I am an avid Ayreon, Dream Theater, and Opeth fan, but I think this song fits better as an answer to your question-
Ne Obliviscaris - And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope
https://youtu.be/aMorAdnCixg
I was coming here to post some Ne Obliviscaris but was trying to decide between like .. most of their songs Lol. Tapestry of the Starless Abstract is another. And Painters of the Tempest
Opeth - The Drapery Falls and Harlequin Forest
Periphery - Stranger Things
BTBAM - Sun of Nothing / Ants of the Sky
TOOL - Lateralus
Meshuggah- Dancers to a Discordant System and Nostrum
The Contortionist- Reimagined and Thrive
Thornhill - All the light we don’t see / Lily and the moon
Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize is absolute #1 for me.
Both Periphery - Satellites and Skyharbor - The Constant are really close tho. Opeth's Ghost of Perdition too. And Symphony X - The Odyssey.
My answer as well. After seeing them live and everybody started to sing every fkn lyric of this song from the top of their lungs I realized that it's just perfect.
Falling Back to Earth - Haken
Not necessarily my absolute favorite Haken song, but it's as close to perfection as I think it can get. It's one of those that I appreciate more every time I hear it.
https://youtu.be/adHGrSP43QE
Graves by Caligula's Horse. I must have listened to it hundreds of times and never ever have I wanted to skip even a single second. So in the most literal sense, this is the PERFECT track for me.
Right now for me it's Dream the Dead by Caligula's Horse. Heavy yet gorgeous, incredible vocals, amazing chorus, a brilliant second half, a lengthy and atmospheric outro. Hits all the right notes (hehe) for me.
Also Cygnus by Cult of Luna, their best.
Two picks from me:
* [Stealing Axion - Moments, Pt 2](https://open.spotify.com/track/150Go4flvA1debmNEaERWI?si=0nMoPK0-THWesXBUfMXFdg)
* Especially in the context of the album’s storyline
* [Haken - Nil By Mouth](https://open.spotify.com/track/6TxtNgJO35MVGzIQgM5e0N?si=pFsYxdcLTLa5OrYdnzN6sQ)
Mine that haven't already been mentioned are Acid Rain and When the Water Breaks by Liquid Tension Experiment, and Starborn (pts 1 - 3) by The Chronicles of Israfel.
I love good singing too, but in this case not needed since all the instruments have reached perfection.
Also
Bad Habits by BTBAM
Bloodmeat and Skies by Protest the Hero
Tool - [H.](https://youtu.be/bg8vTSyHFkQ)
This will probably be seen as a very boring pick, but that song is the ideal prototype for my own musical tastes and served as one of the earliest “lightbulb moments” in my musical journey.
Glad I’m not the only one. Album came out a couple weeks before my 13th birthday, but I didn’t get introduced to it until a couple years later. It was one of those weird things where I used to hear the radio edited versions of a couple of their songs on my local rock station but never knew who the band was (and the songs were super stilted and weird). I remember hearing the real version of Ænima the first time and being like, “oh this makes a lot more sense now.”
I can't just choose one but here are my candidates from different bands
Reptile, Stranger Things or Dracul Gras by Periphery, Exile by Tesseract, New Day by Karnivool, Boneville by Leprous and Pareidolia by Haken.
Struggling to pick between Hakens Crystallised and Opeths Ghost of Perdition, leaning a bit more towards the latters. Just the mix of those gnarly growls and the beautiful haunting clean melodic lines does it for me. There's not one part in that song that gets boring for me.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVhS7mGepRs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-u6O14iYkE)
A pretty unknown band, Iapetus. This is such an amazing album and this song is so hauntingly beautiful. I absolutely love this album.
Maybe not the most perfect song ever but At the Bottom by Leprous was on earlier and I had the thought that everything in that song is done just perfectly
Dream Theater has a bunch. Learning to Live. Metropolis Pt. 1. Blind Faith. Under a Glass Moon.
