The 11 Best Prog Rock Bands From the United States

Here are the 11 best prog rock bands from the United States!

Progressive rock began in the U.K. in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, so it makes sense that many of the best artists from there are also among the best artists of all time. It didn’t take long, however, for comparably amazing bands to pop up in the United States and prove that they could put their own laudable spins on prog rock.

We’re talking about older acts such as Kansas, Happy the Man, Styx, Crack the Sky and Ambrosia. Since then, ensembles such as Thinking Plague, Spock’s Beard, Magellan, The Tea Club, Echolyn, Discipline and Advent Horizon have carried the torch exceedingly well, resulting in the United States becoming a major hotspot for the style.

Now, you might ask: "When push comes to shove, which ones come out on top?" As you can guess, that’s what we’re deciding below!

READ MORE: The 25 Best Prog Rock Albums of the 2000s (Ranked)

At the risk of spoiling our selections, we won’t list any honorable mentions here. We will say, though, that you could easily replace almost all of our choices with your own and have a strong argument for each one of them. (In other words, there aren’t as many irrefutable must-includes as there were for our U.K. list.)

By now, you probably know that we’re broadening our scope to feature groups who explore related styles (for instance, jazz fusion, jam rock, art rock, experimental rock and avant-garde music). If progressive rock is also a prominent feature of their work, they can be considered.

So, get ready to see some of your favorite artists get their flowers (while others are inevitably left out of the conversation) as we run through the 11 best prog rock bands from the United States!

How many of these U.S. prog rock bands do you like? Let us know!