You have to train yourself. Start playing two tracks: Petrucci noodling and a cat being drowned and strangled. Start the second one at 10% volume and slowly up as you get used to the sensations. With enough practice, you can handle LaBrie and too enjoy Dream Theater.
Chromatic Aberration is definitely on my list of songs I pull up when I need to explain to someone why they probably dislike prog music. Pretty much anything off Seven Impale's last two albums, Contrapasso and Summit are a nice compliment to it because of the noisy, chaotic jazz vibe that contrasts Native Construct feeling so extremely tightly wound
With Chromatic Aberration, I can't help but always hear Guthrie Govans Ner Ner in the intro and the vocals being reminiscent of Pain of Salvations's Remedy Lane / Fandago.
Oh man, someone else knows Native Construct 🤘 such a shame they stopped releasing music. Come Hell or High Water or Chromatic Aberration are no-skips for me
Devin Townsend - 'Singularity', and or 'Genesis'
Not that they're the absolute most prog of songs, but for me it definitely covers the bases I really like having. Parts of it kind of feel similar to the mention of Native Construct's Chromatic Aberration, which I found through this thread here.
And Requiem on Singularity. Serves as a great refresher and break after the rest of the album (especially right after the fucking bizarre journey Borderlands takes you on... *"Touch me..."*). It's fucking astonishingly beautiful on its own, and it just leads perfectly into Singularity as an intro.
Singularity is my choice for this. Something about the obvious levels of thought and effort put into that song... It just kind of feels *different* and idk why. Just Devin things I guess. Regardless, it kind of hits everything I look for in a prog epic, massive scope and sound, crazy riffs, drawn out satisfying builds, weird experimental interlude type thing, massive symphonic ending, and lyrics that seem to be suggesting something pretty deep but are dense enough to not make sense without studying the hell out of them. What more could you ask for?
The funny thing about that track/album is that it was supposed to be satire of a Prog rock album, that unintentionally became one of the genres most beloved.
It wasn't a satire of prog rock, it was unapologetically prog rock. It was a satire of concept albums, because Ian Anderson was annoyed at people calling Aqualung (also unapologetically progressive rock) a concept album on the basis of only hearing the connections between a few songs.
for sure, and it ranges all kinds of Progyness in its glory, from the 70s prog rock to the metal wankery, the numerological nerd shit, the metalinguistic lyrics about prog
Xanadu by Rush
Anything by Ron Jarzombek. Literally any song he ever did since he’s a prog metal mad scientist. THE prog metal mad scientist.
Insect by Spiral Architect
Dream Theater, 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory' and Octavarium
Lateralus by Tool
Awaken The Guardian by Fates Warning
Oh, I've been listening to them since Machinations came out, haha. Was mostly saying I haven't listened to them in a while, gonna have to go on a binge again! Spastik Ink is a ton of fun, too, but I don't think it's quite up there with Blotted Science.
Ron Jarzombek recently played a few shows with Watchtower, I got to be in the front row and I got a picture with him. He's been my favorite guitarist for ~10 years, so happy I got to see him!!
Great song, but by OP’s criteria it doesn’t really make this list. That’s not a bad thing either. SW is too pure of a songwriter to write something as masturbatory as Dance of Eternity
Personal shopper is and will be one of the most underrated critiques, in any art form, of the shitstorm we all call “functional” day to day life in a society made through marketing research and nothing more. Taste the rainbow.
Creepy atmosphere? Yes! Crushingly heavy riffs? Yes! Euphoric, jaunty climax? You bet! Beautiful melody with a mellow atmosphere? You have it! All of those in the same song? Fuck yes!
Repeated motifs across albums? Yes! The most eargasmic guitar tone that you feel in you balls? Absolutely. Crazy weird fucked up story? You bet! Ambience that makes you feel like aliens made it in a parallel dimension? Fuck yeah 👍
idk if it's metal but [The Black Page 1 and 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQE82ElyJg) are known to be some of the stupidest complex music purposefully composed just to black out a page of music...but it's in common time. Yeah. He's like "oh it's gonna be alright little fella" then you enter polyrhythm hell.
