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50. Gísli Gunnarsson – Úr Öskunni

Gunnarsson gifted us with a rich, sweeping album that mixed cinematic music with elements of a post-metal, Alcest sound. The record is heavy on emotions and lustrous energy.

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49. Isgaard – The Water in You

Isgaard made her long-awaited return, and the results were beautiful. She deftly mixes pop and prog rock to great effect here, but the lyrical content and vocal performance are what really win the day.

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48. Lord Helmet – Take Evasive Action

Lord Helmet’s latest proved to have depth and guts, with a little chaos on the hood. They are an excellent example of progressive rock inspired from bands like A Perfect Circle and Incubus.

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47. Hartlight – The Triumph of Metal

Hartlight took their sound to new places. With outstanding guitar work, proggier writing, and utter security in themselves, this album really delivered.

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46. Nad Sylvan – Monumentata

Nad took us on a groovy trip with this 60’s-inspired prog rock record. With his signature wit, he delivered an album that is both charming and evolved.

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45. Gazpacho – Magic 8-Ball

While I wouldn’t say the band gave us anything new this time, Gazpacho gave us a rock solid return with some “out there” moments, but even more segments of their signature powerful melodies and excellent playing.

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44. Firmament

– A New World If You Can Take It

You don’t see post-hardcore and progressive rock mixed very often, but Firmament does exactly that. They deliver it with excellent vocals and some incredibly catchy hooks, but also some more thoughtful and abstract tracks that tie it all together.

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43. Gleb Kolyadin – Mobula

Surprising to me, Gleb leaned away from his neoclassical roots and towards a more modern, colorful style. This album is wreathed in electronica and fresh synth, and is just as captivating as anything he’s done.

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42. Blut Aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons

Blut Aus Nord made a triumphant return with a dark, gloriously melodic treasure. For every blackened riff, there is a spacious horizon. For every shadowy hall, there is a sunlit sky. The beauty lies in the richness of the contrasts they explore.

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41. Johan Niemann – The Vast Expanse

Johan of Evergrey has been releasing solo albums multiple times per year, and this one in particular grabbed hold of me. A record full of spacious guitar work, yet excellent keys and lumbering drums are important, too. Overall, it’s all about expression and phrasing and nostalgia.

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40. Hermyth – Aether

Hermyth returned with a sophomore album that multiplied the vocalists, but kept the sacred, spiritual, cosmic tone. Melodic doominess, existential lyrics, and ethereal melodies make this a record to be treasured.

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39. Zoungla – Dream Machine

Costa is back with another funky Zoungla outing, this time blending in some heavier sounds, too. The album features plenty of hooks, but my favorite aspect is the journey-like electronic and cinematic pieces that take the listener to Dreamland.

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38. Edenya –

The Secret Destination

You Are Looking For

Edenya continues to impress with powerful guitars and excellent song and album structures. I love how fleeting and stream of consciousness the second half of this record sounds, how it sweeps you away into the secret places.

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37. Time’s Forgotten

– Songs of Awakening

Time’s Forgotten offered up a terrific prog rock album last year. I love the floating melodies combined with the roaring instrumentation and powerful vocals, but they never forget the tender heart of what they do, and that is always apparent.

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36. Paradise Lost – Ascension

Perhaps one of their best albums in years, Ascension made Paradise Lost feel relevant to me again. Somehow, it is equal parts dark and scandalous, and yet surprisingly catchy, energetic, and grows with each listen. 

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35. Whispers of Granite – Liquid Stone

Joining Andreas Hack of Frequency Drift and Trude Eidtang of White Willow, this new project delivered progressive rock with pop, folk, and alternative edges. Glorious keys and Trude’s trusty vocals make this one a no-brainer.

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34. Smalltape – Tangram

Philipp is back with another slice of prog rock, blended beautifully with abstract, pop, and cinematic elements that give it life. There are moments of jazzy brilliance, soft acoustic tracks, and brilliant keyboard segments that all offer warmth and fire, too. He does his own thing, and pieces the parts together seamlessly.

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33. Rose Riebl – Dust

Rose returned with a sophomore album that is more abstract, more wistful and pining. Her piano is as gorgeous as ever, but she adds some vocals to the mix, connecting with us on a heart level, offering warmth even in the darkest places. It’s an authentic experience, one born from Rose’s visit to Iceland among other things, but it feels familiar, like home and belonging. 

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32. Derrick Stembridge

– Fading Into What Remains

Derrick is a prolific ambient, electronic artist, but this might be his best work yet. The album explores transformation in some haunting ways as Derrick combines a sense of technology and cutting-edge discovery with ancient wisdom and the perpetual rhythm of life and beauty and emotion that lies beneath every global change, every social tumult, every menacing horizon. Ambience and perpetual rhythm make us feel things we almost can’t explain.

