#15 – Lonely Robot – Please Come Home: John Mitchell’s concept album about an astronaut has a very modern prog rock production and sound, at times sounding like a less darker Porcupine Tree and other times like the Police. The album is elevated by some interesting guest performances by Steve Hogarth, Peter Cox, Nik Kershaw and more. The album combines a very radio friendly style with some more experimental fare seamlessly.
Read our full review here.
#14 – Scale the Summit – V: The instrumental group bring their A game again with this strong collection of virtuosic playing and melodic songwriting. Their ability to make the most difficult tracks become hum-worthy is unlike many of their contemporaries. The opening track “The Winged Bull”, “Soria Moria” and the lead single “Stolas” are standout tracks.
Read our full review here.
#13 – Dave Kerzner – New World: The Sound of Contact founding member opens up his contacts list for this Prog opus which features the likes of Steve Hackett, Nick D’Virgilio, Frances Dunnary, Durga McBroom and many many more. While the opening epic track “Stranded” carries elements of Pink Floyd, there are various noticeable influences throughout such as Genesis, ELP and others. “The Lie” and “New World” and the latest single “Nothing” provide various styles that make this album an interesting listen. The special edition boasts more tracks and extended versions.
Read our full review here.
#12 – Tim Bowness – Stupid Things That Mean The World: The introspective Prog-man presents a stellar follow up to his previous album “Abandoned Dancehall Dreams” with an even stronger collection of tracks. This is a mellow but captivating album that flies by while listening. Ballads like the Steven Wilson-co-written “Sing To Me” provides emotional moments while other rockers like “Press Reset” offer a more aggressive approach.
Read our full review here.
#11 – Nad Sylvan – Courting the Widow: As the vocalist for Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited, Sylvan has garnered a whole new audience that will find this collection of Genesis inspired tracks wonderful to listen to. Sylvan’s storytelling vocal-style lends itself perfectly to his character of the Vampirate, while the instrumentation draws the listener back to the 70’s. The opening track “Carry Me Home” sounds as if it was lifted from Selling England By The Pound, while the closing track “Long Slow Crash Landing” is one of the best tracks of the year.
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
[…] was the best selling release of his career and was #1 on many end of the year lists, including the Prog Report Best Albums of 2015. Also a huge success was his tour, which saw him add a few Porcupine Tree songs back into the […]
[…] Sylvan released his latest solo album ‘Courting The Widow’ late last year (#11 on the Top 15 albums of 2015), and now has produced the video for the track “Where the Martyr Carved His Name”, […]
[…] Fear , and the Time Machine’ last year to much critical acclaim. The album was #4 on our top 15 prog albums of 2015. Now the band have put out another track from the album in the form of a lyric video. The song […]
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!