PROG METAL

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

Fates Warning – Awaken

The Guardian (1986)

The connecticut pioneers’ third album was the one where they truly came into their own. “We reached a peak with that one,” says guitarist Jim Matheos. “it’s innovative and musical and somewhat commercial.”

Queensrÿche – Rage For Order (1986) operation: Mindcrime two years later was their magnum opus, but Rage For order was arguably more revolutionary at the time: laser-tooled art rock that predicted a bleak digital future in which no one comes out on top.

Voivod – Dimension Hatröss (1988) The one-time thrash savages reached full prog metal velocity on their fourth album, a dizzying, juddering behemoth as fearsome as the intergalactic warlord that gave the band their name.

Metallica – …And Justice

For All (1988)

The metal giants’ fourth album tore up their thrash metal blueprint in favour of complex time changes and long songs. The most commercially successful prog metal album, even if no one admits that it is one. Crimson Glory – Transcendence (1988)

They started out as a queensrÿche knock-off, but by their second album, they’d found their own voice. Transcendence was prog at its most vaulting and operatic.

Watchtower – Control And

Resistance (1989)

Their debut album sounded like nothing else before it, but the Austin visionaries followed it up with something even greater. prog thrash, math metal – call it you want, but its echoes still resonate today.

Dream Theater – When Dream

And Day Unite (1989)

They went on to bigger things, but DT’s debut album remains both a prog metal benchmark and a cult classic.

Sieges Even – Steps (1990) Watchtower’s influence was under the radar at the time, but those who caught on really picked it up and ran with it – none more so than Germany’s sieges Even, whose complex thrash made them sound like the Texans’ European cousins.

Atheist – Unquestionable

Presence (1991)

By the turn of the 90s, even death metallers were getting with the programme, including Florida’s Atheist, who folded elements of prog, jazz and the technical brilliance of bassist Tony choy into the mix.

Cynic – Focus (1993)

After Watchtower, cynic were arguably the apex of prog metal’s early incarnation – their debut was technically astounding without losing any of its razor-edged heaviness. A real tipping point. DEV