10 Best Progressive Rock Bands Of All Time

Towards the end of the '80s, the world had really gotten used to virtuoso set of musicians in rock. Ever since Eddie Van Halen changed the game in the late '70s, there were a countless number of guitar players trying to outshred one another by just writing entire songs' worth of scale exercises. Along the way though, bands like Dream Theater found a way to put all of those shredfests into legitimate songs.

Across every single record that the band have made, you can see them practically refining their sound into something a lot more ambitious than before. Though songs like Pull Me Under already had a flair for the dramatic, the songs that come off of later records like Octavarium are still unmatched in the rock world, with each respective player coming up with parts that would normally make everyone else's hands fall off.

That doesn't account for taste though, and the guys definitely know when to go for something a little bit softer, like the amazing bends of John Petrucci or the laid back grooves that pop up in between the 20 minute exercises from Mike Portnoy. Even though it might be fun to just put together a song with tons of lead riffing in it, the only way to get the people to pay attention is to have a good song at the center of it. You'd better be taking notes, Yngwie.