So here we are once more! It’s that time of year to take stock and make the call for what’s progged our world. 2020 might not be a year many of us want to remember for obvious reasons, but the music still continued, and for that I think we’re all extremely thankful. This is what Prog Magazine’s writers thought were the best releases of the year…

PRESS/FISH/KAI R JOACHIM

“I feel highly honoured and privileged to be given this weighty accolade from fellow professionals and journalists I have worked with and respected throughout my many years in the music business, and in particular from a magazine I hold in great and fond regard. It’s been sad in some ways to say goodbye with the Weltschmerz album to an industry that has given me so much on so many levels but I’m glad and proud that I achieved what I set out to do, which was to end my career with what I wanted to be one of my finest ever albums. It’s been a ‘lang sair fecht’ to deliver this project in such difficult times and circumstances for everyone concerned. On behalf of everyone involved in its creation and in particular my main co-writer and producers Steve Vantsis and Calum Malcolm and my longtime artist Mark Wilkinson, I want to offer a sincere huge thanks to everyone at Prog Magazine for giving Weltschmerz the recognition I’d always hoped it would get and for putting a huge grin on this big Scottish face. Take care, stay alive.” Fish

1 FISH 

WELTSCHMERZ (CHOCOLATE FROG)

WE SAID: “Maybe it’s a deliberate closing of the circle. It’s a hell of a way to finish an album. And a career.”

– Dave Everley, Prog 113

2  DYBLE LONGDON

BETWEEN A BREATH AND A BREATH (ENGLISH ELECTRIC) 

WE SAID: “If you’re already on board with BBT and Dyble’s albums, this is for you.”

– Jo Kendall, Prog 113

3  HEDVIG MOLLESTAD

EKHIDNA (RUNE GRAMMOFON)

WE SAID: “Taken in its fearless entirety, this is easily her most mindblowing music to date.”

– Dom Lawson, Prog 110

PRESS/JONAS AKERLUND

4 MOTORPSYCHO

THE ALL IS ONE ( RUNE GRAMMOFON/STICKMAN)

WE SAID: “An album of real scope and diversity, spanning the decades of styles and sounds.”

– David West, Prog 113

5 ENSLAVED

UTGARD (NUCLEAR BLAST)

WE SAID: “At every musical turn on Utgard Enslaved strike gold. A masterful work from start to finish.”

– Jerry Ewing, Prog 113

9 ULVER 

FLOWERS OF EVIL  (HOUSE OF MYTHOLOGY)

WE SAID: “This is a compact, undiluted hit of Northern European electro-noir.”

– Joe Banks, Prog 111

13  JACK HUES

PRIMITIF (DAWN CHORUS)

WE SAID: “It sounds great, defies genres, explores emotional depths, and makes the most of his musical identity.”

– Grant Moon, Prog 108

17  ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF

ALL THOUGHTS FLY (SOUTHERN LORD) 

WE SAID: “Here she is all about mood and nuance. So beautifully measured.”

– Ron Hughes, Prog 113

6  RICK WAKEMAN  & THE ENGLISH ROCK ENSEMBLE

THE RED PLANET (R&D MULTIMEDIA) 

WE SAID: “Wakeman going large. Doing what he does best.”

– Chris Roberts, Prog 112

10  MARIANA SEMKINA

SLEEPWALKING (KSCOPE)

WE SAID: “Sleepwalking leads us down some ghostly corridors to a new way of looking at the light.”

– Chris Roberts, Prog 106

14  TIM BOWNESS

LATE NIGHT LAMENTS (INSIDEOUT) 

WE SAID: “Happily Bowness acquits himself on this perilous journey with an accomplished grace.”

– Sid Smith, Prog 112

18  PAIN OF SALVATION

PANTHER (INSIDEOUT) 

WE SAID: “It’s an elusive beast that rewards the listener the more familiar they become with the shapes in the dark.”

– Gary Mackenzie, Prog 112

7 KATATONIA

CITY BURIALS (PEACEVILLE) 

WE SAID: “Katatonia’s brand of melodramatic melancholia will always sound more affecting and authentic.”

– Johnny Sharp, Prog 108

11  OCEANS OF SLUMBER

OCEANS OF SLUMBER (CENTURY MEDIA) 

WE SAID: “Four albums in, it feels like they’ve assumed their final form.”

– Eleanor Goodman, Prog 112

15  THE OCEAN

PHANEROZOIC II:

MESOZOIC/CENOZOIC (METAL BLADE)

WE SAID: “An exploratory crew, this album is by far and away their most diverse.”

– Dom Lawson, Prog 113

19 WOBBLER

DWELLERS OF THE DEEP (KARISMA)

WE SAID: “A sense of unstoppable momentum that continues to set them apart from their peers.”

– Dom Lawson, Prog 114

8 HAKEN 

VIRUS (INSIDEOUT)

WE SAID: “Rich and vivid in idea and execution, suffused with melody and filled with light and shade, all consuming.”

– Philip Wilding, Prog 110

12  THE PINEAPPLE THIEF

VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH (KSCOPE) 

WE SAID: “The devil, rather, is in the detail, and Soord and co do detail extremely well.”

– Polly Glass, Prog 112

16  THE FLAMING LIPS

AMERICAN HEAD (BELLA UNION) 

WE SAID: “Full of arch surrealism and madcap schemes: they’ve rediscovered their big tuneful heart.”

– Johnny Sharp, Prog 112

20   LOUISE PATRICIA CRANE

DEEP BLUE

(PECULIAR DOLL)

WE SAID: “The new queen of psychedelic prog has arrived.”

– Dom Lawson, Prog 109