Top 10 Most Progressive Songs by Bands That Aren't Progressive Rock

Progressive Rock and Metal are music genres, defined by them progressing throughout their songs and not repeating themselves!
Still there are some bands, that made songs like that, without being a Prog-Rock or Prog-Metal Band! This list counts down those songs!
The Top Ten
1 Child In Time - Deep Purple

This was one of the first great examples of heavy prog songs. Just amazing! The outro, the vocals and screams... And the solo is awesome, too. This song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. In case you don't know this is an anti-war song.

Come on people... Deep Purple's first three albums are pure prog.

Great epic powerful ans melodic dong! Unforgotten Moment of rock/ heavy history. Deep purple at his best

Best music of this amazing band.

2 The March of the Black Queen - Queen

Queen incorporated so many styles that they had a prog sound that made them stand out so well! My favorite song of all time!

"The Prophet's Song" also comes to mind.

One of the best songs of all time.

3 Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
4 Hallowed Be Thy Name - Iron Maiden

Most progressive Iron Maiden songs in my opinion: The Talisman, Sign of the Cross, Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad, Infinite Dreams, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, The Book of Souls.

Iron Maiden grew more prog as their career "progressed," culminating with 7th Son in the 80's, and then a brief break in the 90's. The 2000s/10s albums could all be classified as prog in my opinion.

Maiden is rooted in prog, Steve Harris is a huge Gabriel era Genesis fan, also Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull, etc

Don't people listen to Iron Maiden. They have always been a little prog.

5 Baba O'Riley - The Who

One of my favorite tunes of all time. I can't help but sing along to it!

6 Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Someone explain why this isn't #1!

7 Paranoid Android - Radiohead
8 A Little Piece of Heaven - Avenged Sevenfold
9 Master of Puppets - Metallica

This song is more complex than many people give it credit for. Metallica is very good at hiding their complexity and making a strange thing easy to listen to. Prog is alive and well in many of their songs, even if it doesn't dominate the sound. Takes some digging around in any given song, though.

This is thrash metal not progressive metal

10 Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day

It starts of kind of like Moonage Daydream by David bowie and evolves into an epic piece that mesmerizes you. Then the song ends and you realize 9 minutes has passed

The Contenders
11 April - Deep Purple

If you like prog stuff, this is a gem. This beautiful piece was released in 1969 and has progressive elements with symphonic arrangements.
It's mostly instrumental and it's over 12 min long. I guess it came out too early... and nobody noticed it back then. Deep Purple is the most underrated band in the world - they have great songs nobody knows.

Deep Purple was prog rock though. But not like other prog bands.

12 Telegraph Road - Dire Straits

I've never heard this song until I saw this list. I figured for the top few, "Okay, that's pretty progressive," then I saw a Dire Straits song on the list and I knew I had to listen to it just to be sure. HOLY CRAP GUYS! This song is crazy good. Crazy progressive! I love prog rock, and classic rock, and for these guys to combine them like that is just absolutely astounding. I almost cried tears of joy when listening to this song. Give it a listen please!

Very good song, but progressive is whole Love Over Gold album

13 The Millionaire Waltz - Queen
14 Art of Life - x-Japan
15 Homecoming - Green Day
16 One - Metallica

Very progressive for its time. I mean it has like three minutes of instrumental at the end, because at that time a long guitar solo at the end of a song has basically never happened before. Metallica was actually very progressive, this is not the only example. in their first four albums, they had instrumental songs, which was not that progressive, besides the fact that they were 8 to 9 minutes long, with absolutely no words at all. the longest one was to live is to die from and justice for all which was almost ten minutes long.

17 Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
18 Kashmir - Led Zeppelin

Quite prog, not very hard rock for Led Zeppelin. Horns, 3/4 time signature, soft singing, quite a long track...

At the end of the song its mostly instrumental. there are only few "whoa" "whoa" parts of vocals by Robert Plant. so its kinda prog rock.

19 Fly to the Rainbow - Scorpions

The Scorpions aren't a progressive band, but they had a few prog songs on their first album. "Fly to the Rainbow" is one of them. The guitar work by Rudolf Schenker and expecially Uli Roth is amazing. One of their best songs!

20 УТРО ПОЛИНЫ - Nautilus Pompilius
21 Orion - Metallica
22 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Iron Maiden

This is great.

23 Dante's Inferno - Iced Earth

All time favorite - great vox, riffing, build up, melody. Even though it's very long I never get tired of it.

24 Fade to Black - Metallica
25 Jungleland - Bruce Springsteen

An amazing song about 10 minutes long, with several different parts like a prog rock song.

8Load More
PSearch List