10 Amazing Hard Rock Concept Albums

There's a good chance that Dream Theater could do more with just one song that most average musicians could do with an entire album. As much as something like Pull Me Under may get the fairweather fans on the bandwagon, listening to something like A Change of Seasons gives you a better indication of what they can do when they stretch the song format out to something greater. They had some unfinished business on Images and Words though, and it became too much to be contained on one song.

Released almost a decade after the first installment of Metropolis, Metropolis Part 2 practically acts as an entire album length song unto itself, being separated by different sections of the piece. Though this might be a sign of the prog rock pretention becoming a bit too much, the band actually manage to pull it off fairly well, knowing when to showcase the amazing solo runs of John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy while also making tracks that are a lot more calming and (*gasp*) radio friendly for people to take in.

That's not even a slam against the prog side of this band either. As much as Home might have some complexity built into it, the hooks behind the song are good enough to be on mainstream rock radio no matter what the context. Out of all the other records on this list, this is one of the few times where prog rock reaches almost operatic levels of complex.