellar albums.

So funny - the second Pete started talking at 6:23, I knew it was going to be Fates Warning Parallels. My all time favorite band, and while I like a couple of their other releases better, this is the correct choice.

This hasnt even aired yet and people are already arguing about what is and isnt prog metal. Im going to do what I always do and put up my list befire listenibg to the show or reading other people's lists. I think all my picks are prog metal, and I think my top two will be picked by a lot of people. I avouded going for the likes if Tool and Meshuggah because, as Pete said on the progressive rock one about Gentle Giant and Zappa, I wouldnt give them to a newbie... oh well, let the sniping begin! DREAM THEATER Images & Words QUEENSRYCHE Operation: Mindcrime KAMELOT The Black Halo FATES WARNING Parallels THRESHOLD Critical Mass SYMPHONY X V: The New Mythology Suite EVERGREY In Search Of Truth VANDEN PLAS The God Thing SHADOW GALLERY Tyranny AYREON The Human Equation

I went into your video thinking 'if Haken aren't there, I'm not going to agree'. I was not disappointed.

Woo! Mastodon! Love The Baron and The Czar sooo much. I know this band because of this channel. ✊

Crack the sky and Divine wings 👌🏼 love those