The Best Bands in 21st Century Prog

Based on the very highest standards of compositional and performance quality and overall consistency, album to album (at least three studio album releases of original music), these are the 21st Century's Best Prog bands:

La Crème de la Crème:

Accordo Dei Contrari (It)

** Änglagård/All Traps on Earth/Thieves Kitchen (Sw)

Kotebel (Sp)

* Shamblemaths (Nor)

Wobbler (Nor)

The Tea Club (US)

Rational Diet/Five-Storey Ensemble (Bel)

Ciccada (Gr)

Monobody (US)

Pat Metheny (US)

Anna Von Hausswolff (Sw)

Magma (Fr)

The Second Tier:

Porcupine Tree (UK)

Motorpsycho (Nor)

Faun (Ger)

Steven Wilson (UK)

The Mars Volta/Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (US)

iamthemorning/Gleb Kolyadin (Rus)

Bent Knee (US)

Neal Morse (US)

Opeth (Sw)

Koenji Hyakkei (Jap)

Kayo Dot/Maudlin of The Well (US)

Battlestations (Bel)

Homunculus Res (It)

Devin Townsend (Can)

Seven Reizh (Fr)

Honorable Mentions:

Dave Bainbridge/Iona (UK)

Jack O' The Clock (US)

Sylvan (Ger)

Sanguine Hum/Antique Seeking Nuns (UK)

Mono (Jap)

Riverside (Pol)

Yugen (It)

Il Tempio della Clessidre (It)

Big Big Train (UK)

Cast (Mex)

Leprous (Nor)

Anathema (UK)

Antoine Fafard (Can)

Kant Freud Kafka (Sp)

Antony Kalugin/Karfagen/Sunchild (Rus)

Hiromi Uehara (Jap)

Logos (It)

Jaga Jazzist (Nor)

Transatlantic (Inter)

Also Considered:

Karda Estra (UK)

Electric Orange (Ger)

Mystery (Can)

Syndone (It)

The Flower Kings (Swe)

Glass Hammer (US)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Can)

Lifesigns (UK)

Elephant9 (Nor)

Mastodon (US)

Jordsjø (Nor)

Pendragon (UK)

The Amazing (Swe)

Arnaud Bukwald (Fr)

Magenta (UK)

Dream Theater (US)

La Maschera di Cera (It)

French TV (US)

Lazuli (Fr)

Vespero (Rus)

Ulver (Nor) 

Nemo/J-P Louveton (Fr)

Agalloch (US)

Ayreon (Neth)

Airbag/Bjørn Riis (Nor)

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Aus)

Beardfish (Swe)

The Gathering (Net)

The Dear Hunter (US)

IQ (UK)

T (Ger)

Shamall (Ger)

Perfect Beings/Johannes Luley (US)

IZZ (US)

The Pineapple Thief (UK)

Gazpacho (Nor)

Lunatic Soul (Pol)

The Tangent (UK)

The Samurai of Prog (It)

Frequency Drift (Ger)

Steve Hackett (UK)

Fish (UK)

Mostly Autumn (UK)

The Emerald Dawn (UK)

Magic Bus (UK)

* (only two album releases, so far, but of such high quality I decided to include them)

** (bands dominated by Änglagård and ex-Änglagard members/personnel)