10 Best Hard Rock Albums Of The 90s

10. Images And Words - Dream Theater

In most rock circles, prog is known as a very niche genre. Aside from the more musically inclined fans, many hard rock aficionados didn't have time for the complex time signature changes and mindless guitar shredding. Dream Theater helped buck the trend by proving that prog could be complicated and still have a soul.

Across Images and Words, each member of the band tests their chops with fantastic epics like "Metropolis" and album closer "Learning to Live." The former of these tracks was so beloved by fans that the band ended up writing a sequel song before scrapping the concept and made the single idea an entire album in 1999. Remarkable standouts from John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy make the music sound like Metallica by way of Rachmaninoff.

This record also yielded the band's closest thing to a hit with "Pull Me Under," which features the captivating vocals of frontman James Labrie. This album opened the door for future prog metal legends like Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me to flex their musical chops with their projects later down the line. From this album forward, it didn't matter how many musical movements and time signature changes a song had as long as it kicked ass.