Best of Progressive Metal 2021


The “progressive metal” category casts such a wide net that I had to subdivide it into several subcategories. So, instead of making a top 5 for every one of them, let’s see only the best concept album, the best experimental album, the best instrumental album, the best vocal album, the best prog-power album, and the best prog-thrash album from 2021!


Best Prog-Power: Æphanemer – A Dream of Wilderness


It’s got the cheese, it’s got the shredder, it’s got the pasta.


Best Prog-Thrash: Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm



Throughout the many really cool thrash metal albums the year gave us, Cryptosis’s stood out among the rest. You get great riffs, great drumming, great solos, what more do you want?


Best Prog Metal with Vocals: Dessiderium – Aria


Wow, am I right? What a blast! I mean, Dessiderium already exploded last year with Shadow Burn, but Aria goes above and beyond! Progressive death metal that—perhaps doesn’t take the genre to new grounds, but—takes it to new heights! What a brilliant album!


Best Instrumental Prog Metal: The Wormhole Experience – The Oracle


What if I told you that Planet X, Gru, and all those other prog fusion masters are reincarnated into the Wormhole Experience, would you believe me? Well, maybe you shouldn’t, but this is the closest thing to reincarnation there is. It’s just so damn good!


Best Experimental Metal: Bisbâyé – Le Sens de la fin


Le Sens de la fin is just way up there. As with everything Montréal-based Bisbâyé are up to. Polyrhythmic, polymetric, polytempic, they really make good use of their two drummers and two guitarists. It’s a mind-blow.


Best Concept Album: Rototypical – Volume Ⅰ: The Tactician


The story is as convoluted as the music (and it’s only volume one!) on Rototypical’s debut album, and it’s as good as it gets!


Notable Releases

Hover over foreign scripts for pronunciation and romanization.

Tuesday, 26 January

Bisbâyé – Le Sens de la fin

42:10
progressive metal, mathcore
Montréal, Québec
Cuneiform

Read our review.

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 12 February

Arcaeon – Cascadence

49:06
progressive metal
Reading, UK
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 5 March

Ex animīs – Marionnettiste

65:53
progressive death metal
France
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Wednesday, 10

Stefan Petanovski – Eros

52:51
progressive metal
Skopje, North Macedonia
Independent

Read our review.

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 12

Acrylazea – A Cavalcade of Cosmic Calamity

45:35
progressive power metal, death metal
Rochester, New York
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 19

Dune – Etemen Ænka

67:14
progressive metal
UK
Metal Blade

Tracklist (click to display)


Thursday, 25

Galactikraken & Jonathan Young – Starship Velociraptor

44:53
progressive power metal
San Diego, California
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 26

Cryptosis – Bionic Swarm

37:06
progressive thrash metal
Netherlands
Century Media


Tracklist (click to display)

Grorr – Ddulden’s Last Flight

49:51
progressive metal
Pau, France
Vicī solum

Tracklist (click to display)

Wheel – Resident Human

50:01
progressive metal
Helsinki, Finland
Inside Out


Tracklist (click to display)


Monday, 29 March

The Beast of Nod – Multiversal

50:19
progressive death metal
Boston, Massachusetts
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Tuesday, 6 April

MRW –

51:30
progressive metal
Sosnowiec, Poland
Independent

Read our review.

Tracklist (click to display)


Wednesday, 7

Astral Oceans – Vacant Systems

19:56
progressive metal
Williamsburg, Virginia
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 9

One Hundred Thousand – Zodiac

72:03
progressive metal
New Jersey
Inside Out

Tracklist (click to display)


Monday, 19

Obsolete – Animate/Isolate

35:05
progressive thrash metal
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Wednesday, 21

Stasidion – Cascadia

16:08
progressive metal
England, UK
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 23

Benthos –

32:00
progressive metal
Milan, Italy
Eclipse


Tracklist (click to display)


Wednesday, 28 April

Atum – Famine, Putrid, and Fucking Endless

55:57
progressive thrash metal
London, UK
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 7 May

Terminalist – The Great Acceleration

34:13
blackened thrash metal
Copenhagen, Denmark
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)

The Dark Atom – 0-Point

76:59
progressive metal
Dijon, France
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 14

Ensemble 1 – Guitar, Bass, and Drums

47:06
experimental metal
Brighton, UK
Independent

Read our review.