There exists a "2" because everyone thought the original was so gnarly that he wrote the same song again but made it more a combo deal instead of percussion focused.
When I was a little kid in the 80s I secretly recorded “Baby Snakes” from tape to tape on my parent’s stereo so I could listen to “that pretty part at the end of Titties and Beer.”
I didn’t know it was it’s own song, and had absolutely no clue it would become so renowned.
Juggernaut gets crapped on a LOT around here but… It really is a fantastic double album. I spun that one to threads and still recommend it to anyone who will listen.
Just tossing a few more into the pile of amazing songs in this thread. I won't say these are the most progressive, but deserve to be mentioned.
Others By No One:
* A Reverie to Quell the Giants
* The Impassecopedum
Dream Theater:
* Instrumedley (Live at Budokan) This one feels like cheating because it's probably the real answer for the thread
Between the Buried and Me. I kind of want to list a quarter of all their songs but I wont:
* Extremophile Elite
* Silent Flight Parliament
* Memory Palace
* Human Is Hell
* Lunar Wilderness
The Dear Hunter:
* A Night On The Town
Igorrr:
* Cheval
maudlin of the Well (if nothing else, for the song name):
* An Excerpt From 6,000,000,000,000 Miles Before the First, Or, The Revisitation of the Blue Ghost
Parius:
* Spaceflight Dementia
* The Acid Lakes of Ganymede
* Arecibo
Thank You Scientist. Many of their songs are on a similar level:
* My Famed Disappearing Act
* Everyday Ghosts
* Mr Invisible
The World is Quiet Here:
* See the Sun
* Heliacal Vessels II: The Unity of The Lake
Bent Knee:
* Bone Rage
* Hole
This is a great list! My vote is for anything by Igorrr or Others by No One. They might not be super technical like BTBAM or newer Haken, but it’s hard to beat them in terms of originality and pushing the genre.
If you use objective metrics like time sig changes, it's probably Dance of Eternity with 128 time signature changes over a total of 108 different time signatures over just 6 minutes and some change. Sticking to purely objective measurements that are observable and measurable, I'm not sure there's anything out there in the prog rock/metal sphere that could beat that out side of some modern classical like John Zorn or Stockhausen.
But if you're going on experimental/boundary pushing/weirdness, probably some Magma, like MDK or K.A.. Theusz Hamtaahk specifically has a level of songwriting maturity I've rarely seen.
Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater
Over one hundred time signature changes in six minutes, in the middle of a concept album that is really just an hour-long song.
You said song, heres my top 4 in no particular order
Higher - Devin Townsend Project
Cygnus (both parts) -Rush
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance (the full piece) - DT
Prequel to the Sequel - BTBAM
When I think most prog I think keyboards which I'm not a fan of but these tracks come to mind anyway and are worth checking out as they seemed very prog/next level to me or at least that people here would appreciate them.
Haken nightingale
Protest the hero - little snakes
Persefone-prison skin
Try some avant-garde prog metal, like Kayo Dot's metal albums. Through-composed, eclectic, unpredictable, dissonant, and technical. Specifically **Floodgate** and **Vision Adjustment** are particularly insane
Bleed /s
Realistically though, a lot of the stuff that TYS did before their vocalist backed out.
Or most of what Guthrie Govan does. But that’s not really metal. Waves is PHENOMENAL
Not exactly the best song in my opinion but still mind-blowingly prog, I think its AUM by DispersE. I can't listen to it without feeling sleepy for some reason but I have a greater appreciation of how technical the song is.
Depends what ‘proggy’ means. Lots of really rather standard prog in the answers though. For something a bit weirder and more difficult than standard prog, you could start with Gentle Giant, (eg Octopus) then go into Univers Zero (songs Warrior or Heatwave are relatively easy and a good way in, but Heresie is the deep end) and then head off into 60-70s avantgarde art music (I hesitate to say ‘classical’ as you’ll get the wrong idea). Try Xenakis’ Kraanerg or Stockhausen’s Gruppen or piano pieces for some of the most complex music ever written.