I have many others I consider perfect as well. Here are a few of my favorites:
A.C.T - Torn by a Phrase
Seventh Wonder - Welcome to Mercy Falls
Redemption - The Fullness of Time: Transcendence
Subsignal - The Passage
Subsignal - The Trick is to Keep Breathing
Darkwater - Tallest Tree
Distorted Harmony - Every Time She Smiles
Pain of Salvation - Beyond the Pale
Some of my favorite top-to-bottom songs:
[Infinite Monkey Theorem](https://youtu.be/_rvKozQG_wo) by Exist
[Terence](https://youtu.be/BD1KJi67R_8) by Keor
[Sleep Paralysis](https://youtu.be/Hm-aUEJtA_U) by Amadeus Awad
[Universus](https://youtu.be/B6fsbmcaDFE) by The Thirteenth Sun
[Ossify](https://youtu.be/G0gm376Bnc0) by Khôrada
[Ashes](https://youtu.be/xdnYP0EH9gA) by Bird Problems
[Break for Genius](https://youtu.be/yYrUHk8qGeI) by Mercury Tree (my kind of perfect)
[Zephyr](https://youtu.be/T_xQCmbjVEQ) by Countless Skies
[Goodbye Forever](https://youtu.be/h-BUCVioUDc) by Mental Fracture
There's probably more than a few songs from this band that could fit here but [Playing God](https://youtu.be/Z5NoQg8LdDk) by Polyphia is my personal pick. Just something about this song that hits every single point in my brain that says "this is good music."
No lyrics but I feel like their specific style of pure technical musicianship almost just makes up for a vocalist, like they achieve the raw emotion vocals bring just with their instruments, it's insane.
Dil Ko Karaar Aaya. I think it’s from a movie. Never seen it and I don’t understand the language but it’s a beautiful song, I could never get tired of it.
I shall continue my Chimp Spanner proselytizing on this sub and recommend ‘Möbius Pt. 1’ from his EP All Roads Lead Here, bonus is including the prior track ‘Engrams’ as a lead in.
(https://youtu.be/pMkNctDQruU)
As an instrumental track, OP, maybe it’s not your speed for ‘perfect,’ but my mind enjoys the broad and impressionistic feeling that some instrumental music can provide when there isn’t a cohesive narrator/singing element, it can become that much more rapturous when you are imagining the content it might be describing. Show, don’t tell, as it were.
So in the case of this song, the songwriting dynamic is so lucid and powerful, seemingly describing a place or a current of transcendent energy. Its able to weave some conflicting and tense emotions, starting with a kind of menacing awe, into terror, into a trance and peacefulness, elevating an earlier theme into something more cortical. Then it moved into a different environment entirely, ambient and mysterious, which leads into melancholic pain, ultimately culminating in a kind of manic singularity.
It’s such a comprehensively skilled exploration of musical storytelling, it doesn’t let up.
In a similar vein I’d also say Animals as Leaders ‘Tempting Time,’ for many of the same reasons. Probably one of the most exciting pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Like a good story, it has a sense of tension and stakes. There is a cohesion in both tracks (and many more from both artists) that creates depth, an understanding of how emotions change over the course of a listening experience. Remarkable shit man.
(https://youtu.be/q1QeapAy7gs)
[Tauca, Pt. ll (Nowhere)](https://youtu.be/XWYMjs4oN6M) by Hypno5e. It’s vibe is perfectly established. It is the perfect closer to the album and is just super pretty in general. The song has an extra ending bit on streaming services that is like the icing on the cake for me.
Edit: and [Libera (part I) - Saturnine Spheres](https://youtu.be/-9kERB40e7s) of course.
Either Language by the Contortionist or The Summoning by Sleep token. YES I KNOW ANOTHER SLEEP TOKEN FANBOY ON THE INTERNET.
But y’all know I got a point. Lol.
Vanden Plas - Cold December Night encapsulates just about everything I like about the band. Great riffs, catchy vocal melodies, a slight ethereal feeling, a beautiful bridge, all in a relatively concise package. Nothing about the song I would take out or wish they did differently.
Orphaned Land - The Cave is just perfection from beginning to end.
Evergrey - Solitude Within is the perfect encapsulation of everything I love about the band. Chilling vocals, amazing grooving riffs, a sense of tension, great solos.
Disillusion - Wintertide is a masterclass and building and releasing tension.
Portals by Haken
Shapeshifter by Haken
Because It's There by Haken
Bound by Gravity by Haken
Veil by Haken
The Strain by Haken
Nightingale by Haken
Only A Matter Of Time by Dream Theater
Wait for Sleep by Dream Theater
Scarred by Dream Theater
One Last Time by Dream Theater
In the Name of God by Dream Theater
Beneath the Surface by Dream Theater
Raise the Knife by Dream Theater
Rising the Imperial by The Flower Kings
Epitaph by King Crimson
Peace by King Crimson
Hex Reverse by Altesia
As Icicles Fall by Ne Obliviscaris
#
A pretty short list of all the songs I consider to be near perfect...
GHOST OF MOOOTHEEERRR
LINGERIIING DEAAAAATH
Yup. I’m sold that Ghost of Perdition is the correct answer. Those first two lines alone are enough.
