The first two numbers, “Worlds of Yesterday” and the lengthy “Moonshot Manchild” set the overall mood, dreamy and elegiac, Tim Bowness’ sometimes understated vocals set amidst rich keyboard-led arrangements with swirling Mellotron playing a significant role, flute fluttering in and out of the mix, and violin adding yet more colour. “Kill the Pain that’s Killing You” with its squalling guitars and skittering percussion is a change of pace, one song on the album that rocks out. The nine-minute “You’ll be the Silence” is suitably epic without descending into instrumental bombast, while the short but darkly atmospheric title track oozes foreboding. The album closes with “Distant Summers”, a distillation of many of the album’s strengths, and featuring Ian Anderson’s evocative flute solo over a wash of Mellotron; none more prog.

The fictional discography of Jeff Harrison of Moonshot references the iconic artwork of “Dark Side of the Moon” and “In the Court of the Crimson King”, and these are echoed in the music as well along with the more contemporary sounds of Porcupine Tree and latter-day Marillion. But more than anything else the album draws heavily from the sonic palette of the second half of the 1970s, an Indian Summer of progressive rock when the genre was losing the Zeitgeist but nevertheless produced some classic albums that have stood the test of time. This record is Tim Bowness’ homage to that era, and it’s as much about the gorgeous layered arrangements as it is about his excellent songwriting. It’s also an album that works as a continuous piece rather than just a collection of songs. Tim Bowness has done an superb job at evoking the spirit of a past era whilst framing it in a contemporary context.

From the ethereal opening section with Aliki Katriou wordless chant-like vocal to the instrumental symphonic metal conclusion that repeats the same melody, “Immured” contains many twists and turns. Passages of full-on death metal give way to beautiful and highly melodic sections and back again, instrumental and vocal motifs and themes repeat across the record in differing forms. The result is a record that combines doom-metal dynamics with ghostly vocals that strongly fit the theme, and sounds quite unlike anything else.

With their eighth album “Immortals”, their first for five years and first to feature mew frontman Henning Basse, Greece’s Firewind are neither of those things; their approach is simply to be extremely good at everything they do. Featuring song titles like “Ode To Leonidas”, Firewind sing about ancient Greece in the same way their Scandinavian comrades-in-arms sing about Vikings. They fight the beast for Zeus rather than for Odin.

All the expected features of power-metal are here; there are razor-sharp riffs, big singalong choruses, spectacular shredding solos based on classical scales, gallopingly fast tempos and the occasional epic cinematic intro complete with occasional scenery-chewing spoken word parts. All of which would mean little if the band didn’t have the songwriting chops to back them up, but Firewind have that in spades.

There is absolutely no filler on this record; There are face-melters like “We Defy” with its incredible spiralling guitar line, “Back on the Throne”, and the pyrotechnic instrumental title track. “Ode to Leonidas” and “Live And Die By The Sword” with its extended classical guitar intro aspire towards the epic. And “Lady of a Thousand Sorrows” is the obligatory power-ballad.

Henning Basse acquits himself well on lead vocals, with a classic old-school hard rock voice, but this album really belongs to mainman Gus G, his incendiary guitar playing lighting up every track. While there is a degree of showboating in his gravity-defying runs, this being a power-metal album after all, the pyrotechnics are never allowed to overwhelm the songs.

If you’re into power-metal, this album is strongly recommended.

Italy’s Ufosonic Generator seek to combine the sounds of 70s classic hard rock with that of more recent doom metal, and end up succeeding very well at summoning something of the spirit of Black Sabbath from circa 1971. They’ve clearly listened to enough Sabbath to recognise that there’s more to it that just copying Tony Iommi’s signature downtuned guitar sound; drummer S. McManchester captures that jazz-inflected vibe that gives them that vital groove.

Not that this album is a mere retread of “Master of Reality”, there are plenty of other influences in there too, with the band citing Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep and Cathedral amongst others, and guitarist DD Morris has his own raw and powerful sound. Lyrical themes cover space and ritual magic fuelled by booze and weed, and songs have enigmatic titles like “Meridian Daemon”, the title track “The Evil Smoke Possession” and “Mowing Devil”. The end result is a record that, while it doesn’t really do anything groundbreakingly radical, is still an enjoyable listen.