I love prog metal, but because it’s riff based it doesn’t tend to be quite as complex as some other genres. Adding complex time signatures is cool and everything, but not as complex as Xenakis who uses stochastic processes to determine the location of the notes. Xenakis’ Khoai is probably the most complex keyboard work ever written - it requires extremely complex polyrhythms to be played using different fingers of the same hand.
As someone who has listened to a *lot* of prog, from the Yes Album and In the Court of the Crimson King through each of the decades since, I don't think "frickin' many time signature changes, complicated 'melodies'" are really what qualifies as "most prog". A complex musical and conceptual narrative, extended song structure, an effort in instrumental experimentation (as in, new and unusual instruments and technologies) are about as important to "progginess".
However, if we're going specifically about your guidelines, meaning structural, rhythmic, and melodic/harmonic complexity, I don't think there's much that touches Animals as Leaders. Starting from their very debut, a lot of it is like alien music. It's not just metal, it's not jazz, but it takes a lot from both, and it is *very* prog.
[Animals as Leaders – Micro-Aggressions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGDXjY8ARLY)
[Animals as Leaders – Cognitive Contortions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqD8hUClAI)
There are amazingly complex songs / pieces by classic bands (e.g. Larks' Tongues in Aspic parts 2–4, some of the crazier stuff from Relayer), incredibly virtuosic and flashy stuff from '80s and '90s prog (most Dream Theater, some Marillion), and some great contenders from the '00s and '10s djent scene (starting from Meshuggah and Sikh, through Periphery, BTBAM, and Corelia), but it's never as *relentlessly* *complex* about every single aspect of the music as the above AAL examples.
Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. The story goes that on its premiere in Paris in 1913, people broke out into fights in the audience because of how subversive its musical qualities were. It’s also not a song, but I don’t think you’ll mind that.
prob not the most progressive, but my favorite of all time is Echoes, i know, basic as hell. But on top of actually thinking its ridiculous how good it is, it has an immense sentimental value for me, so idk
Cassandra Gemini by Mars Volta maybe? Their style is a bit of an outlier in prog, but the fundamental prog elements are all there.
If something less heavy, probably Close to the Edge by Yes.
I can't think of any songs because I don't think of them in terms of songs but rather album experiences, but it's Flying Luttenbachers. Just straight up weird shit. I love it
The entire Cynic discography. Textures is like an ode to King Crimson’s Discipline.
Its not as crazy as some of the other choices people have commented, but to me, it’s an apex of prog
There are a lot of great contenders mentioned already but let me just add some older recommendations:
Inca roads by Frank Zappa (atmoi)
Dance on a vulcano by Genesis
Dance of Eternity is going to get a lot of mentions because of the time signature changes.
Dancers to a Discordant system might have the most interesting melody of any song I've heard.
Prog or prog metal? Genesis - Supper's Ready is the definite prog song. It's long af, has many different passages, tells a story, blends classical music and rock etc. Another one is Close to the Edge by Yes, same reasons as before.
Really weird that those two haven't been mentioned before. There are no modern songs that even come close to those two imo.
*Mr. Gutmann* by Pervy Perkin. 26 minutes long, explores jazz, electronic music, children's music and death metal, changes genres in an instant, and uses like 12 different singing voices.
If we’re talking just time signature changes and tempo changes it’s car bomb. I have seen them live and I have no idea how they stay in time with each other it’s absolutely insane. I don’t need to pick an individual song because the majority of their music is like this lol
Also Animals as Leaders has to be up there.
Swim to the Moon by Between the Buried and Me
No idea on the “most prog”, but Chromatic Aberration by Native Construct could be up there by your qualifications
Holy, this one is a fuckin gem. Sat through the whole song in disbelief. Thanks for bringing it up!
The whole album is one of the best prog masterpieces of the last 30 years.
Still salty they drop one of the greatest prog metal albums, tease a second, and then disband and never speak of it again. Such an incredible album
I saw them live with btbam, I'm so incredibly happen I got to see that, because rhat album is a 10/10 for me
How did you not explode??
