11 Prog Metal Bands Whose First Album Is Their Best

Here are 11 prog metal bands whose first album is their best!

Loudwire has already looked at a ton of rock and metal bands whose second, third, fourth, fifth and final albums are their best, and we’ve also explored the best debut LPs from progressive metal bands.

So, we thought it was time to combine those ideas by scouring the scene to find a handful of progressive metal bands who flew the highest with their initial full-length collections.

This was harder to do than it may sound, not only because most artists in the subgenre released better records further into their careers but also because we limited ourselves to considering only bands who have at least two LPs. (Otherwise, it’d be cheating because their first album is also their only album, so there’d be nothing else to judge.)

READ MORE: The Most Collected Albums by 11 Big Prog Metal Bands (On Discogs)

Therefore, you shouldn’t expect more than one or two big names on this list since, you know, we’re not exactly going to include Dream Theater, Opeth, Fates Warning, Mastodon and Tool just to be edgy and contrarian.

We know that our picks will be divisive, too, as some of them barely beat other options from the same discography. So, feel free to chime in with your thoughts on how many of these we got right and how many we got wrong, as well as how many of these albums and artists you’re only just discovering!

Now, let’s get into our batch of progressive metal bands whose first album is still their best!

Let us know if you agree with our picks!