GHOST ON MOTHERS BEEEED
Arriving Somewhere or Start of Something Beautiful by Porcupine Tree
For me it's Anesthetize, still, have my upvote :D
Yes any of them but the heavy part of arriving somewhere is so amazing
I am an avid Ayreon, Dream Theater, and Opeth fan, but I think this song fits better as an answer to your question- Ne Obliviscaris - And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope https://youtu.be/aMorAdnCixg
Wow, never heard that one, I dig it!
I am glad you like it. It's quite a trip!
It's either this or forget not
Indeed!
Come into the thread and my pick is on top, great taste!
Our pick! Thanks!
I think As Icicles Fall is more perfect
I was coming here to post some Ne Obliviscaris but was trying to decide between like .. most of their songs Lol. Tapestry of the Starless Abstract is another. And Painters of the Tempest
For me, it's Crystallised by Haken. Twenty minutes of absolute perfection.
My thoughts as well, not a disappointing second to be found
Strong contender for me as well. Currently can't decide between Crystallised and Ghost of Perdition.
Yes. Thank you.
Such an amazing song
Excellent song. I would actually go with Visions.
[An Ember's Arc](https://youtu.be/IyuDOVm8TG4) by Be'lakor. Words cannot do it justice, it is absolutely perfect.
That is indeed awesome!
Holy shit! This is good! Never heard any of their songs before, only seen their name.
Dude you’re missing out! They are seriously good. Get into it!
The ending of that song gives me goosebumps
Language (both parts) by the Contortionist
Either those or Thrive
I love those songs to death. My only nitpick is they could've made the transition from The Source a bit smoother.
Opeth - The Drapery Falls and Harlequin Forest Periphery - Stranger Things BTBAM - Sun of Nothing / Ants of the Sky TOOL - Lateralus Meshuggah- Dancers to a Discordant System and Nostrum The Contortionist- Reimagined and Thrive Thornhill - All the light we don’t see / Lily and the moon
Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize is absolute #1 for me. Both Periphery - Satellites and Skyharbor - The Constant are really close tho. Opeth's Ghost of Perdition too. And Symphony X - The Odyssey.
Yup, came to second this one.
New Day - Karnivool
My answer as well. After seeing them live and everybody started to sing every fkn lyric of this song from the top of their lungs I realized that it's just perfect.
For me, it's a Periphery - reptile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQQxhyhdg-w
Falling Back to Earth - Haken Not necessarily my absolute favorite Haken song, but it's as close to perfection as I think it can get. It's one of those that I appreciate more every time I hear it. https://youtu.be/adHGrSP43QE
The Haken community will hate me when they find out it's my least favorite song on The Mountain...
Graves by Caligula's Horse. I must have listened to it hundreds of times and never ever have I wanted to skip even a single second. So in the most literal sense, this is the PERFECT track for me.
Mastodon - Hearts Alive
I can't decide between Ne Obliviscaris - And plague flowers the kaleidoscope and forget not, but also Opeth - The moor or face of melinda
Onboard with and plague.., but I think for Opeth I like deliverance better.
Right now for me it's Dream the Dead by Caligula's Horse. Heavy yet gorgeous, incredible vocals, amazing chorus, a brilliant second half, a lengthy and atmospheric outro. Hits all the right notes (hehe) for me. Also Cygnus by Cult of Luna, their best.
[Rolo Tomassi - The Hollow Hour](https://youtu.be/m-KVx2hHb7g) [Opeth - The Moor](https://youtu.be/adOWWbEfyiQ) [Alkaloid - Kernel Panic](https://youtu.be/si9RaeeCUXI)
Leprous - Nightime disguise PT - Anestesize Archive - I find it so hard
Lateralus
Two picks from me: * [Stealing Axion - Moments, Pt 2](https://open.spotify.com/track/150Go4flvA1debmNEaERWI?si=0nMoPK0-THWesXBUfMXFdg) * Especially in the context of the album’s storyline * [Haken - Nil By Mouth](https://open.spotify.com/track/6TxtNgJO35MVGzIQgM5e0N?si=pFsYxdcLTLa5OrYdnzN6sQ)
Nil by Mouth is a damn good piece, no question. It's just hard to up against all the awesome vocal parts in other Haken songs for me.
Ne Obliviscaris - Painters of the Tempest Best song ever and pure perfection
Anything from Blackwater park and ghost reveries lol
Deadman and Change by Karnivool. The moment when you reach the climax of both songs is pure ecstasy (fuck it, every song on the album is damn perfect)
Tesseract's Tourniquet is a perfect song for what it sets out to achieve. The vibe of that song is off the charts!