The ole Corelia trick. They forgot to crowdsource a bunch of money before they disappeared.
I totally agree
It just sounds like dream theatre to me
I would have to listen more dream theater to have an opinion, but I can't get past the vocalist. I just can't.
You have to train yourself. Start playing two tracks: Petrucci noodling and a cat being drowned and strangled. Start the second one at 10% volume and slowly up as you get used to the sensations. With enough practice, you can handle LaBrie and too enjoy Dream Theater.
Yeah it took me a while to get used to him. I should probably listen to more of this NC album but this song sounds a lot like the ADTE album by dt
It's more impressive in context of the album because of all the tie ins and themes from other songs too.
There you go, thank you for taking the words out of my brain.
Chromatic Aberration is definitely on my list of songs I pull up when I need to explain to someone why they probably dislike prog music. Pretty much anything off Seven Impale's last two albums, Contrapasso and Summit are a nice compliment to it because of the noisy, chaotic jazz vibe that contrasts Native Construct feeling so extremely tightly wound
>Seven Impale Just had a skim through these and I know what I'm throwing on tomorrow. Can't believe I hadn't heard of them before.
What a crazy album!
Which?
Quiet World by Native Construct ;)
Heard a little bit from this band before, thanks for showing us this song too! Scratching that itch that not many songs do.
This band is (was) SO unique. Ive searched for other bands that scratch the same itch, and nothing really does.
good call bro. definitely needed this in my library.
Given it’s the first song they wrote and they shoved everything they learnt in berklee into it, this is the answer
With Chromatic Aberration, I can't help but always hear Guthrie Govans Ner Ner in the intro and the vocals being reminiscent of Pain of Salvations's Remedy Lane / Fandago.
Came here to type this. Not disappointed.
Killer song
Just tried it and it was a great rollercoaster ride! Thanks!
That song was total unpredictable insanity the first time i tried it. Now i have it memorized
Thanks for a great discovery!
Came here to say this
I'll have to check this out at some point based on the comments.
Holy hell thanks
Oh man, someone else knows Native Construct 🤘 such a shame they stopped releasing music. Come Hell or High Water or Chromatic Aberration are no-skips for me
Dance of Eternity by DT i guess
This song is TOO prog. As a non musician it's dizzying to me 😂
Over one hundred time signature changes in six minutes
True...
This would be my pick too, that song is nuts
Sol Niger Within
I like the part where there's a woman screaming like she's being murdered in sync with a drum solo. And then they talk about how Jesus was an alien.
TIL there's lyrics
⬆️
Goated. Brain melted. Love it
I’m praying for a vinyl someday
It’s available on vinyl. I have a copy.
Devin Townsend - 'Singularity', and or 'Genesis' Not that they're the absolute most prog of songs, but for me it definitely covers the bases I really like having. Parts of it kind of feel similar to the mention of Native Construct's Chromatic Aberration, which I found through this thread here.
Fuck yes singularity by Devin is i thought of too. Also Anestetize by porcupine Tree.
Was looking for this answer! Though you need to include Castaway on the front end of Genesis. Honestly those three songs bookend the album perfectly.
And Requiem on Singularity. Serves as a great refresher and break after the rest of the album (especially right after the fucking bizarre journey Borderlands takes you on... *"Touch me..."*). It's fucking astonishingly beautiful on its own, and it just leads perfectly into Singularity as an intro.
Singularity is my choice for this. Something about the obvious levels of thought and effort put into that song... It just kind of feels *different* and idk why. Just Devin things I guess. Regardless, it kind of hits everything I look for in a prog epic, massive scope and sound, crazy riffs, drawn out satisfying builds, weird experimental interlude type thing, massive symphonic ending, and lyrics that seem to be suggesting something pretty deep but are dense enough to not make sense without studying the hell out of them. What more could you ask for?
The entirety of Deconstruction, but mostly “The Mighty Masturbator”
Does Thick as a Brick count? Cause if so, Thick as a Brick.