And my album of the year, as one of two people have already correctly guessed, is Marillion’s majestic F. E. A, R. Or to give its full title, “F*** Everyone And Run”. It’s an album that sums up the despair of 2016

Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what The Guardian had to say

F. E. A. R. continues a late-career renaissance that began with 2004’s Marbles. It’s a totally uncompromising record; 68 minutes made up of just five lengthy songs with no obvious radio-friendly singles. Politically charged lyrics alternate between sadness and anger, and rich, layered instrumentation references common Marillion touchstones such as Pink Floyd and late-period Talk Talk, with the occasional hints of Van der Graaf Generator at their most grandiose and menacing. Keyboardist Mark Kelly is all over this record, going from electric piano runs to doom-laden organ, while Steve Rothery is also on top form with his evocative and lyrical guitar, exemplified by a wonderful solo on El Dorado. Things come to a climax with the The New Kings, which has singer Steve Hogarth railing at the state of the world and its corrupt, self-serving elites, all set to dark, intense music that’s as good as anything they have done. Quite possibly their best album in two decades.

Although in this case The Guardian’s reviewer was actually me.

The comments against the review make interesting reading. The vast majority are overwhelmingly positive, although you’ve got to laugh at the numpty who declared that five-star reviews “should be reserved for all time classic albums, not bands that slipped into musical irrelevance over 20 years ago” along with “And it’s not even a proper Guardian reviewer anyway” before compounding his idiocy by insisting that he didn’t need to listen to an album to know it can’t possibly be worth five stars. Sadly this is the sort of closed-minded prejudice bands like Marillion have fighting for decades.

Meanwhile I’m now getting blamed for their Royal Albert Hall gig selling out in minutes.

The Heather Findlay Band – I Am Snow

The former Mostly Autumn lead singer’s second album of 2016 celebrates the semi-acoustic folk-rock side of her music, combining new songs with reworkings of older numbers, with arrangements emphasising flute and harp. There’s a beautiful cover of Sandy Denny’s “Winter Winds”, and the two new songs, especially the seasonal title track, are gorgeous.

King Crimson – Live in Toronto

A live snapshot of the latest incarnation of the legendary progressive rock band from their 2015 tour with a setlist combining brand new material alongside classics from the 60s, 70s and beyond. The seven-piece band including Tony Levin, saxophonist Mel Collins and no fewer than three drummers creatively re-imagine the older material while remaining faithful to the spirit, and the largely instrumental new numbers are impressive too. A great document from a tour that was memorable for all the right reasons.

Riverside – Eye of the Soundscape

Poland’s finest band released this ambient and largely electronic album to commemorate guitarist Piotr GrudziÅ„ski, who died suddenly and unexpectedly early in the year. It’s a compilation of remixes and previously-released bonus material complemented by four completely new tracks, At times the shimmering electronic arpeggios and electronic pulsings are to Tangerine Dream what Riverside’s more guitar-based music was to Porcupine Tree, but as always they’ve far more than copyists.

Touchstone – Lights in the Sky

This four track EP is first release by the new-look Touchstone with Aggie on vocals and Liam Holmes on keys. It’s a move away from the pared-back approach of “Oceans of Time”, with big guitars and soaring vocal lines, but the sound is still clearly identifiable as Touchstone, and they’re sounding like a coherent band in what is clearly a new beginning for the band.

5: Crippled Black Phoenix – Bronze

After some rather turbulent times within the band, Crippled Black Phoenix bounce back very strongly with a powerful follow-up to 2014′s “White Light Generator”. Beginning with a track called “Dead Imperial Bastard”, Bronze is a dark, angry and very intense record that in places sounds like Swans jamming with Pink Floyd, filled with dense, boiling guitars and ominous electronic soundscapes. It’s the sort of record that leaves you exhausted by the time you reach the end.

4: The Pineapple Thief – Your Wilderness

The Pineapple Thief have always represented the streamlined modern face of progressive rock, and this album is a distillation of the best elements of their sound. There are moments of fragile beauty, times when they rock out, and the whole thing flows seamlessly. The band have always drawn comparisons with Radiohead. But while “A Moon Shaped Pool” is a good album, “Your Wilderness” is a better one. But you have to wonder how many mainstream critics who put Radiohead high in their end-of-year lists have even heard “Your Wilderness”.

3: Opeth – Sorceress

Mikael Ã…kerfeldt and his band continue to draw deep from the well of 70s underground rock and reinvents the sounds for the 21st century with his legendary mastery of rock dynamics. The result is a record that invokes the spirit of that decade while sounding like something that could only have been made today. It goes from thunderous heaviness to the sort of sinister and cinematic atmospherics that recalls his Storm Corrosion collaboration with Steven Wilson. This is their best album since “Watershed” and despite the lack of death-metal growls, their heaviest since “Ghost Reveries”.

