For those of us who love prog rock, we live in the best of times. There’s been more creativity in the years since Marillion’s Brave (1994) came out then ever before in rock history–at least over such an extended period of time. As I sit at my laptop at 9,500 feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountains, I quickly typed out my favorites. I’m sure I’m missing some–these were off the top of my head.
Anthema, We’re Here Because We’re Here
Ayreon, Human Equation (and, well, everything. . .)
Ayreon, Universal Migrator
Big Big Train, Grimspound/Second Brightest Star (and, well, everything. . .)
Big Big Train, English Electric Full Power
Big Big Train, Underfall Yard
Cosmograf, Capacitor
Dave Kerzner, Static
The Fierce and the Dead, Spooky Action (and, well, everything. . .)
Flower Kings, Paradox Hotel
Flower Kings, Space Revolver
Galahad, Empires Never Last
Galahad, Battle Scars
Galahad, Beyond the Realms of Euphoria
Gazpacho, Missa Antropos (and, well, everything. . .)
Gazpacho, Night
Gazpacho, Soyuz
Glass Hammer, Chronometree
Glass Hammer, Inconsolable Secret
Glass Hammer, Valkyrie (and, well, everything. . .)
Headspace, All That You Fear is Gone
Kate Bush, Aerial
Kevin McCormick, With the Coming of Evening
Kevin McCormick, Squall
Marillion, Afraid of Sunlight (and, well, everything. . .)
Marillion, Brave
Marillion, FEAR
Marillion, Marbles
Mew, And The Glass Handed Kites
Muse, Origin of Symmetry
NAO, Fog Electric
NAO, The Third Day (and, well, everything. . .)
Neal Morse Band, The Grand Experiment
Newspaperflyhunting, Iceberg Soul
Newspaperflyhunting, Wasteland
Oceansize, Effloresce
Pineapple Thief, What We Have Sown
Pineapple Thief, Tightly Unwound
Pineapple Thief, Your Wilderness
Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet
Porcupine Tree, Sky Moves Sideways
Pure Reason Revolution, The Dark Third
Radiohead, Kid A
Riverside, Out of Myself (and, well, everything. . .)
Rush, Clockwork Angels (and, well, everything. . .)
Rush, Snakes and Arrows
Rush, Vapor Trails
Spock’s Beard, Snow
Spock’s Beard, The Light
Steve Hackett, Wolflight
Steven Wilson, Grace for Drowning
Steven Wilson, Hand Cannot Erase
Steven Wilson, Insurgentes
The Tangent, Down and Out in Paris and London
The Tangent, The Music That Died Alone
The Tangent, Le Sacre du Travail
The Tangent, Not as Good as the Book (and, well, everything. . .)
Progarchy 
Gasp! No Dream Theater? Ha. I’d add Images and Words, Awake, A Change of Seasons, Scenes from a Memory, and Train of Thought. I’d add Haken’s The Mountain as well. And because I was so blown away by it, I would add Oak’s 2016 masterpiece, Lighthouse, to the list. Just to annoy you, Brad, I’ll add Neal Morse’s Sola Scriptura, too :p What’s so fun about third wave prog is there is so much for each of us to add to our personalized lists that highlight our own personalities.
You’ve chosen well with Muse’s Origin of Symmetry. Muse at their proggiest. That’s been my favorite by them since I was 12.
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SCENES FROM A MEMORY would make my top 100, Bryan.
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Apart from being very honoured to be on the list with two of npfh releases, I am very glad to see many albums I would put there myself. I’m also happy to share your appreciation for post-Brave Marillion, one of the greatest and criminally underrated runs of releases in music histrory.
(Ok, here goes the ‘runs away and hides’ part: Dream Theater is not on the list? Oh, what a shame, high five!)
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I miss IZZ, Crucible and Echolyn.
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Yes, IZZ was a definite oversight on my part, Josep. Especially THE DARKENED ROOM.
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My additions: Encores, Legends & Paradox (ELP tribute album from Magna Carta); Robert Fripp, A Blessing of Tears; King Crimson, B’Boom, The ProjeKcts box set, VROOOM VROOOM, The ConstruKction of Light; Marillion, This Strange Engine, Radiation, Marillion.com, Anoraknophobia; Spock’s Beard, V; Transatlantic, SMPTe, Bridge Across Forever, The Whirlwind
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TCOL and the four Marillion albums you mention – massively underrated albums which I would put on any best-of list.
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Oops, hit the wrong button. More: Amplifier, The Octopus; Anathema, Weather Systems, Distant Satellites; Adrian Belew, Side One, Side Two, Side Three, E (trio & orchestra versions); Blackfield (first); Fish, A Feast of Consequences; Flying Colors (first); Peter Gabriel, Up; David Gilmour, On an Island; Haken, The Mountain, Affinity; It Bites, Map of the Past; Kansas, Somewhere to Elsewhere; Dave Kerzner, New World; King Crimson, The Power to Believe; Tony Levin, Waters of Eden, Pieces of the Sun; Mew and the Glass Handed Kites; Marillion, Happiness Is the Road; Neal Morse, Testimony I & II; Mastodon, Once More Around the Sun; Opeth, Pale Communion; Plank, Hivemind; Porcupine Tree, Up the Downstair, In Absentia, Deadwing; Steve Rothery, The Ghosts of Pripyat; Secret Machines, Now Here Is Nowhere,Ten Silver Drops; Sigur Ross, Takk; Sontaag; Spock’s Beard, Brief Nocturnes & Dreamless Sleep, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, Green & Blue, Hour Moon; Syd Arthur, Sound Mirror. Not to mention live albums, reissues, and my best of 2017. Rather a lot, really …
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