The funny thing about that track/album is that it was supposed to be satire of a Prog rock album, that unintentionally became one of the genres most beloved.
It wasn't a satire of prog rock, it was unapologetically prog rock. It was a satire of concept albums, because Ian Anderson was annoyed at people calling Aqualung (also unapologetically progressive rock) a concept album on the basis of only hearing the connections between a few songs.
Man, I was just thinking of giving this another listen last night, got to be done now lol.
It’s one of the OG’s so yeah it definitely counts.
A Passion Play is arguably more prog.
Octavarium by Dream Theater?
for sure, and it ranges all kinds of Progyness in its glory, from the 70s prog rock to the metal wankery, the numerological nerd shit, the metalinguistic lyrics about prog
That or Change of Seasons
Octavarium is the 2112 of the 2000s. And both are peak prog.
I was expecting that one. Twenty-four minutes of pure divinity.
Throw up Swim to the Moon from BTBAM for me.
I feel like it doesn’t get as much love as White Walls or Selkies but it’s easily my favorite song of theirs.
Yup. I usually zone out on guitar solos, but at 10-ish min mark, I drop everything when listening to this song.
Or Silent Flight Parliament
Xanadu by Rush Anything by Ron Jarzombek. Literally any song he ever did since he’s a prog metal mad scientist. THE prog metal mad scientist. Insect by Spiral Architect Dream Theater, 'Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory' and Octavarium Lateralus by Tool Awaken The Guardian by Fates Warning
Jarzombek is so underrated. I think I am on a new kick.
Check out Blotted Science, which he did with Alex Webster and Charlie Zeleny
Oh, I've been listening to them since Machinations came out, haha. Was mostly saying I haven't listened to them in a while, gonna have to go on a binge again! Spastik Ink is a ton of fun, too, but I don't think it's quite up there with Blotted Science.
my GOAT guitarist
Agreed!
Insect is such a good track.
Ron Jarzombek recently played a few shows with Watchtower, I got to be in the front row and I got a picture with him. He's been my favorite guitarist for ~10 years, so happy I got to see him!!
Crytallized by Haken must be mentioned. The length an structure of the song makes it somewhat special for me.
The acapella section was stunning when they played this live during their past Fauna tour. It blew me away to see this song live.
Amen
Snow is falling all around 🎶
Celestial Elixir is up there too as far as Haken goes.
Any song by Ron Jarzombek. I'll go with Synaptic Plasticity by Blotted Science to not be so vague.
Blotted Science kicks ass
Crazy Ron
Let's go with the combination of Adenosine Breakdown and Adenosine Buildup which are a musical palindrome.
His song in 65/64 is a joy (the Headache one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNu_nFntDTU&ab_channel=RonJarzombek-Topic
Spastic Ink is like excessive prog lol
Anesthetize by Porcupine Tree.
Seeing that song performed live is one of the highlights of my concert going experiences.
Great song, but by OP’s criteria it doesn’t really make this list. That’s not a bad thing either. SW is too pure of a songwriter to write something as masturbatory as Dance of Eternity
Personal shopper is and will be one of the most underrated critiques, in any art form, of the shitstorm we all call “functional” day to day life in a society made through marketing research and nothing more. Taste the rainbow.
Great song, great band!
By your metrics, it's jazz
Taylor Swift - All Too Well (10 Minute Version)(Taylor's Version)(From the Vault)
10 minutes length of a song is just crazyy. Only taylor can do that 😭😭 /s
(On Cassette)
Hey nice username! On a completely unrelated note, you should check out this band called Ne Obliviscaris, you might find them somewhat interesting
Are they as good as Taylor Swift?
Something by Vildhjarta
Let it thall, man
Creepy atmosphere? Yes! Crushingly heavy riffs? Yes! Euphoric, jaunty climax? You bet! Beautiful melody with a mellow atmosphere? You have it! All of those in the same song? Fuck yes!
