https://ultimateclassicrock.com/progressive-rock-artists/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ugh&utm_term=UCR" rel="nofollow - Ultimate Classic Rock-Prog Top 50 List

Not a bad list at all.

Better than the usual fluff. I agree the variety is nice. I actually love albums from every artist listed!

Of course nobody is going to agree on every band included but not bad!

KC instead of Yes as #1 was a surprise.

Yea was expecting to see either Genesis or Yes as numero uno.......

Logan wrote: The top five and King Crimson at number one did not surprise me. I do think KC more deserving than Yes because I do think it has been more progressive, which included being varied in approach. And I don't think it ever sunk to the same lows as Yes or Genesis which were very low indeed, imo.

That's an EXCELLENT point. A prog artist should be calculated in its greatness by the average sum of its totality. KC never released anything as horrible as Genesis and even though i like pop Yes, KC does rule as far as prog longevity NOT to mention they got it started in 69 as a real movement.

No Mahavishnu Orchestra, no Return to Forever, no Brand X, NYET! 

I'd rather have both, since both are pretty important acts. And also I like them, so there.

1. King Crimson

2. Pink Floyd

3. Frank Zappa

4. Van der Graaf Generator

5. Opeth

6. Magma

7. Porcupine Tree

8. Haken

Given my extensive collection, that leaves out a lot of really great prog artists. Goes to show how many great bands there are ... here's some of my very favorite artists that are missing. And of course I'm not supposing that these artists should also be *YOUR* favorite prog artists - I have various biases :-) 

1. Steven Wilson

2. Dream Theater

3. Devin Townsend

4. Ayreon

5. Neal Morse

6. Pain of Salvation

7. Mr. Bungle

8. Big Big Train

9. Between the Buied and Me

10. Mike Keneally

11. Symphony X

12. John Zorn

14. Shadow Gallery

15. Threshold

16. IQ

17. Heaven's Cry

18. Kayo Dot

19. Queensryche

20. Roine Stolt

21. The Decemberists

22. Gojira

23. Anathema

24. Katatonia

25. The Gathering

26. Liquid Tension Experiment

27. Radiohead

28. Beyond Twilight

29. Fates Warning

30. Steve Vai

31. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

32. Cynic

33. Headspace

34. Mogwai

35. Crippled Black Phoenix

36. Riverside

37. The Flower Kings

38. Oceansize

39. Beardfish

40. Heart of Cygnus

41. Amplifier

42. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ No way. TMO might have been more important from a formational perspective, but Haken compose actual songs. Fortunately you usually don't have to apply this zero-sum mentality in music, so I'm glad I can simply listen to both

Haken is woefully overrated to my ears. As a musician i can hear too many blatant rif offs from other artists. The Mountain is the worst offender of all. To me a band that hits a list like this must be totally original. Haken isn't even a blip on my radar although i like a few albums. Another one i would totally ditch is Coheed and Cambria. In this case i just don't think they're of the same caliber as the other artists listed. Just my personal choice :)

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ Interesting - what would be the most evident ripped-off tracks for The Mountain?

Most obvious? Gentle Giant. I just revisited that album recently to see if i changed my mind. I like it less every time i hear it. I do like the first two albums and "Virus." They're just too inconsistent for my ears but i do understand that they are popular :)

O666 wrote: Tool?! Come on , What was their measure?! Progressive Rock top 50 list with Tool and without Mahavishnu Orchestra!!! Where is KC and Sunshine band?!!!

I can understand why Tool was added even if i'm not the hugest Tool fan. I do like their albums though. Tool was instrumental in marrying prog with alternative rock which fit in perfect with the 90s. Their sound was totally original at the time and even though it sounds repetitive a lot of the time, it's loaded with subtleties that made them quite innovative. The time signature changes are of the chart

Looks quite good to me if using a more strict definition of Progressive Rock, even I would not include Supertramp.

Gentle Giant? Knots/Cockroach King, I can see that. But many bands are doing vocal fugues in that style. And GG hardly invented that, it dates back to one J.S. Bach 

I would include though Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, as I don't see them to be less Progressive Rock than Soft Machine, Gong, Can, Tangerine Dream or Tool.

While I can tell that 38 artists from the list are represented in my rather small collection, and I listen to I guess all of them at list once in a while.

The difference is pillaging from a classical composer from hundreds of years ago is what prog is all about (along with jazz). Pillaging from artists of the same era is more blatantly apparent. Also i find most Haken compositions underwhelming. I don't get the appeal. Always a few great tracks and then a bunch of fluff.