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31. Deposed King

– Letters to a Distant Past

Deposed King offered up a sophomore album that skipped the prog tropes to stay true to itself. Like a trance of different emotions and layers, the album features velvety vocals that filter in on a few tracks, gorgeous instrumentals, and a powerful sense of mystery.

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30. Cea Serin – The World Outside

Cea Serin returned with their much-anticipated latest, and it has all the classic progressive metal treasures you could desire. It’s a bit daunting with the longer track lengths, but ends up feeling smart, layered, complex, and certainly heavy.

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29. Winter Gardens

– Uncomfortable/Unlovable

A smoky, dreamy EP from Winter Gardens, this release grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. They play dream pop, but layered liberally with New Wave, post-punk, synthwave, and some truly spellbinding, surging shoegaze guitars and synth that will leave a mark on you.

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28. Moon Halo – Trichotomy

The third album from this project, featuring members of Riversea and Mostly Autumn, delivered their best music yet. With rich vocals and melodies, spiced with some groovy rock instrumentation, Moon Halo really should be grabbing the prog rock world’s notice by now.

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27. Orion – Into Darkness

Ben brought us another helping of his heavy prog goodness. This album is heavier and more kinetic than his past works, featuring some truly fun and heart pumping instrumentals that are instantly likeable. I like the way he tweaks certain tracks to give them more flavor, like 80s synth or towering cinema. Combine that with intelligent lyrics about the capacity for darkness within us all, and you’ve got a winner.

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26. Feather Mountain – A Liminal Step

Feather Mountain is a prog metal band honing their skills, creating their own style. This album is their best yet, transitioning from rock solid songs in the first half to something truly enthralling, almost hypnotic in the second.

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25. Auri – Candles & Beginnings

After a remarkable debut and sophomore album that didn’t fully connect with me, Auri returned with a truly beautiful work of progressive folk. It’s a nostalgic, quietly fomenting album that seems to hit a place deep within me. It isn’t just beautiful and warm; it’s powerful and enlightening, too.

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24. Agropelter – The Book of Hours

Agropelter came out of nowhere to give us a terrific debut last year. Combining neoclassical structures, layers of keys and organs, and some thematic darkness, this instrumental album is consistent and never gets old.

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23. Kauan – Wayhome

Kauan do their own thing, and it’s always fantastic. I love the blend of heaviness, space, and melody, punctuated with accents and flavors that give it character. It’s like a bottomless well into which you’ll dive deeper depths each time you listen.

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22. Obiymy Doschu – Vidrada

Ukraine’s Obiymy Doschu created a worthy tapestry of light, beauty, and hope. There are plenty of feelings to contrast those, as well, and so the album most certainly feels like a wholehearted, human effort. The progressive rock songs may be in a language foreign to my ears, but there is no mistaking the gripping emotions or the masterful melodies.

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21. Esoterica – Ether Metal

Esoterica came out like a well-oiled machine. Their sound is a blend of alternative rock and modern metal with hefty elements of progressive metal, gothic metal, and electronica. The music is smooth, flashy, cinematic, and catchy, though the riffs hit hard, the melodies are layered, and performances are terrific. They truly provide something for everyone, all wrapped up with a spellbinding bow.

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20. Cammie Beverly – House of Grief

Cammie Beverly of Oceans of Slumber put out her debut Southern Gothic singer/songwriter record, and it is every bit as dark and emotional as I hoped it would be. I also like to pair it with the short piano album from her husband, Dobber Beverly, drummer and pianist of OoS. You can find my Bandcamp playlist here. Buy and splice ’em. They sound so good together.

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19. An Abstract Illusion

– The Sleeping City

The Sleeping City is a technical marvel, but it doesn’t lose itself in the complexity. This album is every bit as human and emotional and beautiful as it is heavy and complicated. The delicate and exquisite melodies are weighty in their simplicity, calculating in their timing, and so the album really delivers in a way that few other black metal albums can.

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18. Chimpan A – Music Is Art, Vol. 1

Chimpan A really outdid themselves with MIA. This album combines soulful vocals, groovy prog rock, and extended spoken word segments to create a sort of human tapestry. It is so emotional and so beautifully written.

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17. Kwoon – Odyssey

Kwoon released their much-anticipated Odyssey, and it is a beauty. Their music is typically labelled as post-rock, but instead of genre tropes, they off subtlety and gentle rhythms, shoegazing guitar work, hovering keys, warm electronica, ambient space, orchestral passages, and progressive structure. Each song feels part of a miraculous journey, but each track also stands on its own.

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16. Messa – The Spin

Messa is becoming a gateway to doom for so many listeners. They play a warm and alluring progressive stoner doom metal, so they have the song structures of progressive, the bourbon grit of stoner, and the elongated riffs and hovering melancholy of doom. And then the vocals are out of this world. Everyone needs to give this band a shot.

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15. Nicholas Gunn – 30

Legendary New Age/electronic artist Nicholas Gunn released a thirty year retrospective that, instead of being a compilation, featured all new songs that paid tribute to how he’s evolved through the years. This is warm and gorgeous music, like water to dry roots in the soul, like home when you’ve been away too long.