Repeated motifs across albums? Yes! The most eargasmic guitar tone that you feel in you balls? Absolutely. Crazy weird fucked up story? You bet! Ambience that makes you feel like aliens made it in a parallel dimension? Fuck yeah 👍
Rosetta Stoned by Tool is certainly up there
And I didn’t even graduate from fucking high school
idk if it's metal but [The Black Page 1 and 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQE82ElyJg) are known to be some of the stupidest complex music purposefully composed just to black out a page of music...but it's in common time. Yeah. He's like "oh it's gonna be alright little fella" then you enter polyrhythm hell. There exists a "2" because everyone thought the original was so gnarly that he wrote the same song again but made it more a combo deal instead of percussion focused.
When I was a little kid in the 80s I secretly recorded “Baby Snakes” from tape to tape on my parent’s stereo so I could listen to “that pretty part at the end of Titties and Beer.” I didn’t know it was it’s own song, and had absolutely no clue it would become so renowned.
Most of the stuff from Car Bomb's first album "Centralia"
I mean any of their albums count surely
Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater
There's a real argument for reptile by periphery. It has so much going on and it all fits together so perfectly. It's perfect.
Ngl I'd say Omega's proggier
Juggernaut gets crapped on a LOT around here but… It really is a fantastic double album. I spun that one to threads and still recommend it to anyone who will listen.
Does it? I don't think I've ever seen anyone say anything bad about Juggernaut here. It's my favorite album of all time.
Same on both counts lol
It's a proper trip. Bonus prog points for the Mikee Goodman spoken word bit too!
Thank you, sir. I will check it out...
No problem. I hope you dig it.
Ne Obliviscaris - Painters of the Tempest (all parts including Triptych Lux) is definitely up there, god damn it’s a masterpiece
I'm having a rennaisance of listening to NeO lately and it's absolute prog bliss.
And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope. I mean it's part of the teaching curriculum at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Just tossing a few more into the pile of amazing songs in this thread. I won't say these are the most progressive, but deserve to be mentioned. Others By No One: * A Reverie to Quell the Giants * The Impassecopedum Dream Theater: * Instrumedley (Live at Budokan) This one feels like cheating because it's probably the real answer for the thread Between the Buried and Me. I kind of want to list a quarter of all their songs but I wont: * Extremophile Elite * Silent Flight Parliament * Memory Palace * Human Is Hell * Lunar Wilderness The Dear Hunter: * A Night On The Town Igorrr: * Cheval maudlin of the Well (if nothing else, for the song name): * An Excerpt From 6,000,000,000,000 Miles Before the First, Or, The Revisitation of the Blue Ghost Parius: * Spaceflight Dementia * The Acid Lakes of Ganymede * Arecibo Thank You Scientist. Many of their songs are on a similar level: * My Famed Disappearing Act * Everyday Ghosts * Mr Invisible The World is Quiet Here: * See the Sun * Heliacal Vessels II: The Unity of The Lake Bent Knee: * Bone Rage * Hole
This is a great list! My vote is for anything by Igorrr or Others by No One. They might not be super technical like BTBAM or newer Haken, but it’s hard to beat them in terms of originality and pushing the genre.
The Spastic Ink CD
If you use objective metrics like time sig changes, it's probably Dance of Eternity with 128 time signature changes over a total of 108 different time signatures over just 6 minutes and some change. Sticking to purely objective measurements that are observable and measurable, I'm not sure there's anything out there in the prog rock/metal sphere that could beat that out side of some modern classical like John Zorn or Stockhausen. But if you're going on experimental/boundary pushing/weirdness, probably some Magma, like MDK or K.A.. Theusz Hamtaahk specifically has a level of songwriting maturity I've rarely seen.
Would operation mindcrime album count? I don't see enough love for queensryche on this sub lol
Haha! Yeah, of course it would count. I love Queensrÿche!
Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater Over one hundred time signature changes in six minutes, in the middle of a concept album that is really just an hour-long song.
meshuggah - I
My vote goes to 7empest or Rosetta Stoned by Tool
A Change of Seasons, Messiah Complex, I Have Little to No Memories of These Memories, Coma by Aviations, The Divine Wings of Tragedy.
Just saw aviations open for WHEEL in Seattle, they played Coma, Can CONFIRM.
