I realize there are some omissions (obviously), but if you want to point them out, please bring an argument at least and I'll bow my head in shame  and if the argument is great, then you'll get some  from me. 

debut albums poll in a couple of days.

Thanks for participating. 

There is no such thing as "Christopher Lee & Rhapsody of Fire". If I remember right Lee did some spoken word on a Rhapsody album. That's all. 

That's okay. I'll save my vote for Christopher Lee & Rhapsody of Fire for the next time there's a full moon. 

first one is not metal and second one is not prog. 

Christopher Lee & Rhapsody of Fire - The Bloody Verdict of Verdun

epic heavy/Euro-power at best, nothing progressive though. 

Oh well. C'est La Vie. It looks like I'm not progressing very well with my wish to see Christopher Lee included in the Progressive Metal category. 

If anyone ever suggests Christopher Lee's band, it will be the easiest "no". And I respect Lee for collaborating with metal musicians and creating music. 

You can't get more 'metal' than a trombone with the first and the second one are undoubtedly innovators so by any definition they are 'progressive'

I remember when Christ.0 was released... I just played it on repeat, on and off all summer long...

I liked PNC very much during the noughties, but I was never really persuaded of their Prog-Metal credentials, more heavy prog to me, quite clearly Rush influenced..

After some reflexion, I decided to choose Ayreon. Is it the best of all? I really don't know. After all this is a personal project of one man and not properly a band. But, this really don't matter to me. What really matter is that they were one of the bands that brought me to the prog metal with Dream Theater, Pain Of Salvation and Opeth. They were the main responsible for I listen to prog metal and I like it. So, I think it's perfectly fair to choose one of them. Again, a very difficult choice. But, finally, I decided to choose Ayreon. Why? Because I think this was an amazing project very difficult to create, a real breath of fresh air in prog, bring to us some of the best things made in the past, the rock operas in a modern way. It was really a very challenging project with great possibilities of being a real fiasco, what it was almost, as Arjen said.

So, as mentioned above, my vote goes to Ayreon and Arjen, himself. He is one of the artists I most admire in the prog world. He was able to bring to Ayreon some of the best and most known names in prog, singers and musicians. And this wasn't and easy task to do, surely. He is really an incredible visionary person. I really take my hat off to him.

Instead of a poll, this might make a better tournament bracket shootout...with the loser bracket champ meeting the winner bracket Champ in a Finale.  

I can't visualize it. 

I'm gonna do rounds, like I did with the neo-prog bands.

Some bands will "disappear" as they have 2 or 3 album and so on. I'll stop when i see that people lose interest I guess. 

then

Haken

2- Ayreon

3- Seventh Wonder (It's not in the poll and it's an amazing band!)

4- Fates Warning

5- Riverside

6- Circus Maximus

7- Dream Theater

8 - Death - Especially for "The Sound of Perseverance"

9 - Pain of Salvation 

10- Vanden Plas

you're right, almost made the list. 

Obviously it was impossible to please everyone, some omissions will be there. 

Excellent poll Cristi!!!!!!

It´s almost impossible for me to choose only one option, i got in to the progressive rock thanks to Fates Warning (No Exit) Queenrysche (Operation Mindcrime) and Psychotic Waltz at the end of the 80`s, those 3 bands along with Watchtower, Voivod, Mekong Delta (who came from the Thrash metal scene) i consider pillars in progressive metal.

I voted for a band that goes unnoticed and i consider it another cornerstone of the progressive metal scene, Sieges Even, their third album (A Sense of Change) from 1991 is a wonderful album, changing their sound closely related to tech thrash to a very personal and beatiful, anticipating what was to come later with bands like Dream Theater, Threshold, Poverty´s No Crime, Dali`s Dilemma, Ice Age, etc.

Really love Opeth, In The Woods... (specially Omnio), Borknagar, Green Carnation, Death, Atheist, Cynic, etc.

I forgot about Voivod. 

As groundbreaking as they were, Watchtower released two albums and later on a couple of EPs. So I replaced them with Voivod. 

I was thinking about why Riverside were doing so well here.... most obviously, they are a great band; their pedigree and output is beyond reproach in my view... but I think it's also because they don't have much competition amongst the other names here. They would be the choice for fans of the whole Post-Metal sound, besides proggers who don't like prog metal as a genre. I wonder for instance, if Anathema had been included, would their vote have been eroded? Just a thought...

the popularity of Ayreon on the other hand, is quite simply beyond me... 

I thought of them, but then again they were never progressive metal and after Judgement, there's barely any metal in there. Same with The Gathering which I love even more than Anathema. 

Thanks for participating and discussing. 

I like  Anathema too, but in my Judgement, most of the unknown bands in this poll would be an anathema to me. 

I don't see you listening to 90s Anathema, when they were initially death-doom and then slowly got the death metal away. Even the gothic doom Anathema of second half of the 90s and the atmospheric metal of Judgement. 

You're also quick to judge. You say you like Ayreon and Dream theater. well, if you do, you should like most bands in this list, theoretically. 

Theoretically, I wasn't expecting to like Marillion, based on past experience, but happily, I turned out to be totally wrong, so there's a good chance I'd like many of the unknown bands in your poll too. 

In my judgement, Judgement is Anathema's best album out of the three albums I have in a 3-CD box set. 

So funny that you call these bands unknown, when most are some of the most known, successful and beloved in the genre.  You could have easily said progressive metal is not your thing and I would have believed you. 

I don't really know enough about Anathema to run a poll, although not knowing much about modern prog has never stopped me running a poll before. 

They're only unknown bands to me personally - not to almost everyone else here. 

I only know two bands in this poll - Ayreon & Dream Theater - and they're both favourites of mine, so there's a very  good chance that Progressive Metal IS my thing, without even knowing it. 

Here I naively thought all the voters would express an opinion. I always do that...

Symphony X

Fates Warning

Some people would rather avoid the controversy that surrounds writing a comment! 

what would be the controversy here? 

Amen to that! I thought Rick would have jumped down your throat, the very moment you posted Opeth! 

Some forum members just feel that justifying their choices can become too much like hard work... 

I haven't asked for a reason for the chosen band. That's optional, but I was hoping voters would post the name of the bands. 

This was a very badly justified vote. 

I wouldn't say that. It's logical and i understand. 

I got one. Maybe Opeth is awesome!