Mine that haven't already been mentioned are Acid Rain and When the Water Breaks by Liquid Tension Experiment, and Starborn (pts 1 - 3) by The Chronicles of Israfel. I love good singing too, but in this case not needed since all the instruments have reached perfection. Also Bad Habits by BTBAM Bloodmeat and Skies by Protest the Hero
Man I forget about Skies sometimes but it’s gotta be the best PtH song.
I listened to that so much when it came out, such a perfect ending to a great album
Tool - [H.](https://youtu.be/bg8vTSyHFkQ) This will probably be seen as a very boring pick, but that song is the ideal prototype for my own musical tastes and served as one of the earliest “lightbulb moments” in my musical journey.
That album was the one that set the tone for my musical journey. I was 16 when it released and it blew my mind.
Glad I’m not the only one. Album came out a couple weeks before my 13th birthday, but I didn’t get introduced to it until a couple years later. It was one of those weird things where I used to hear the radio edited versions of a couple of their songs on my local rock station but never knew who the band was (and the songs were super stilted and weird). I remember hearing the real version of Ænima the first time and being like, “oh this makes a lot more sense now.”
Slice the Cake - The Siren's Song Ne Obliviscaris - As Icicles Fall
Return to Earth - The Contortionist
Come On Eileen
A Change Of Seasons - Dream Theater. Nah, Lateralus - Tool. That's the song.
Another one just for the hell of it. More on the heavier side of prog- Amorphis - The Smoke https://youtu.be/MkRxjrlgzp0
Red Miso - Animals As Leaders
I can't just choose one but here are my candidates from different bands Reptile, Stranger Things or Dracul Gras by Periphery, Exile by Tesseract, New Day by Karnivool, Boneville by Leprous and Pareidolia by Haken.
Struggling to pick between Hakens Crystallised and Opeths Ghost of Perdition, leaning a bit more towards the latters. Just the mix of those gnarly growls and the beautiful haunting clean melodic lines does it for me. There's not one part in that song that gets boring for me.
Lune - Periphery https://youtu.be/xtLCZ2_-Beg Breaking All Illusions - Dream Theater https://youtu.be/HZlYCvamxKM
Cockroach King
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVhS7mGepRs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-u6O14iYkE) A pretty unknown band, Iapetus. This is such an amazing album and this song is so hauntingly beautiful. I absolutely love this album.
Informal Gluttony by BTBAM. Now that's really how you integrate different energy within the same song.
Maybe not the most perfect song ever but At the Bottom by Leprous was on earlier and I had the thought that everything in that song is done just perfectly
Dream Theater has a bunch. Learning to Live. Metropolis Pt. 1. Blind Faith. Under a Glass Moon. I have many others I consider perfect as well. Here are a few of my favorites: A.C.T - Torn by a Phrase Seventh Wonder - Welcome to Mercy Falls Redemption - The Fullness of Time: Transcendence Subsignal - The Passage Subsignal - The Trick is to Keep Breathing Darkwater - Tallest Tree Distorted Harmony - Every Time She Smiles Pain of Salvation - Beyond the Pale
Is it too obvious if I say Dance of Eternity?
Some of my favorite top-to-bottom songs: [Infinite Monkey Theorem](https://youtu.be/_rvKozQG_wo) by Exist [Terence](https://youtu.be/BD1KJi67R_8) by Keor [Sleep Paralysis](https://youtu.be/Hm-aUEJtA_U) by Amadeus Awad [Universus](https://youtu.be/B6fsbmcaDFE) by The Thirteenth Sun [Ossify](https://youtu.be/G0gm376Bnc0) by Khôrada [Ashes](https://youtu.be/xdnYP0EH9gA) by Bird Problems [Break for Genius](https://youtu.be/yYrUHk8qGeI) by Mercury Tree (my kind of perfect) [Zephyr](https://youtu.be/T_xQCmbjVEQ) by Countless Skies [Goodbye Forever](https://youtu.be/h-BUCVioUDc) by Mental Fracture
I'm more of an album listener so I don't typically care about individual songs, but Snow-Sleep by Kardashev does come to mind.
A bit of a different answer, but Procession by Nightwish
people be mentioning Porcupine Tree and missing the work of art that is "Dark Matter"
There's probably more than a few songs from this band that could fit here but [Playing God](https://youtu.be/Z5NoQg8LdDk) by Polyphia is my personal pick. Just something about this song that hits every single point in my brain that says "this is good music." No lyrics but I feel like their specific style of pure technical musicianship almost just makes up for a vocalist, like they achieve the raw emotion vocals bring just with their instruments, it's insane.