^

QUOTE it’s fully possible to come up with a song such as «Cockroach King» without even having heard «Knots» QUOTE

Not a chance. They have GG influences everywhere. That's just the most blatant. They also rip of Porcupine Tree, Van Der GG, etc. Personally i'm not impressed. Sure they do a decent job at it but do they deserve to be on a top prog band list of all time? I don't. Even Anglagard or Wobbler would've been a better pick simply for reinvigorating prog in a way that sounds fresh despite the apparent influences.

The list should've included the Cardiacs! The most famous and best at fusing prog and punk.

Also Univers Zero for its amazing chamber prog would've been great too.

I don't think Eloy is worthy either actually. Too Pink Floyd all the time.

I would've added Hatfield & the North which created one of the highest possible expressions of 70s prog.

I wouldn't mind seeing their list expand to 100!

Ummmm.....THIS is an actual composed song, and it is progressive as hell!  Dig the choral vocals! 

I would certainly have included those 3, and near the top.

I tend to agree about Haken here, I am not sure about the GG rip off as I'm not a GG listener I may have to try that comparison. I would agree more if the UCR said they picked Haken due to the first 2-3 albums as the last ones have been heavy thrashy metal-prog kinda.....I'm not a fan anymore. For me the Mountain is what I like about Haken and the first two records.

Of all these lists that have come out I am feeling this one is close to the best coming from UCR writers. You could use the list to listen to the core of what progressive rock is all about. I would not have included Coheed as well....I liken them to more emo metal than prog. The storylines Claudio writes are pretty good and the mainstream consider them prog...but I don't.

More or less I agree with you and I didn't mean Tool is not Prog or Bad . Its about TOP 50 of Progressive Rock artists and I stand on my opinion : Tool don't one of top 50 Progressive Rock band/Artists ever.

Is Flower Kings JR/Fusion? are you sure tool progger than them?

I think (apart of top 5 ) this list is funny 

Surely Dream Theater should be there, as the ones who popularized Prog Metal. 

Possibly IQ as well as they have been the staple of Neo Prog, with hindsight possibly even more than Marillion.

And ELP should be much higher as they were among the big 5 when in their peak, but yeah, we are already used to that aren't we?

Interesting - I focus more on releases than on artists, and that also means that when I'm asked to rate prog artists, I would look at their most progressive releases rather than the totality of their work.

Disagree. So because GG were one of the first (and best) prog artists to do vocal fugues, that is now off-limits for all other contemporary artists who follow, or else they're thiefs? Makes no sense to me at all. As a musician I know that there are only 12 tones, basically. Everybody is "stealing" from everyone, and when you listen to any rock recording, except maybe for microtonal stuff you can be pretty certain that someone else did something very similar before. 

Inspired songwriting, great musicianship, great production (in that order) - that's what makes the difference IMHO. I think that Haken excel in these domains, but you're welcome to disagree. 

Listen to the Avkrvst album, that's what blatantly copying other artists (Opeth, SW/PT) sounds like. What Haken are doing, in my humble opinion, is paying homage to their favorite artists. They are very open about their influences, but I would argue that whenever they are doing that, they are also adding a new twist of their own, which Avkrvst fail to do. And that's all that prog artists can do, essentially - process all their influences into something that is not an exact copy of previous things, but not something completely new either.
 

Exactly, they have GG *influences*. Like every good artists is influenced by other artists that came before. It is *how* you show these influences which makes all the differences. Listen to the new Avkrvst album as an example for how, in my opinion, you blatantly "rip off" other artists (Opeth, SW/PT). I would argue that Haken add sufficient input of their own, but of course that is a subjective call, and you're welcome to disagree. But bands like Anglagard and Wobbler are also showing their influences on their sleeves, and while I enjoy listening to them, I would hardly call their music "fresh" when compared with bands like Haken, BtBaM or Devin Townsend. 

even further back to one Carlo Gesualdo (1566 - 1613), who killed his wife and her lover when he caught them in the act and in repentance wrote lots of beautiful madrigals. here an example:

http://www.a-misson.eu/Pub/09_Counterpoint%20C/The%20Study%20of%20Fuge,%20by%20Alfred%20Mann.pdf" rel="nofollow - http://www.a-misson.eu/Pub/09_Counterpoint%20C/The%20Study%20of%20Fuge,%20by%20Alfred%20Mann.pdf (page 9)

If to look at this list from inter-subjective point of view, as said already I find it to be quite good, but it could surely also be better, so I wouldn't put all too much weight on it.

Inspired songwriting is exactly what Haken lacks. Sorry but Haken reeks of GG ripoffs throughout its career. I'm underwhelmed. The newest album is downright boring for my ears. Not gonna argue about it. If you like them, it's ok :)

Well, it's a contrarian opinion, and you're entitled to it. 

I appreciate Haken a lot for the very reason that I don't like a lot of metal. You are very correct sir.

