Chris Clark's Albums of the year 2025
Chris Clark’s Top 25 Prog Albums of 2025!
Well ladies and gents, this one has been a tough one. 2025 was a massive year for progressive rock releases…. The prog world was blessed with a deluge of both physical and digital format prog rock records. And I’ve spent the year keeping up with as many of them as I could (DOUBTLESS I have missed more than a few…. but time is not limitless, and that’s gonna happen). Now, after over 200+ albums’ worth of owning, listening, parsing, second-guessing, third-guessing…. and plenty of mental shuffling…. I have finally settled on my Top 25 albums for 2025.
First…. there are several “Honorable Mentions”; records that were always hovering close to (or at one time were) in my Top 25 throughout the course of the year. Every one of them is great and worthy of a listen. They include:
Nuova Era - 20,000 Leghe Sotto I Mare
The Flower Kings - Love
Numen - The Outsider
Dim Gray - Shards
Nova Cascade - Box Man
Random Earth Project - Changes
Chercán
Moon Letters - This Dark Earth
Nick Fletcher - The Mask of Sanity
The Mavens Telescope - Endurance
Magic Pie - Maestro
And now…. The actual Top 25…..
25 - Dominic Sanderson - Blazing Revalations
24 - KariBow - Panterrania
23 - Cen-ProjekT - Carnival of Lost Souls
22 - Massimo Pieretti - The Next Dream
21 - Fearful Symmetry - I’ve started, so I’ll finish
20 - Ring Van Mobius - Firebrand
19 - Echolyn - ii
18 - Spock’s Beard - The Archaeoptomist
17 - Riffstone - Richard III
16 - Orion - Into Darkness
15 - Cea Serin - The World Outside
14 - Lars Fredrik Frøsile - Gamle Mester
13 - Tribe3 - Life Amongst Strangers
12 - Dream Theater - Parasomnia
11 - The Far Cry - Once There Was
10 - Cosmograf - The Orphan Epoch
9 - Everon - Shells
8 - Jacob Roberge - The Passing
7 - Myth of Logic - The Memory of After
6 - The Reticent - please
5 - IQ - Dominion
4 - Soulshine (self-titled)
3 - Jonas Lindberg and the Other Side - Time Frames
2 - Karmakanic - Transmutation
1 - Moron Police - Pachinko
There ya go!!!! Obviously tastes are very subjective, and these are MY personal favs. It’s my hope, however, that if any of these pique your interest, you go give them a listen and support these hard-working and talented musicians. Bandcamp day (TODAY- 12/5/2025) would be a good day to try them out! Cheers to all! Until next year!