Top Favorite Old-school Prog Metal Albums ... rank them

[brendontowle]

Great lists!! It is so fun to read them and remember all those great albums. I have also learned some new names to check out - Souljourners, Alpha Galates, Lord of Mushrooms, Ascendia, Vox Tempus, and Lilian Axe.

My list:
1. Dream Theater - Images and Word
2. Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry
3. Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
4. Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace
5. Spiral Architect - Sceptic's Universe
6. Pain of Salvation - Remedy Lane
7. Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape
8. Heavens Cry - Food for Thought Substitute
9. Vauxdvihl - To Dimension Logic
10. Secrecy - Art in Motion
11. Circus Maximus - Nine
12. Vanden Plas - The Seraphic Clockwork
13. Ivanhoe - Symbols of Time
14. Eldritch - El Nino
15. Lethal - Programmed

Giedrius

Great list! I'm familiar with most of it, and interested in checking out the rest. But, I have a question for you. I'd divide your list roughly into three different types of prog:

Melodic: DT, FW, QR, PoS, SW, Vauxdvihl, Circus Maximus, Vanden Plas, Lethal
Technical/Experimental: Psychotic Waltz, Spiral Architect, Heavens Cry
Stuff I don't know: Secrecy, Ivanhoe, Eldritch

If you had to put the stuff I don't know into one camp or the other, where would you put them?

[Sir Exar Kun]

Melodic: DT, FW, QR, PoS, SW, Vauxdvihl, Circus Maximus, Vanden Plas, Lethal
Technical/Experimental: Psychotic Waltz, Spiral Architect, Heavens Cry
Stuff I don't know: Secrecy, Ivanhoe, Eldritch

If you had to put the stuff I don't know into one camp or the other, where would you put them?

Eldritch and Ivanhoe are both very power metal oriented, straddling the line between prog and power. Both are GREAT albums!

[brendontowle]

Melodic: DT, FW, QR, PoS, SW, Vauxdvihl, Circus Maximus, Vanden Plas, Lethal
Technical/Experimental: Psychotic Waltz, Spiral Architect, Heavens Cry
Stuff I don't know: Secrecy, Ivanhoe, Eldritch

If you had to put the stuff I don't know into one camp or the other, where would you put them?

Eldritch and Ivanhoe are both very power metal oriented, straddling the line between prog and power. Both are GREAT albums!

Thanks! That helps.

[giedrius]

Thank you As for Circus Maximus, I like the first three quite a lot, so it was a close call and on another day I maybe would have chosen Isolate.

[giedrius]

Secrecy's album is a bit older than the rest, to me they display a very subtle blend of progressive/power metal with a little bit of thrash.

Ivanhoe was influenced by Dream Theater "Images and Words" a lot, especially their second album Symbols of Time.