2: Iamthemorning – Lighthouse

The third studio album from the Russian duo comprising singer Marjana Semkina and classical pianist Gleb Kolyadin is one of those records that’s near-impossible to classify. Sometimes accompanied by a small chamber orchestra, sometimes with a rock rhythm section including Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison and Colin Edwin, the result is a kaleidoscopic record of ever changing moods taking in rock, classical and even instrumental jazz. Comparisons between Marjana Semkina vocals and those of Kate Bush are entirely appropriate. This is a record that takes a few listens to fully appreciate since there’s so much to take in; you can keep hearing new things even after many listens.

The album showcases the folkier side of her music, and combines new material with reworkings from her back catalogue, in a similar vein to 2012′s “Songs from the Old Kitchen”. It’s largely though not entirely acoustic, with Sarah Dean’s harp and Angela Gordon’s flute given prominence in the arrangements, though Martin Ledger does cut loose with some electric lead guitar in a couple of places.

It’s the new songs that will naturally attract the most interest. The title track, co-written with Martin Ledger and Henry Rogers, opens the album with the sound of Sarah Dean’s harp before Heather’s Kate Bush-like vocal comes in. It’s a beautiful slow-burning ballad with a beguiling melody, building from a delicate opening to a big wall of sound with ebowed guitar and flute. The other new composition, “Dark Eyes/The Dreamer’s Wake” has something of the feel of Odin Dragonfly’s “Magnolia Half-Moon” about it, especially with Angela Gordon’s lengthy flute solo towards the end. Flute and harp again feature heavily in the beautiful cover of Sandy Denny’s “Winter Winds”.

The older songs come largely from the acoustic side of Heather’s contributions to the Mostly Autumn songbook, with numbers like the dreamy “Eyes of the Forest” and the flute-heavy “Winter is King”. Aside from a generous sprinkling of harp, the arrangements stay closer to the originals than the more radical reworkings by some of Heather’s earlier bands either on record or live. Sometimes extra layers add richness to songs that were quite minimalist in the first place; for example, harp and flute enhance the delicate piano ballad “Above the Blue”. One interesting choice from outside the Mostly Autumn canon is the first part of “Day Thirteen: Sign” from Ayreon’s prog-opera “The Human Equation”. The album closes with a Mostly Autumn standard and one of Heather’s signature songs, “Shrinking Violet”, which despite some soaring lead guitar from Martin Ledger, as a full electric number feels slightly out of place.

Taken as a whole, the atmospheric folky vibe is clearly a place where Heather is comfortable, the songs old and new play to her strengths as a singer, and despite the wintry themes the music emphasises the natural warmth of her voice. Even though much of the album is reworkings of previously recorded material, the two new songs are golden, and for many fans they will be worth the price on their own.

10: Rebecca Downes – Believe

Deserved winner of Best Female Vocalist and Best Breakthrough Artist at the British Blues Awards, Rebecca Downes has a great voice, with range and power as well as emotional depth, equally at home with soulful ballads as belting out hard rockers. When combined with her talented backing band result is a hugely varied record, combining blues with hard rock, funk and soul.

9: Tilt – Hinterland

The band including Fish alumni Steve Vantis, Robin Boult and Dave Stewart deliver a hard-rocking album. The layered sound and powerful bass grooves recall Porcupine Tree and Steve Vantsis’ work with Fish.

But Paul Dourley is a very different sort of singer; his soulful vocals have the occasional hints of Peter Gabriel and Lou Gramm, and if anything it’s his performance that lifts this record from a good one to a great one.

8: Ihsahn – Arktis

The fiendishly inventive Norwegian black metallers reign in the avant-garde experimentalism of 2013′s Das Seelenbrechen in favour of an album of more straightforward metal songs. But “straightforward” is a relative thing for a band like Ihsahn; there’s a lot of varied creativity on display here, balancing face-melting guitars with occasional moments of atmospheric beauty,

7: Mantra Vega – The Illusion’s Reckoning

The collaboration between former Mostly Autumn singer Heather Findlay and Sound of Contact’s Dave Kerzner results in a record with a strong 70s vibe.

There are nods to Stevie Nicks era Fleetwood Mac and the rootsier side of Led Zeppelin, as well as the folky feel of Heather Findlay’s work with Odin Dragonfly and early Mostly Autumn. It’s an impressive work that’s as good as anything either of them have done.

6: Big Big Train – Folklore

Big Big Train continue to be better than anyone else at invoking the spirit of 1970s English pastoral progressive rock. Again the lyrics are steeped in English landscapes and socio-economic history.

The songs cover subjects from London’s lost rivers to World War 2 RAF pigeons, with music that sometimes evokes the mood of albums like Genesis’ “Trespass”, and at other times is closer to the electric folk-rock of bands like Steeleye Span.

We’ll start with 25 to 11. Except that they’re not ranked in any order, because that would be next to impossible.

Update Because I missed out one record by mistake, this year’s list now goes up to 26. You will have to guess which one it was yourselves.