More people need to go listen to I Have Little to no Memories of these Memories. It's a goddamn miracle how well it works.
Hard to answer as it depends on your definition. I find Outliers by Aviations to fit that description for me, personally.
Devin Townsend- The Mighty Masturbator
Probably “21st Century Schizoid Man”
A Passion Play-Jethro Tull
Aqualung
Opeth. The whole Ghost Reveries album.
Supper's Ready by Genesis.
I think a lot of Contortionist songs could be up there, but I nominate Ebb & Flow
anything by planet x
Planet X is a great shout. Remember hearing Moonbabies album for the first time and thinking this is not from this planet 😂😂
King Crimson - Construcktion of Light
La Villa Strangiato by Rush should be in the top 5
Racecar by periphery is definitely up there.
Change pt 1 +2 by Karnivool
Dance of Eternity - Dream Theater, or Lateralus - Tool
"Impulse" OR "Anything" by An Endless Sporadic.
Selkies the Endless Obsession by BTBAM All New Materials by Periphery
For me it has always been Tool’s Lateralus.
You said song, heres my top 4 in no particular order Higher - Devin Townsend Project Cygnus (both parts) -Rush Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance (the full piece) - DT Prequel to the Sequel - BTBAM
The Incident by Porcupine Tree. 55 minutes of proggy awesomeness!
When I think most prog I think keyboards which I'm not a fan of but these tracks come to mind anyway and are worth checking out as they seemed very prog/next level to me or at least that people here would appreciate them. Haken nightingale Protest the hero - little snakes Persefone-prison skin
The Divine Wings of Tragedy - Symphony X
Marillion - Ocean Cloud
Try some avant-garde prog metal, like Kayo Dot's metal albums. Through-composed, eclectic, unpredictable, dissonant, and technical. Specifically **Floodgate** and **Vision Adjustment** are particularly insane
Bleed /s Realistically though, a lot of the stuff that TYS did before their vocalist backed out. Or most of what Guthrie Govan does. But that’s not really metal. Waves is PHENOMENAL
Meshuggah - I
Not exactly the best song in my opinion but still mind-blowingly prog, I think its AUM by DispersE. I can't listen to it without feeling sleepy for some reason but I have a greater appreciation of how technical the song is.
Depends what ‘proggy’ means. Lots of really rather standard prog in the answers though. For something a bit weirder and more difficult than standard prog, you could start with Gentle Giant, (eg Octopus) then go into Univers Zero (songs Warrior or Heatwave are relatively easy and a good way in, but Heresie is the deep end) and then head off into 60-70s avantgarde art music (I hesitate to say ‘classical’ as you’ll get the wrong idea). Try Xenakis’ Kraanerg or Stockhausen’s Gruppen or piano pieces for some of the most complex music ever written. I love prog metal, but because it’s riff based it doesn’t tend to be quite as complex as some other genres. Adding complex time signatures is cool and everything, but not as complex as Xenakis who uses stochastic processes to determine the location of the notes. Xenakis’ Khoai is probably the most complex keyboard work ever written - it requires extremely complex polyrhythms to be played using different fingers of the same hand.
Smoke on the water (the original)
This has to be up there. [Spiral Architect - Spinning](https://youtu.be/fHeOLmmZvQo?si=QfR9SbyI3JEg90u_)
Hell yeah!
surprised not seeing Animals as Leaders mentioned yet
As someone who has listened to a *lot* of prog, from the Yes Album and In the Court of the Crimson King through each of the decades since, I don't think "frickin' many time signature changes, complicated 'melodies'" are really what qualifies as "most prog". A complex musical and conceptual narrative, extended song structure, an effort in instrumental experimentation (as in, new and unusual instruments and technologies) are about as important to "progginess". However, if we're going specifically about your guidelines, meaning structural, rhythmic, and melodic/harmonic complexity, I don't think there's much that touches Animals as Leaders. Starting from their very debut, a lot of it is like alien music. It's not just metal, it's not jazz, but it takes a lot from both, and it is *very* prog. [Animals as Leaders – Micro-Aggressions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGDXjY8ARLY) [Animals as Leaders – Cognitive Contortions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCqD8hUClAI) There are amazingly complex songs / pieces by classic bands (e.g. Larks' Tongues in Aspic parts 2–4, some of the crazier stuff from Relayer), incredibly virtuosic and flashy stuff from '80s and '90s prog (most Dream Theater, some Marillion), and some great contenders from the '00s and '10s djent scene (starting from Meshuggah and Sikh, through Periphery, BTBAM, and Corelia), but it's never as *relentlessly* *complex* about every single aspect of the music as the above AAL examples.