The confusion with Haken is that their most popular and well liked album (The Mountain) is also their least original. I pointed this out in my own review a while back. I much prefer Affinity and Vector and even the current album over it. Virus I was less keen on but it still has a couple of killer tracks and is not a write off by any means. I value them as much as I value Eloy for instance. I do like bands that occupy their own space and Haken do this most of the time extremely well.

I just think that Haken has extreme potential and it's not quite living up to it. For my sensitive ears they often throw spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks instead of cohesively developing their ideas into a way that is truly their own. So far my favorite album is Visions. I like about half of The Mountain. It's not that they don't have some brilliant ideas that pan out, it's just that they are inconsistent. I'm not a contrarian at all. Many share this same opinion which is why many of their albums are rated low. IMHO there are many more prog metal bands that are both more innovative and more successful in crafting their own sound. Leprous for example is much better at creating a similar approach to prog metal.

But to say they are leagues more innovative than TFK is kinda laughable. I doubt Haken will ever reach a pinnacle like Star Dust We Are, Unfold The Future or Flower Power.

I would have much preferred to see Riverside mentioned instead of Haken, Riverside has been as consistent as you can get....

I guess I would ask to define "innovative". What is Haken doing that others have not done already like Riverside did 5-8 years earlier? Leprous is more innovative than Haken if you ask me....

One of the weak spots of this Top 50 Progressive Rock Artists list is that it doesn't show how much Prog Metal has been appreciated 

the last more than 30 years, even its definition of Progressive Rock includes this sub-genre. Something similar can be said concerning 

Electronic Prog and Krautrock.

Well, to my ears, what Haken does better than Riverside (usually) is make their tracks more interesting and varied. Riverside HAVE been consistent, and I haven't detected much of an evolution in their sound. Now, the evolution can be for better OR for worse. And that'll be up to personal taste as well. I liked the progression of Haken's music from Aquarius through Affinity (Visions probably also my favorite, though I think The Mountain is their most quintessential album), as well as the Restoration EP. I'm not as big on Vector/Virus. Fauna was a grower. Riverside, on the other hand... I can't really think of too many of their tracks and hear them in my head. Granted, I have spent less time getting into them. But I do respect them, and their atmospherics are well produced. But they're missing the exciting factor. Once again, this is all subjective. But Haken have remained influential amongst many newer prog/metal groups. I have read less on Riverside's influence (though they certainly have been influential).

The Flower Kings on the other hand? How many retro symph/neo bands cite TFK specifically as influences? I'm sure they like them, who wouldn't if you play that kind of music? But most of those groups get right to the heart of it and cite Yes before they'd cite TFK.

At the same time, quite a few bands on this list obviously can't be said to be among the 50 most appreciated Prog bands all-time 

which is maybe the weakest point, as it could be argued that these three sub-genres are less relevant in Progressive Rock context.

At least they are all prog artists, regardless the position in the list.

-- INCLUDING VANGELIS -- (just to renew the debate)

Haken do not sound like Riverside at all - now I'm not sure whether you're just trolling 

Leprous are definitely cool, and the vocals are somewhat unique. Definitely innovative. But Haken are branching out more and more into Jazz-Fusion and Djent. Aquarius had a unique concept, and it was cool how they made Cockroach King into its own story across several album. Then there was the 80s-retro thing with Affinity. Haven't checkout out Leprous in great detail yet, but that's a tall order to beat ...

Riverside are a beast of a band and should be included but I dont' see them competing with Haken who are more metal orientated. Riverside are more from the Led Zep strand of rock music to my ears.

let me guess Yes, Genesis and Floyd

This, pretty much.

I find RYM's and PA's top lists to be clearly more representative for the generel appreciation of various Prog artists, even 

they're not easy to recalculate from albums to bands, and there's quite a difference in their definition of Progressive Rock.

David_D wrote: I find RYM's and PA's top lists to be clearly more representative for the generel appreciation of various Prog artists...

Well, duh. Of course they are more representative since the RYM and PA lists are based on a popularity amongst their respective communities (votes of their members), whereas - as they clearly state - the Ultimate Classic Rock list is based on the opinion of just a couple of music critics. Their list does not aim to be representative of anything else than their (those few critics) opinion. Don't read anything else into it.

I'm mystified as to why The Mars Volta and Tool are rated so highly too, especially considering they have about as much appeal to me as a rusty old spanner. 

good to make this clear and keep it in mind

      It's maybe more understandable when looking at RYM's chart:

When comparing RYM's chart with PA's top list with regard to Tool and The Mars Volta, there's a big difference concerning 

their ranking, but I guess that RYM's chart is closer to the general appreciation of these two bands than PA's top list - even 

not necessarily among proggers when talking about Tool.

Anyway, I find also UCR's ranking of Tool being definitely too high if it's understood as the degree of appreciation of Tool 

among proggers.