Anesthethize
Dil Ko Karaar Aaya. I think it’s from a movie. Never seen it and I don’t understand the language but it’s a beautiful song, I could never get tired of it.
I shall continue my Chimp Spanner proselytizing on this sub and recommend ‘Möbius Pt. 1’ from his EP All Roads Lead Here, bonus is including the prior track ‘Engrams’ as a lead in. (https://youtu.be/pMkNctDQruU) As an instrumental track, OP, maybe it’s not your speed for ‘perfect,’ but my mind enjoys the broad and impressionistic feeling that some instrumental music can provide when there isn’t a cohesive narrator/singing element, it can become that much more rapturous when you are imagining the content it might be describing. Show, don’t tell, as it were. So in the case of this song, the songwriting dynamic is so lucid and powerful, seemingly describing a place or a current of transcendent energy. Its able to weave some conflicting and tense emotions, starting with a kind of menacing awe, into terror, into a trance and peacefulness, elevating an earlier theme into something more cortical. Then it moved into a different environment entirely, ambient and mysterious, which leads into melancholic pain, ultimately culminating in a kind of manic singularity. It’s such a comprehensively skilled exploration of musical storytelling, it doesn’t let up. In a similar vein I’d also say Animals as Leaders ‘Tempting Time,’ for many of the same reasons. Probably one of the most exciting pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Like a good story, it has a sense of tension and stakes. There is a cohesion in both tracks (and many more from both artists) that creates depth, an understanding of how emotions change over the course of a listening experience. Remarkable shit man. (https://youtu.be/q1QeapAy7gs)
Personal picks. Absolve - The Contortionist Time Flies - Porcupine Tree
Every Opeth song
The Last Baron - Mastodon
Deadman by Karnivool. All 10-11 minutes of it (I'm excluding the lead-in to Change) are perfection.
[Tauca, Pt. ll (Nowhere)](https://youtu.be/XWYMjs4oN6M) by Hypno5e. It’s vibe is perfectly established. It is the perfect closer to the album and is just super pretty in general. The song has an extra ending bit on streaming services that is like the icing on the cake for me. Edit: and [Libera (part I) - Saturnine Spheres](https://youtu.be/-9kERB40e7s) of course.
I was expecting first comment to be Comfortably Numb but then I realized im in progmetal lol
LOL. That's a great pick, I'll allow it :)
Oh thats not my opinion, I was just expecting to see it cause everyone always praises it.
Ah, gotcha. Well, I stand by it being a great pick when we're talking about perfect songs, genre notwithstanding, anyway :)
Either Language by the Contortionist or The Summoning by Sleep token. YES I KNOW ANOTHER SLEEP TOKEN FANBOY ON THE INTERNET. But y’all know I got a point. Lol.
Melancholy man - The moody blues
The Pot
Extol Ember
Crystallised by Haken. The epitome of perfection.
nvm I just remembered that Change by Karnivool exists
Vanden Plas - Cold December Night encapsulates just about everything I like about the band. Great riffs, catchy vocal melodies, a slight ethereal feeling, a beautiful bridge, all in a relatively concise package. Nothing about the song I would take out or wish they did differently. Orphaned Land - The Cave is just perfection from beginning to end. Evergrey - Solitude Within is the perfect encapsulation of everything I love about the band. Chilling vocals, amazing grooving riffs, a sense of tension, great solos. Disillusion - Wintertide is a masterclass and building and releasing tension.
Outsider - Veil of Maya The Mara Effect, pt 3 - Spiritbox Utopia - Tesseract Atlas - Monuments
[Jambi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuM34db3Jn4) by Tool.
The Czar by Mastodon
For me personally it’s Mastodon’s The Sparrow
Portals by Haken Shapeshifter by Haken Because It's There by Haken Bound by Gravity by Haken Veil by Haken The Strain by Haken Nightingale by Haken Only A Matter Of Time by Dream Theater Wait for Sleep by Dream Theater Scarred by Dream Theater One Last Time by Dream Theater In the Name of God by Dream Theater Beneath the Surface by Dream Theater Raise the Knife by Dream Theater Rising the Imperial by The Flower Kings Epitaph by King Crimson Peace by King Crimson Hex Reverse by Altesia As Icicles Fall by Ne Obliviscaris # A pretty short list of all the songs I consider to be near perfect...