# What is the best concept metal album of all time?

> From Operation: Mindcrime's political thriller to Scenes from a Memory's time-travel tale, concept albums allowed metal bands to tell epic, immersive stories across a full record. Vote for the best metal concept album ever made.

*By YPB Team · Published April 19, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-concept-metal-album-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory**
   Dream Theater's 1999 murder mystery concept album told through 77 minutes of intricate progressive metal storytelling.
2. **Operation: Mindcrime**
   Queensrÿche's 1988 concept album following Nikki, a drug-addicted assassin caught in a web of political corruption.
3. **The Human Equation**
   Ayreon's 2004 rock opera featuring 14 guest vocalists exploring the psyche of a man in a coma.
4. **Crack the Skye**
   Mastodon's 2009 album exploring astral travel, paraplegics, and Rasputin through progressive metal virtuosity.
5. **Keeper of the Seven Keys**
   Helloween's 1987-1988 two-part power metal fantasy epic that set the template for narrative-driven European metal.
6. **Streets: A Rock Opera**
   Savatage's 1991 progressive metal rock opera following a drug dealer's redemption arc through vivid musical theater.
7. **Imaginations from the Other Side**
   Blind Guardian's 1995 progressive power metal epic drawing from literature and mythology in complex narrative form.
8. **Colors**
   Between the Buried and Me's 2007 conceptual progressive metalcore opus spanning multiple genres in 74 minutes.
9. **The Black Halo**
   Kamelot's 2005 dramatic concept album concluding the Ariel saga with operatic grandeur and emotional devastation.
10. **Leviathan**
   Mastodon's 2004 concept album based on Moby Dick exploring obsession and the clash between man and nature.
11. **Something Wicked This Way Comes**
   Iced Earth's 1998 three-part concept suite exploring a prophecy of apocalyptic evil through American power metal.
12. **The Wake**
   Voivod's 2018 sci-fi concept album continuing their tradition of science fiction-inspired progressive metal.
13. **Dante XXI**
   Sepultura's 2006 concept album based on Dante's Divine Comedy, fusing groove metal and experimental sounds.

Tags: music, bands, classics, metal, progressive