Progressive Metal 1990s Albums

Tuonela keeps Amorphis’s heavy guitar foundation while giving greater weight to quiet keyboards, folk-tinged melody and a submerged atmosphere.

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory joins complex rhythm, fluent soloing and memorable vocal melody into a single narrative arc.

Fields of Yesterday highlights Lillian Axe’s shaded melodies and carefully shaped guitar arrangements.

Q2K reduces some of Queensrÿche’s more elaborate progressive machinery and presents vocals and riffs in a more direct rock form.

Fear builds dramatic melodic metal from thick keyboard orchestration, hard guitar and expansive vocal melody.

Fireworks threads Brazilian rhythmic character, progressive movement and delicate melody through Angra’s power-metal drive.

Infinity joins Devin Townsend’s layered guitars, unpredictable movement and fragile, highly melodic writing.

Return to Heaven Denied combines fast guitar, vivid keyboards and soaring vocals in Labyrinth’s dramatic power-metal style.

First Breath is Mercenary’s debut, combining thrash/death-metal sharpness with melodic guitar and shifting arrangements.

Twilight in Olympus joins classical harmony, intricate rhythm and powerful vocals in Symphony X’s progressive-metal world.

Crossing the Rubicon is Armageddon’s debut, joining aggressive guitar, rough vocals and melancholy lead work.

Ocean Machine: Biomech joins Devin Townsend’s huge guitar layers, wide space and fragile melody.

Falling into Infinity finds Dream Theater tightening its long-form construction and trying to place technique and melody inside more compact songs.

A Pleasant Shade of Gray follows one extended composition through anxiety, isolation and quiet release.

Hear in the Now Frontier finds Queensrÿche reducing some of its elaborate progressive construction in favor of drier guitar and more direct songs.

Paradox combines thick keyboard work, dramatic chorus and heavy guitar in a concept-driven Royal Hunt record.

The Divine Wings of Tragedy unites sharp riffing, classical-flavored keyboards and complex development in Symphony X’s major leap forward.

Elegy keeps the weight of death metal while opening the music to clean vocals, airy keyboards and folk-colored melody.

Holy Land layers power-metal speed with classical grandeur, Brazilian rhythm, choral color and acoustic detail.

No Limits presents Italian power metal directly through fast twin guitars, bright keyboards and open, soaring vocals.

Moving Target places D.C. Cooper’s soaring, dramatic vocal at the center of Royal Hunt’s keyboard-led architecture.

The Damnation Game gains the powerful vocal of Russell Allen and brings Symphony X’s neoclassical guitar, heavy riffs and progressive construction into sharper focus.

Tales from the Thousand Lakes finds AMORPHIS in a phase that joins death-metal weight, Finnish folk-like melody and mythic atmosphere with a density that made it a m

Awake finds DREAM THEATER in a phase that steps away from the openness of its predecessor and turns inward through heavier guitars, dense keyboards and more tense constru

Inside Out finds FATES WARNING in a phase that lets Fates Warning's complex meters and tightly built ensemble work flow quietly inside songs instead of displaying th

Promised Land finds QUEENSRŸCHE in a phase that deliberately steps away from the broad success of Empire and explores a darker, more inward sound.

Clown in the Mirror finds ROYAL HUNT in a phase that sharpens Royal Hunt's neoclassical speed and dramatic melody around André Andersen's keyboards.

Symphony X finds SYMPHONY X in a phase that joins neoclassical guitar, symphonic keyboard color and complex construction to present an early blueprint for Symphony X

Angels Cry captures ANGRA at a point where the later image is not yet fully fixed.

Psychoschizophrenia finds LILLIAN AXE in a phase that keeps Lillian Axe’s melodic hard-rock instinct while stepping into darker texture and more complicated emotional mov

The Karelian Isthmus is Amorphis’s debut of sinking heavy riffs, low growls and desolate atmosphere.

Images and Words joins complex rhythm, precise ensemble work and broad, singable melody at a very high level.

Poetic Justice connects thick guitar riffing with a more melancholy melodic sense.

Land of Broken Hearts is Royal Hunt’s debut, built around André Andersen’s thick keyboard work, heavy guitar, dramatic chorus and Henrik Brockmann’s powerful vocal.

Parallels keeps Fates Warning’s complex rhythm and extended development while giving the songs a clearer outline around Ray Alder’s vocal.

Empire finds QUEENSRŸCHE in a phase that joins intricate movement and high-level musicianship to vocal melody and dramatic structure.