11 Best Progressive Death Metal Bands of All Time

Here are the 11 best progressive death metal bands of all time!

On paper, mixing prog rock and death metal might seem like mixing oil and water.

Why? Because the former subgenre is largely known for its colorful and complicated arrangements; expansive tracks lengths; and fantastical songwriting, whereas the latter is largely known for – well – the exact opposite (horrific lyricism, demonic vocals and instrumentation that’s ferocious, traditional and immediate).

As the saying goes, though, opposites attract, and that’s precisely what happened when artists such as Death and Nocturnus began blending the two templates around 1990. That said, just because they’re the first doesn’t mean they’re the greatest, as dozens of other groups have emerged since then who took the style to far greater places.

READ MORE: 10 Progressive Death Metal Songs All Metalheads Should Know

Specifically, the 11 progressive death metal bands on this list have done more than enough to be crowned the best all time.

True, some of them are relatively new to the scene, and several of them incorporate other subgenres (such as tech-death, prog rock, extreme metal, avant-garde metal and melodeath) into their chemistry.

Even so, their feet are firmly planted in the realm of progressive death metal, too, and with their unique approaches to it, they’re surely the cream of the crop when it comes to serving up complex cataclysm.