Possible Problem With Modern Prog

1) Production/mixing. There's a lot of difference in how things sound from album to album, but also from era to era. That's not to say that all albums these days have production/mixing (or whatever, I'm not an audio engineer I don't know what the most correct term to use would be) I don't enjoy, or that all albums from back then had good production, but it does play a part. I'm a headphone user so I especially despise brickwalled/LOUD albums, and those are just more common these days than in the 70's. Production styles go in and out of style. I happen to enjoy the 70's a lot in that regard.

2) The definition of progressive rock. There's rock music that happens to be progressive, and music that falls into the genre known as prog(ressive) rock. Of course, there's also the umbrella term progressive rock, but if we're just focusing on progressive rock as a genre meaning the kind of music Genesis, Yes, King Crimson etc made back in the 70's (yes I know those bands have their differences too but I'm sure you know what I mean), I find that modern examples are usually not as inspired as the oldies. I don't know what it is (it's probably also got to do with production tbh), but you can just kind of...feel that they're derivative even if you can't put the finger on where they're deriving what from. And if you can, it's even worse. My point is, I personally get much more satisfaction from modern bands that actually do something new, like, say, black midi, than bands that are, e.g. Yes but now in the 21st century. Well, Yes still exist in the 21st century but you get my point. There's plenty of cool progressive rock as in, progressive rock the umbrella term. But I'm not as impressed by most artists that are just repeating the kinds of music bands were making 50+ years ago.

3) Sample bias. There's a ton of artists nowadays and it's easier to distribute music and get the word out via the internet, tons of genres and subgenres, and like nick_h_nz pointed out, there's those old albums that always will find a new audience because the previous audience will keep them alive. But that's also due to those albums standing the test of time and it just being a different era. Plus bands like Genesis, Yes, Tull, ELP, etc. are the foundation of the whole genre. Rock music is just in a different place these days - hell, music in general is. There aren't really those select few big artists that define modern prog as was the case for 70's prog.

That said, this site has been good for finding modern artists that I do like. But there are differences between eras, and in my experience the chances of liking any random album from the 70's I try is much higher than liking any random album from, say, the 2010's.

So while the current crop of proggers are beyond musically proficient, I don't think they had the same steady diet of music other than rock growing up, and I think that shows in their compositions. 

You got that right, I miss the humanity of the old recordings--  tubes, mics that'd seen better days, 4-tracks, hungover singers, it all added a rich imperfection that much rock lacks now.

Though they were saying the same thing in 1969.

Recording music in a live studio setting back in the day was an art form. How the band, instruments and room was mic'd up is something totally lost for the most part in today's recordings. Main reason is that so much is done via home studios or pieced together via emailed music files. The magic a band has when all together in a studio for 1-2 weeks or longer recording an album is not the case anymore.

Digital has created the push 3, 4 buttons and boom you have a "song", method. As well the loudness wars are still in full force, which totally sucks out all dynamics and everything becomes buried. It's like the saying goes "garbage in garbage out..." 

There are some modern prog bands that do spend the time and energy to engineer and produce well recorded albums...Those albums a joy to listen to.

I don't think there are problems with any age. Music evolve, and people listen to what they like. If someone won't put on anything produced in 1980 or later, by all means. Same goes for someone only listening to post 2000 music.

I like old prog and modern prog. I listen more to new prog than old since I enjoy finding new music and don't want to listen to the same ~50 albums from the 70's that I like over and over. My musical is also always evolving. 20 years ago I was listening to Metallica and Dr. Dre. 10 years ago it was Porcupine Tree and Opeth. At some point it became more 70's prog, then working my way up to the 2000's again. Today it's a mix of everything, but the majority is music released the last five years.

Good points made above, especially what the musicians were influenced by. I took a listen to something random above, and it just sounded like Rush.

Once a genre is defined, it seems to become self-conscious and management and even fans might start to expect things in the same ball-park. Even prog-rock bands. YES certainly changed in the 80s, as did many bands, which I think is ... condescending. "We'll give them what they like". Well, we liked your "far-out" stuff, and it was what got you to the top, so don't worry about something being too astray - you can cultivate an audience. It's like when you go to a concert, and a band plays songs they've never played. The "suits" think, "Decibels of fans screaming is down 10%, no good", not realizing (or not wanting to take chances - the minute you lose credibility) that people are half stunned, trying to take it all in. Sometimes a song needs a handful of listening. It's no different when a movie is marketed to a certain audience, like a gangster movie (Mikey and Nicky), but the movie is more dialogue-driven, slow tempo, and they were expecting Cagney or The Godfather.

For anyone not sure about production/engineering, ask questions. I (or maybe someone else) can be specific. How something is recorded is one thing, but then you have some who keep computerizing it, where the drums don't sound like drums.. Then you have the mix. Volume levels. Drums seem very loud, vocals are buried (it was the opposite 60 yrs ago, when the bass/drums were so low, vocals high - pop/rock music, anyway). I like some reverb (echo), but again, it's all how you use it, which can separate the good from the great.