#5 – Spock’s Beard – The Oblivion Particle: The group’s 12th studio album and 2nd with Ted Leonard on vocals and Jimmy Keegan on drums is strong from start to finish with classic Spock’s tracks like the powerful opener “Tides of Time” and the epic closer “Disappear.” Along the way, Keegan takes lead vocals on the spectacular “Bennett Built a Time Machine” which is one of the album highlights. The band show no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Read our full review here.
#4 – Riverside – Love, Fear & The Time Machine: Riverside continue to evolve and with their latest album, they take a more organic approach incorporating more piano, acoustic guitars and leaning on Mariusz Duda’s powerful vocals. The ballad tracks shine and blend perfectly with their usual darker and evocative tracks like “Caterpillar and the Barbed Wire” and the rocker “Saturate Me.”
Read our full review here.
#3 – Native Construct – Quiet World: Out of nowhere, this Berklee trio, produced the surprise album of the year. Recorded while they were still in school, the album treats listeners to a blend of multiple genres, sometimes in the same song. It’s Queen meets Between the Buried and Me or Dream Theater meets Beethoven and everything in between. This is an album we have not stopped listening to.
Read our full review here.
#2 – Neal Morse Band – The Grand Experiment: Joined now by a full band, even during the writing sessions, Neal Morse’s latest album is his most accessible in years and contains some of his strongest work including the splendid opening track “The Call” , the rocker “The Grand Experiment” and the 30 minute masterpiece “Alive Again.” For those brand new to Neal Morse, this might be the album that get’s them hooked.
Read our full review here.
#1 – Steven Wilson – Hand.Cannot.Erase: Once again, Steven Wilson finds himself atop an album’s list with his latest masterpiece. The overall presentation combined with the songs, the genre-bending variety and the top-level musicianship makes this album an all-timer. Whether it is a track like “Three Years Older” which harkens back to his Porcupine Tree days, or the pop radio friendly title track, or the aggressive “Ancestral”, at every turn the listener is engaged and enthralled. Wilson has certainly found his voice and right now is at the top the mountain.
Read our full review here.
steven Wilson – second to none …riverside – cannot listen to end ,begun 4 Times…strange cause previous discs are ok…spock’s beard here at the best…steve hacket – kind of boring ,could be much better…gazpacho – nice and steady…tim bowness should score higher than here…the rest – turn to listen …
If we’re including progressive metal (which we seem to be), I think leaving TesseracT and Periphery off this list is a serious oversight.
Extremely disappointed with Riverside. It’s a horrible regression in quality. Where the previous albums and EP’s were 9/10 – 10/10 efforts, Love, Fear & The Time Machine is worthy of about 2/10. It’s like they’re on strong sedatives with nothing in particular to sing about… What the hell happened? That is the complete opposite of what Riverside is about! I don’t mind a softer album, but this album has been completely stripped of emotion, passion and, yeah… talent.
totally agree with you!! I don’t understand what happened…. it seems like they want to seduce college girls with their soft – non-imaginative – audaciousless music…. the opposite of what used to be riverside! hope it’s just an accident in their long and great carreer!
I’m totally disagree with both of you! I think it’s wonderful album! I Guess it’s all about perception, I really loved this album, an masterpiece in my opinion.
I totally disagree with both of you. I think it’s wonderful album! I guess it’s a matter of perception, I really loved this album, a masterpiece in my opinion.
Riverside once had a brilliant, unique place in the music industry. Now this band – whom I respect like my one true soul mate – has “joined the pack”.
For Riverside fans, this placid new sound is devoid of soul, and feels like a massive kick in the balls. If you live and breathe Riverside, then this new album f**king hurts.
New, generic-alternative fans are jumping onboard the Riverside bandwagon and irritatingly washing out the huge number of complaints from extremely disappointed fans (Try telling Taylor Swift she sucks on her message board).
I REALLY hope this album was an experiment and not a sign of change.
I Still share your point of view Jubular!
I don’t bother about bands evolving in different musical ways… as long as it is not in a commercial one (like Riverside did to my mind) but a real wish to play what they like and not what fans are waiting them to play.
Opeth “Pale Communion” has been very criticized by fans…. I Love this album and consider it as something different from their previous stuff (that i love too). But Opeth didn’t take an easy way musically with this album, contrary to Riverside.
What Riverside used to play was sofisticated, complex, agressive, poetic, relaxing, …. this new one is just… linear, not surprising… COMMERCIAL. If they keep on playing this king of music, i would respect their choice, but would, like many other fans, no longer buy their albums. But they would get new different ones…
I’m totally disagree with both of you. I think it’s wonderful album! I Guess it’s all about perception, I really loved this album, an masterpiece in my opinion.
[…] Source: Top 15 Prog Albums of 2015 – Page 2 of 3 – The Prog Report […]
No Kingcrow? Fail.
Neal Morse @ #2…fantastic…The Call…Alive Again…
Hand.Cannot.Erase is overrated Imo. Worst SW album thus far. What someone said about the new Riverside is exactly what I feel with the new Wilson project.
[…] litigare, prendersi a pugni per decidere chi sta in cima. Ed in tal senso la classifica del 2015 di Progreport (ottimo sito peraltro) mi lascia perplesso, lasciandomi andare a considerazioni di natura direi […]
I love it when words like overrated are used like success is a dirty word.Never would have heard of Riverside or Native Construct without this end of year list.
Very impressed with Riverside went back and streamed debut amazing they gained a new fan for life.What an awesome band thank you for the grumbling guys it’s not like modern radio will ever play this stuff.
Damn you Simon Cowell!!
There is a lot of fantastic prog being recorded as evidenced by this list.
Stop bitching about successful artists and sit back enjoy all this great prog
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ugh! I listened to the first 3 bands here….this is what is called prog rock these days? horrible. I’ll take YES anyday. This music is macho dramatic cliche-sounding production, devoid of imagination – where is the lyricism, the beauty? Strident, male warrior music – ugh!