20 Unsigned Metal Bands Everyone Needs To Hear

The side project and eponymous venture of Sylosis frontman Josh Middleton (and the first of two instrumental acts on this list), the Josh Middleton Project is a guitarist's wet dream. Blending acoustic mastery with heavy riffing and technically jaw-dropping soloing on their first album, 2016's Hollowed-Out Planetoid, Middleton and drummer Craig Reynolds lay out a progressive powerhouse of a debut.

But be warned. Sylosis fans: this is an album completely unlike the thrash/death abrasiveness of that pioneering quartet. Hollowed-Out Planetoid is at times impressive, at other times calming and at other times heavy. There are no blast beats or riffs that chug faster than the speed of sound. It's just instrumental prog.

But that said, it is damn good instrumental prog!