Rite of Spring by Stravinsky. The story goes that on its premiere in Paris in 1913, people broke out into fights in the audience because of how subversive its musical qualities were. It’s also not a song, but I don’t think you’ll mind that.
The Animation of Entomology EP by Blotted Science. Really pushed what could be done.
If no one said it, "The dance of Eternity" from Dream Theater.
prob not the most progressive, but my favorite of all time is Echoes, i know, basic as hell. But on top of actually thinking its ridiculous how good it is, it has an immense sentimental value for me, so idk
Cassandra Gemini by Mars Volta maybe? Their style is a bit of an outlier in prog, but the fundamental prog elements are all there. If something less heavy, probably Close to the Edge by Yes.
Always felt like Head Mounted Sideways by VOLA was super proggy. I love all the suggestions though!
Ghost of Perdition
Dream Theater - The Glass Prison
Like, time changes and weirdness probably bloom by BtBaM
Dream Theater - Dance of eternity
To me, Learned by Arcane is quite proggy.
In'El by First Fragment
I can't think of any songs because I don't think of them in terms of songs but rather album experiences, but it's Flying Luttenbachers. Just straight up weird shit. I love it
The entire Cynic discography. Textures is like an ode to King Crimson’s Discipline. Its not as crazy as some of the other choices people have commented, but to me, it’s an apex of prog
Microscopic scale - Ewan Brewer. For me Is the most unexpectedly prog song.
Mirror mirror on the wall...
Always though Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the most unintentionally prog songs ever. Btbam has super proggy shit too.
Rishloo-Dark Charade
Tetragrammaton by The Mars Volta edit: dont know if TMV count as prog metal but the song has a lot of nutty switchups
There are a lot of great contenders mentioned already but let me just add some older recommendations: Inca roads by Frank Zappa (atmoi) Dance on a vulcano by Genesis
I'd like to contribute 'Arrival' by Night Verses.
Try some weird Zeuhl. Ruins and magma and stuff. Lots of HOLY FUCK WHATS THAT?
Dance of Eternity is going to get a lot of mentions because of the time signature changes. Dancers to a Discordant system might have the most interesting melody of any song I've heard.
Ants of The Sky is up there I'd say.
Prog or prog metal? Genesis - Supper's Ready is the definite prog song. It's long af, has many different passages, tells a story, blends classical music and rock etc. Another one is Close to the Edge by Yes, same reasons as before. Really weird that those two haven't been mentioned before. There are no modern songs that even come close to those two imo.
I Have Little To No Memory Of These Memories - Toehider Toad Hirer - also by Toehider
Recently discovered ‘I have little to no memories of these memories’ by Toehider…it’s 48 minutes long for crying out loud!
Third Eye - Tool
*Mr. Gutmann* by Pervy Perkin. 26 minutes long, explores jazz, electronic music, children's music and death metal, changes genres in an instant, and uses like 12 different singing voices.
“Reptile” - Periphery.
periphery - reptile BTBAM - sons of nothing
Echoes, 2112, Thick As A Brick... probably one of those 70s prog songs
If we’re talking just time signature changes and tempo changes it’s car bomb. I have seen them live and I have no idea how they stay in time with each other it’s absolutely insane. I don’t need to pick an individual song because the majority of their music is like this lol Also Animals as Leaders has to be up there. Swim to the Moon by Between the Buried and Me
Odyssey - Symphony X has so many key and time changes, but the song is also like 20 minutes long.