{"id":6641,"date":"2026-03-16T13:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/03\/16\/11-prog-metal-bands-whose-first-album-is-their-best\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:10:23","slug":"11-prog-metal-bands-whose-first-album-is-their-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/2026\/03\/16\/11-prog-metal-bands-whose-first-album-is-their-best\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Prog Metal Bands Whose First Album Is Their Best"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Here are 11 prog metal bands whose first album is their best!<\/p>\n<p>Loudwire has already looked at a ton of rock and metal bands whose <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/metal-bands-second-album-best\/\" target=\"_blank\">second<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/metal-bands-third-album-best\/\" target=\"_blank\">third<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/rock-metal-bands-fourth-album-best\/\" target=\"_blank\">fourth<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/rock-metal-bands-fifth-album-best\/\" target=\"_blank\">fifth<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/rock-metal-bands-final-album-best\/\" target=\"_blank\">final<\/a> albums are their best, and we\u2019ve also explored <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/best-prog-metal-debut-albums\/\" target=\"_blank\">the best debut LPs from progressive metal bands<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, we thought it was time to combine those ideas by scouring the scene to find a handful of progressive metal bands who flew the highest with their initial full-length collections.<\/p>\n<p>This was harder to do than it may sound, not only because most artists in the subgenre released better records further into their careers but also because we limited ourselves to considering only bands who have at least <em>two<\/em> LPs. (Otherwise, it\u2019d be cheating because their first album is also their only album, so there\u2019d be nothing else to judge.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/most-collected-prog-metal-albums-discogs\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Most Collected Albums by 11 Big Prog Metal Bands (On Discogs)<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Therefore, you shouldn\u2019t expect more than one or two big names on this list since, you know, we\u2019re not exactly going to include <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/dream-theater\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dream Theater<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/opeth\/\" target=\"_blank\">Opeth<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/fates-warning\" target=\"_blank\">Fates Warning<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/mastodon\" target=\"_blank\">Mastodon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/tags\/tool\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tool<\/a> just to be edgy and contrarian.<\/p>\n<p>We know that our picks will be divisive, too, as some of them <em>barely<\/em> beat other options from the same discography. So, feel free to chime in with your thoughts on how many of these we got right and how many we got wrong, as well as how many of these albums and artists you\u2019re only just discovering!<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s get into our batch of progressive metal bands whose first album is still their best!<\/p>\n<p>Let us know if you agree with our picks!<\/p>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">11 Prog Metal Bands Whose First Album Is Their Best<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>Great prog metal bands who never topped their debut discs!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/author\/jordanblum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Blum<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">The 11 Best Prog Metal Albums of the 2020s (So Far)<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>Keep scrolling to see the 11 greatest prog metal LPs of the decade (so far)!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/author\/jordanblum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Blum<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">The 11 Best Prog Metal Concept Albums of All Time (Ranked)<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>Keep scrolling to see the greatest concept albums in prog metal history!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/author\/jordanblum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Blum<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/rest\/carbon\/api\/scripts.js?mver=168&#038;gver=9&#038;bid=366&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fbtloader.com%2Ftag%3Fo%3D5642230212591616%26upapi%3Dtrue&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.p-n.io%2Fpushly-sdk.min.js%3Fdomain_key%3DRRv3qtOHmtGBG8AXI2xRyXQoxt5kKsM0YQjZ&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Ftownsquare.media%2Fpublic%2Fresources%2Fjs%2Fpubcid.min.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fapis.google.com%2Fjs%2Fplatform.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Fsdk.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pinterest.com%2Fjs%2Fpinit.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer data-osano=\"ESSENTIAL\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/loudwire.com\/prog-metal-bands-first-album-best\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are 11 prog metal bands whose first album is their best! Loudwire has already looked at a ton of rock and metal bands whose second, third, fourth, fifth and final albums are their best, and we\u2019ve also explored the best debut LPs from progressive metal bands. So, we thought it was time to combine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/worldpostone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}