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14. Cosmograf – The Orphan Epoch

This album represents Robin coming into his own, I think. All of his works are intelligent and beautifully written, but this one feels wrought with confidence, performed with muscle, constructed with foresight. From reeling sax solos to giant guitar solos, this is one prog rock fans shouldn’t miss.

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13. Sleep Token – Even in Arcadia

Sleep Token is misunderstood by haters and fans alike. This new album had the impossible job of following 2023’s Take Me Back to Eden, and I think it does a wonderful job. Their style is more progressive than ever, and somewhat naive lyrics aside, this album has some seriously good songs that may stick with me even harder than some of their older stuff.

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12. The Emerald Dawn

– The Land, the Sea, the Air

The Land, the Sea, the Air is a beautiful bonfire in the night forest, an organic journey that opines our species’ journey from connection with nature to the destruction of our world. It has some flavor of 60’s and 70’s anti-war and environmental music, and that gives it character. The band’s performances are top notch, as always, and their style is as unique as ever. The band has proven themselves once again to be something completely different and absolutely enthralling.

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11. Antinoë – The Fold

I surprised even myself by how hard I fell for this album. The Fold is truly a dreamy experience, constructed with amazing vocals and commanding piano for the most part. Yet, it mostly feels like a swooning journey into the light. It’s a brilliantly-executed concept and every note has its place.

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10. Moron Police – Pachinko

Releasing the most colorful and possibly even ambitious album of the year, Moron Police delivered the goods with Pachinko. This effort has all the tongue-in-cheek fun of their signature sound, but also offers sweeping cinema, powerful drumming, and incredibly rich melodies that will make you want to listen again and again.

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9. Sublunar

– A Random Moment of Stillness

This could be the dark horse album of 2025. Poland’s SubLunar delivered an album that blends shoegaze post-rock and dark Polish prog to fantastic effect. With amazing vocals and a fiery rhythm section as a foundation, this album feels luxurious in its shadows.

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8. Esthesis – Out of Step

Esthesis is quietly creating incredible albums, and this is their best yet. Out of Step is a grooving, misty album that simply sounds fantastic in every way possible.

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7. Imminent Sonic Destruction

– Floodgate

Imminent Sonic Destruction are honing their craft into something truly special. Floodgate, amazing cover art and all, is an album that I’ll be listening to constantly. The songs are well-considered, self-edited down to meaningful and effective gems. They sound like no other band, yet there is warmth and familiarity in their style that reminds me of all the greats, like a celebration of rock and metal themselves. Prog metal fans need to hear this.

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6. Blackwater Holylight

– If You Only Knew

Blackwater Holylight are far too slept-on, in my opinion. They play a fantastically balanced, ethereal rock that brings together shoegaze, hard indie rock, and doom. The music is fuzzy and floating, but with deliberate melodies and rhythms that will worm their way into your soul, and nice amount of doomy riffs. They have a bit of melancholy, but just as much sunshine and dreamy warmth. This EP in particular was an obsession of mine for a hefty portion of 2025.

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5. Lunatic Soul

– The World Under Unsun

Mariusz took on the huge task of making a solo double album, and The World Under Unsun is a success. He visits sounds from each LS album, bringing them together into a seamless and rich experience. As always, though, the anchors are his crystal clear voice, his trusty bass, and the spectral soul he expresses. It takes some time to process, so give it what it needs.

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4. Lux Terminus – Cinder

Lux Terminus returned with a fire in their bellies. Cinder has undeniable charm and thrilling resonance, but the feelings it bestows upon you are what make it so damn memorable. It doesn’t try to out-progressive the rest of the community; it doesn’t try to impress us with ridiculous technical feats, though this album is quite progressive and certainly technical. No, Cinder wants to wash our minds free of worry, letting us bask in towering sunlight for fifty minutes, and I love every second of it.

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3. Ihlo – Legacy

Ihlo took their time to release a truly special album. Legacy is calculating yet untamed. It is colorful and fiery yet boasts in dark places. It is beautiful and emotional, but also full of intricate and complex performances. As I listened to it for the first time, I kept saying “Wow” to myself, and yet I feel the same way with several more listens since then. This is a special album that every fan of progressive music of any type should hear.

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2. Remina – The Silver Sea

The Silver Sea is a glowing and magnificent record pregnant with faraway nebulas and inner battles. The vocals are spectacular, and the surrounding music will whisk you away to other dimensions. It’s a beautifully human effort, just as much as a cosmic journey, and it never lets you forget that.

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1. Primrose Path – Ruminations

This was my most-anticipated album of 2025, and it gave me everything I wanted. Primrose Path deserve more attention as they continue providing the grungy, gothic progressive metal of my dreams. With vocals second to none and ferocious energy, Ruminations is simply a masterpiece.

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