2024 Best Progressive Metal/Rock Albums

Welcome to our ninth annual Top Progressive Albums column, where we highlight the best of the year across the progressive music board. It was a super year – every one of the albums below earned a 4.5 out of 5 from us, making the actual order almost trivial. There’s a good chance your favorite isn’t on this list or isn’t high enough on it: that’s okay! Make sure you comment on social media with your favorites so we can go give them a listen over the holiday season. There’s probably another fifty or sixty albums that are easily worth your attention (and dollar).

This year’s albums include:

Honorable Mention

Beardfish – Songs For Beating Hearts
Dvne – Voidkind
Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound To Fall
Kingcrow – Hopium
Meer – Wheels Within Wheels
Sgàile – Traverse The Bealach

10. Aeons – The Ghosts Of What We Knew (Sliptrick)

Talking about an album that came out at the beginning of a month is always tough with our end-of-month column, but the third album from Aeons, The Ghosts Of What We Knew, was worth highlighting. This is intricate yet melodic progressive metal in a modern vein, loaded with superb arrangements and killer musicianship. And don’t let the singer’s name (Skippy) throw you off: this guy can belt it out.

While The Ghosts Of What We Knew does have its flaws (“Blood” is an awkward addition, almost a power ballad) these are easily overlooked by the overall quality of the album. Aeons have given us more than an hour of killer tunes that sound amazing easily slot into our year end list.

9. Mother Of Millions – Magna Mater (ViciSolum)

One of the most anticipated releases of October was this fourth album from Greek prog-metal outfit Mother Of Millions. Their 2019 album Artifacts has been in rotation at this reviewer’s house for the past five years. Magna Mater cranks up the heaviness and the intensity more than a notch, and Mother Of Millions deliver the best album of their career.

George Prokopiou (also of the band Poem) is one of metal’s greatest vocalists, with the ability to wring every last drop of emotion from a lyric without being cliché or overdramatic. On Magna Mater he takes this to the next level, and when you add that to the crushing, epic-sounding music and arrangements – along with the band’s trademark delicate touches on the keyboards – you are left with one of the year’s top prog metal releases.

8. Avneya – Road To I (Self)

Modern progressive metal trio Obsidian Tide have released two albums so far, and both have landed in our annual Best Of lists. So it was with no lack of excitement that we jumped on Road To I, the debut solo album of Obsidian Tide’s guitarist and vocalist Oz Avneya. Road To I took Avneya eight years to fully realize this project, but it was worth the sweat and tears.

Road To I features a lot of guest musicians and, despite being a mere 32 minutes long, plenty of variety in arrangements, music, dynamics, and feel. There are a lot of similarities to Avneya’s Obsidian Tide output, but Road To I stretches his musical styles in directions both heavy and orchestral, and expands his already formidable guitar prowess. Road To I is a super debut, a great addition to the Avneya/Obsidian Tide family tree, and one of the best albums of the year.

7. Anciients – Beyond The Reach Of The Sun (Season Of Mist)

It has been a long eight years for fans of Anciients, Canada’s Juno-winning prog metal stalwarts. The band seemed to disappear after 2016’s excellent Voice Of The Void. As with many of us, life handed the band a series of obstacles, all of which they have overcome now and are we ever lucky, for the result of this wait is Beyond The Reach Of The Sun, the band’s third opus.

The Baroness and Mastodon influences and comparisons remain, but Anciients have taken their craft up a notch on this album. Imagine the strongest moments of Voice Of The Void (“Ibex Eye”) and Heart Of Oak (“Raise the Sun”) and you’ll have an idea of what Beyond The Reach Of The Sun is like: nearly an hour of top-notch progressive metal. What a superb comeback album.

6. Huntsmen – The Dry Land (Prosthetic)

This was unexpected. I wasn’t even planning on listening to The Dry Land, Huntsmen’s third album, let alone reviewing it – that’s how disappointed I was in their overblown, bloated sophomore effort, Mandala Of Fear (an album I sadly overrated here). But word of mouth got to me and I had to listen to The Dry Land and haven’t stopped since. This album is the natural progression from the band’s stunning debut, American Scrap.

