The 11 Best Progressive Death Metal Albums of All Time

Here are the 11 best progressive death metal albums of all time!

Loudwire has already looked at the 11 best progressive death metal bands of all time, with featured artists ranging from pioneers such as Edge of Sanity and Cynic to modern masters such as Opeth, Rivers of Nihil and Persefone. Obviously, those groups earned their spots not only because of their inventiveness and influence, but also because of how exceptional their catalogs remain from a purely creative perspective.

But which of their albums do the best job of epitomizing their greatness? Which albums from other stylistic maestros similarly represent the peak of the progressive metal subgenre? That’s what we’re here to find out by dissecting the 11 best progressive death metal albums of all time!

READ MORE: 10 Progressive Death Metal Songs All Metalheads Should Know

Because progressive death metal didn’t really get going until the early 1990s, we’re starting there. That said, the subgenre’s only gotten better about mixing death metal and the core of classic progressive rock in more recently years; therefore, you can expect to see a majority of post-2000 LPs, as well as couple artists who appear twice because, well, they’re simply that incredible.

For the sake of simplicity – and to avoid being too pedantic about semantics – we’re expanding our criteria to potentially include records that lean into tech-death, avant-garde metal, melodic death metal and the like. Basically, if it fuses the fundamentals of death metal with eccentric arrangements, vibrant instrumentation and other quintessential "prog" components, it qualifies for consideration.

Be sure to let us know which picks you agree with and which ones you don’t, too! If nothing else, you’ll agree that all 11 of the following collections are at least among the best progressive death metal albums ever, right?