Progressive Metal - one of the many genres in the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal category of music. This term means many different things to a lot of different people. If you are new to this term, then let me try to define this through some means of example. Bands like Queensryche, Rush, and Dream Theater are likely to be the most familiar to those of you who have never heard of Progressive Metal. Others like Stratovarius, Blind Guardian, and Conception are certainly less likely to be in your music collection due to their availability (especially in the U.S.). Well, to be a little more definitive in my explanation of Progressive Metal, I need to elaborate on why these bands are considered to be in this category. First, most progressive metal bands are characterized by fantastic vocalists with highly impressive ranges. There are exceptions, however, to this rule, but this is the one of the stronger points to this genre. Second, the music is classified as some of the most complex known of today in any musical category. Most of the musicians are significantly talented even in their rawest form, churning out unique tempos and harmonies amidst fast time-changes and unheard-of combinations of instrumentation. Third, keyboards are usually a key part and welcome addition to most bands giving them a more technical and tight sound. Keyboards have a way of uniting instruments into one complete composition. Overall, the bands are mostly obscure and this is the reason why I have put forth effort to try to make it easier for people to gain knowledge of this genre of music. So sit back, turn up the speakers and listen to some of the most talented musicians in rock music today.

A Note To DIE-HARD Progressive Metal Fans: Some of the featured bands on this list are what is considered prog rock, doom metal, death metal, and so on, the list of sub genres of metal is endless. This page is a reflection of me and my musical tastes. I thought what I was into mostly was Progressive Heavy Metal, until I recently discovered that the die-hard fans out there have their music collections classified down to the damn label the CD is on! Well, I consider most if not all of these bands to have shown or proved to me a progressive feel at one time or another or a musical progression from what they originally started out as. To me, THAT is progression. I cannot limit myself to thinking keyboards and a Geoff Tate clone are the only things that make Progressive Metal what it is. I think we should broaden this category a little and not forget who the influences to the bands out there now were. We all started with Anthrax, Metal Church, Iron Maiden, and Metallica, or for some of you, maybe even earlier bands like Judas Priest, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath, and these bands were some of the beginnings of what we hear today in combination with Yes, Marillion, Rush, and Queen. Don't get me wrong either, I don't really care for hardly any of the afore-mentioned groups, I just would like everyone to remember where it all started and where it is going. Alright, I'm done now.......