Gone are the meandering arrangements of Mandala Of Fear. The band has wisely culled The Dry Land down to a svelte 42 minutes, less than half its predecessor. Those 42 minutes are a near-perfect blend of sludge, prog, black, and post-metal, with stellar vocal arrangements, sublime production, and overall performances that truly stand out. The Dry Land was our pick of the month in June.

5. Iotunn – Kinship (Metal Blade)

If you want to know more about Iotunn, look no further than our 2021 Best of column, where the Danish band’s debut was our fifth-best album. Access All Worlds was a superb modern prog metal album, and many of us who were fans of that album have been eagerly awaiting the follow-up, which coincidentally places fifth again this year.

Kinship is that follow-up, an album that explores all aspects of humanity from a prehistoric tribesman’s perspective. Kinship takes everything that made Access All Worlds great (the seamless amalgamation of prog, death, and power metal, along with Jon Aldará’s outstanding vocals) and hones the product, giving us a near-perfect blend of everything prog metal fans love.

4. Big Big Train – The Likes Of Us (InsideOut)

I wasn’t sure what to expect from stellar international prog rock group Big Big Train after the sudden passing of lead vocalist David Longdon back in 2021. Lucky for us, though, the band decided to carry on, and they have brought in a new singer in Alberto Bravin, who played keyboards and sang on the last two PFM albums (which we reviewed favorably here).

The Likes Of Us is familiar and yet fresh and vital at the same time. Bravin is a very different singer than Longdon was and this works with the all-new material, which at times is a bit more rocking and adventurous than on past albums. Opening track “Light Left in the Day” is strong but the least memorable; the album gets better and better as it carries on. From epic tracks to poignant ballads, it’s all here in spades in what just might be Big Big Train’s best album.

3. Black Sites – The Promised Land? (Self)

Chicago’s Black Sites have been a favorite here since their 2017 debut, In Monochrome. The Promised Land? is their fourth release, and it is no exaggeration to say this band gets better with every release. The lineup may fluctuate over the years, but mastermind Mark Sugar has a vision for this band, and this may be the closest they’ve come to fully realizing that yet.

Black Sites’ influences have remained consistent over the years – Voivod, King’s X, Queensryche – but on The Promised Land? the band stretches out, diversifies their sound, and hits a songwriting peak. Top it all off with excellent performances (and guest performances) and top-notch production and we have another amazing piece of art.

2. Madder Mortem – Old Eyes, New Heart (Dark Essence)

We’ve waited a long time for Old Eyes, New Heart. Norway’s Madder Mortem kicked our butts with 2018’s Marrow, an album that came in sixth on that year’s Best Prog list. Family tragedy and other obstacles delayed the release of the band’s eighth album, but what a welcome return it is.

Of course the scene-stealer is once again singer Agnete Kirkevaag, whose vocals are nearly unparalleled, but the music cannot be denied its place, either. The band delivers forty-eight minutes of incredibly diverse music, ranging from all-out prog metal bangers to the sultry blues of “On Guard.” Old Eyes, New Heart is simply one of the best albums we heard all year.

1. Opeth – The Last Will And Testament (Reigning Phoenix)

Swedish prog giants Opeth are back with The Last Will And Testament, their fourteenth outing and the follow-up to 2019’s In Cauda Venenum. We reviewed that album here five years ago, and it also made it onto our end of year Best Of Prog list. How does this newest offering compare?

The Last Will And Testament feels like the culmination of all Mikael Åkerfeldt and Opeth have been aiming for since Watershed. Every song is immaculate, with plenty of drama, dynamics, melody, and heaviness. Opeth are no longer a progressive death metal band (they haven’t been for decades), nor are they a ’70s-era prog rock band; they are their own force now, and this album is their declaration of freedom from the shackles of expectation. It will take a few listens, but patience will yield one of the year’s best prog releases, and our pick for the best prog album of 2024.