Highlighting Progressive, Psychedelic, and Otherwise-Weird and Interesting Music
Band: Yes | Album: Aurora | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2026
From: London, UK | Label: InsideOut Music
Bandcamp
Look, it’s a new Yes album. We all know who Yes are. We know what we’re signing up for. I had low expectations, despite Mirror to the Sky being pretty decent overall. Let’s just get to it.
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Band: Crown Lands: Album: Apocalypse | Genre: PRogressive rock, Hard rock | Year: 2026
From: Toronto, Canada | Label: InsideOut Music
For fans of: Rush, Led Zeppelin
Crown Lands is a Toronto-based duo with a sound firmly rooted in mid-70s hard rock and prog rock. Unlike a number of other retro-focused bands I’ve covered here, this pair do a great job at keeping those sounds fresh and lively. Depending on how you want to classify prior releases, Apocalypse is their second, third, or fourth full-length release.
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Band: The Magpie Arc | Album: Gil Brenton | Genre: Progressive rock, British folk | Year: 2025
From: UK | Label: Independent
For fans of: Strawbs, Comus, Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span
The Magpie Arc is a British quartet that spins traditional folk songs of the British Isles into hard-hitting, proggy folk rock, and Gil Brenton is their second full-length album. Where many bands I describe as folk rock are primarily rock acts with some folk influences, this band is the inverse. Their vocal style and instrumentalism belie a deep love of British folk music, and that helps give their music a character that stands out from other acts in a similar space.
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Band: Tusmørke | Album: Balderdom | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2026
From: Oslo, Norway | Label: Karisma
For fans of: Jordsjø, Caravan, Yes, Jethro Tull
Apparently Tusmørke put out an album last year that I missed, but they’re prolific enough, there’s never that long a gap without them on this site. Balderdom (Baldness) follows in a template similar to Dawn of Oberon, in that it consists of a handful of shorter songs and a side-long epic. Tusmørke’s unique Norse-folk-prog is on proud display here, and this is another strong entry in their catalog.
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Band: Neurosis | Album: An Undying Love for a Burning World | Genre: Post-metal | Year: 2026
From: Oakland, USA | Label: Neurot
I will be totally honest. Neurosis is one of those bands that I know has been massively influential but which I’m simply not that familiar with. I’ve listened to Through Silver in Blood, and that is a fantastic record. I also know they’re considered one of the primary progenitors of post-metal as a distinct genre, along with Isis, whose former vocalist and bassist has joined the band. (I have run across folks trying to insist that post-metal and atmospheric sludge metal (another term frequently used to describe Neurosis’s work) as being distinct. There may be a technical argument to be made there, insofar as there is non-sludgy post-metal, but I don’t think there’s any atmospheric sludge I’ve heard I couldn’t also describe as post-metal.) That is to say, I went into this record blind.
An Undying Love for a Burning World is Neurosis’s 13th full-length release and their first in a decade. I’d heard it getting some positive buzz, so I decided to give it a spin. And boy, am I happy I did!
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Band: Witch Ripper | Album: Through the Hourglass | Genre: Sludge metal, Progressive metal | Year: 2026
From: Seattle, USA | Label: Magnetic Eye Records
For fans of: Mastodon, Baroness, Coheed & Cambria
Witch Ripper is one of my favorite local acts, and they’re always near the top of my list of bands to recommend. Through the Hourglass is this quartet’s third full-length release, and it is a direct sequel to their last release, 2023’s The Flight after the Fall. The shared story of these records is obvious, even without looking at the lyrics, with the music here bearing clear throughlines from TFATF.
My first exposure to this record was at Witch Ripper’s album release show earlier this month. They played it in its entirety, and it was a killer performance. On subsequent listens, the album has grown on me even more.
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Band: Gong | Album: Bright Spirit | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2026
From: London, UK | Label: Kscope
I briefly touched on Gong’s convoluted history and past output in my review of their last album, 2023’s Unending Ascending, so I will not go into it in depth here. But this lineup–long bereft of any original members but operating under the blessing of the band’s late founder–has just put out its fourth full full-length release, Bright Spirit. In general, this album largely stays in line with this incarnation of Gong’s modus operandi. It’s fun and lighthearted prog with heavy psychedelic infusions.
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Band: Legs on Wheels | Album: Gobble | Genre: Progressive rock | Year: 2026
From: Manchester, UK | Label: Dismembers Club Records
For fans of: Cardiacs, Caravan, early Soft Machine, The Dear Hunter
I like the Canterbury sound a lot, but the modern practitioners of this sound can be a bit like zeuhl. Where zeuhl often devolves into rote Magma worship, so too do many neo-Canterbury acts slavishly strive to sound like Soft Machine or Caravan.
Legs on Wheels is a Mancunian quintet that does an incredible job of taking classic Canterbury influence and melding it into more modern sounds. The band dabbles in punk, psychedelia, and art rock alongside more progressive strains of rock. The music is consistently energetic and varied, and Gobble, the band’s third full-length release, is a delightful listen.
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Band: Plantoid | Album: Flare | Genre: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock | Year: 2026
From: Brighton, UK | Label: Bella Union
For fans of: Pink Floyd, Diagonal, Kate Bush
Brighton’s Plaintoid are black with their sophomore album, Flare, two years after their debut. The band maintained their lush, jazzy air while also imbuing their sound with a bit more muscle. On repeated listens of Terrapath, at times I do wish the band had a bit more contrast in their sound. Here, they’ve successfully added a bit more while also maintaining their unique character.
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Band: Holotropic | Album: Individual | Genre: Progressive metal | Year: 2026
From: Bratislava, Slovakia | Label: Independent
For fans of: Anciients, Tool, Cynic, The Faceless
Holotropic is a Slovak extreme metal five-piece that skillfully weaves a base of technical death metal with elements from further afield, ranging from classic prog to ambient to Middle Eastern folk. Individual is their second release, and this short-but-mighty album demonstrates impressive breadth and depth of skill.
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The Elite Extremophile 