Tracklist (click to display)


Tuesday, 25 May

Source – Ethereal Self

77:00
progressive metal
Boulder, Colorado
Horus Music Limited


Tracklist (click to display)


Tuesday, 1 June

Myxo – One Dozen and One Nights

62:40
progressive metal
Riga, Latvia
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 30 July

Rototypical – Volume Ⅰ: The Tactician

67:31
progressive metal
San Francisco, California
Independent

Read our review.

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 6 August

Terrestria – Terrestria

38:31
progressive metal
Los Angeles, California
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 20 August

Between the Buried and Me – Colors Ⅱ

78:24
progressive metal
Raleigh, North Carolina
Sumerian


Tracklist (click to display)


Tuesday, 21 September

Felipe Andreoli – Resonance

47:10
progressive metal, jazz fusion
Brazil
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 24 September

Æon Zen – Transversal

30:03
progressive metal
UK
Layered Reality

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 1 October

6:33 – Feary Tales for Strange Lullabies: The Dome

53:10
progressive metal
Paris, France
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Sunday, 10

מענישרפא

65:07
progressive metal
Israel
Independent


Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 15

Hippotraktor – Meridian

41:50
progressive metal, post-metal
Mechelen, Belgium
Pelagic

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 22

Android Trio – Other Worlds

53:25
progressive metal
Oakland, California
Cuneiform

Tracklist (click to display)

Others by No One – Book Ⅱ: Where Stories Come From

74:29
progressive metal
Dayton, Ohio
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 12 November

Cave Bastard – Wrath of the Bastard

39:20
progressive metal
California
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 19

Æphanemer – A Dream of Wilderness

86:31
progressive power metal
Toulouse, France
Napalm

Tracklist (click to display)

Sound Struggle – The Bridge

114:30
progressive metal, jazz fusion
New York, New York
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Saturday, 20

The Wormhole Experience – The Oracle

44:27
progressive metal, jazz fusion
Rome, Italy
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 26

Cynic – Ascension Codes

48:57
progressive metal
Miami, Florida
Season of Mist

Tracklist (click to display)

Eternity’s End – Embers of War

45:13
progressive power metal
Bad Neustadt An Der Saale, Germany
Prosthetic

Tracklist (click to display)


Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû – Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû

44:17
progressive thrash metal
Poland
Agonia

Tracklist (click to display)

Friday, 3 December

Intrinsic – Event Horizon

69:14
progressive metal
Minnesota
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)

Friday, 10 December

Dessiderium – Aria

60:34
progressive death metal
Phoenix, Arizona
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Saturday, 11

سرابأرواح حرّة

58:30
world fusion
Paris, France
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Friday, 17

Mega Colossus – Riptime

40:44
progressive power metal
Raleigh, North Carolina
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Tuesday, 21 December

Syrek – Story

77:03
progressive metal
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Independent

Tracklist (click to display)


Best of 2021

01/01 – Best of Afrobeat
01/02 – Best of Atmospheric Black Metal
01/03 – Best of Avant-Garde Black Metal
01/04 – Best of Brutal Death Metal
01/05 – Best of Classical
01/06 – Best of Death Metal
01/07 – Best of Deathcore
01/08 – Best of Doom Metal
01/09 – Best of Folk
01/10 – Best of Grindcore
01/11 – Best of Hardcore
01/12 – Best Improvisation
01/13 – Best of Indie Rock
01/14 – Best of Jazz Fusion
01/15 – Best of Jazzcore
01/16 – Best of Math Rock
01/17 – Best of Mathcore
01/18 – Best of Metalcore
01/19 – Best of Modern Jazz
01/20 – Best of Noise Rock
01/21 – Best of Nu Jazz
01/22 – Best of Nu Prog
01/23 – Best of Pop
01/24 – Best of Post-Hardcore
01/25 – Best of Post-Metal
01/26 – Best of Post-Rock
01/27 – Best of Progressive Metal