An Endless Sporadic – Magic Machine

Like the late, great Frank Zappa at his most inventive this instrumental album mixes disparate genres with gleeful abandon. You can sense the musicians enjoying themselves whilst making this record. The result resembles a soundtrack for an imaginary space opera adventure, and the ever-changing music certainly takes you on an exhilarating journey through many musical moods and styles.

David Bowie – Blackstar

There is pretty much nothing I can say about this enigmatic and sometimes bonkers record that hasn’t already been said by plenty of others. Let’s just say that David Bowie was part of something that held the fabric of the universe together, and his passing is the reason 2016 has gone increasingly pear-shaped.

Cairo – Say

The new project by former Touchstone mainman Rob Cottingham featuring the now-departed vocalist Rachel Hill combines melodic rock and metal with touches of electronica. While there are obvious parallels with Touchstone, the feel is closer to a heavier version of Rob Cottingham’s 2014 solo project “Captain Blue”.

Duski – s/t

Aiden Thorne’s Cardiff based quintet blend contemporary jazz with elements of progressive rock and ambient soundscapes, sometimes very mellow, sometimes times rocking out. Most of the music is still recognisably jazz, especially when the saxophone is dominant, but there’s also much in the melodies and textures for a more adventurous rock fan to appreciate.

Dave Foster – Dreamless

The second solo album by the guitarist of Mr So and So, Panic Room and The Steve Rothery band is a more song-focussed affair than his first, with Dinet Poorman on vocals for most of the album. With the same rhythm section it has a similar vibe to The Steve Rothery Band with Rothery’s guitar swapped for female vocals. A couple of songs also feature his Panic Room colleague Anne-Marie Helder.

Ghost Community – Cycle of Life

The début album by the supergroup made up from past and present members of The Reasoning, Also Eden and Crimson Sky is an ambitious blend of prog-metal and melodic rock. There are definite echoes of The Reasoning in the melodies and song construction, though it has an overall coherence the last couple of Reasoning albums lacked.

Haken – Affinity

A record that’s clearly identifiable as progressive rock, but reinvented for the twenty-first century rather than a reverential pastiche of the music from a generation ago. It’s the sort of thing that should appeal as much to those bought up on Muse or Elbow as to old-school fans of Pink Floyd or King Crimson. This is state of the art modern progressive rock at its best.

Josh and Co – Transylvania Part 1: The Count Commands It

Essentially a solo album by Bryan Josh of Mostly Autumn with guest appearances from Olivia Sparnenn and Anna Phoebe amongst others,it’s a very different record from the earlier “Through These Eyes”. It’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek saga about vampires, complete with an end-of-level monster, set to music with more than a touch of Scandinavian folk-metal about it.

Knifeworld – Bottled Out Of Eden

Kavus Torabi’s completely bonkers eight-piece psychedelic rockers take things to the next level with their third full-length album. This time they bring the horn section centre-stage and make them the focus of the record, with nstrumental passages that recall Frank Zappa’s early 70s big band work. There is nobody else quite like Knifeworld.

Maschine – Naturalis

The second album from the project led by guitar virtuoso Luke Machin is a step up from their first. One part progressive rock, one part jazz and one part metal, there’s a far greater maturity of composition on display here; the undoubted technical skills of the musicians serve the songs rather than the other way, with great use of dynamics and atmospherics.

Metallica – Hardwired to Self-Destruct

The thrash-metal veterans bounce back with their strongest record for many years, long after many had written them off as has-beens living off past glories. It’s a return to the killer riffs approach of their early years, with a production than mercifully isn’t compressed into oblivion this time around. It could have done with a little editing, but they haven’t sounded this good since The Black Album.

New Model Army – Winter

The veteran folk-punks still have something to say, burning with the energy of punk and the musical substance of hard rock. “Winter” is a dark, angry record that sums up the state of the world in 2016. “Burn the castle down”, sings Justin Sullivan, railing at the elites who do not care about the ordinary people except as a resource to exploit.

Paradigm Shift – Becoming Aware

The british four-piece create a blend of progressive metal and jazz-fusion driven by propulsive but melodic basslines and enveloping piano textures that never descends into self-indulgent noodling. The result is a hugely melodic record that represents a modern and forward-looking approach to progressive rock rather than a homage to decades past.

Radiohead – A Moon-Shaped Pool

Despite swapping guitars for string arrangements much of the time, this is Radiohead’s most accessible album for a while, with a greater emphasis on songs and tunes than on avante-garde experimentalism, and some of the cinematic string arrangements are gorgeous. It almost makes you wonder if they’ve been listening to The Pineapple Thief or Halo Blind.

Suede – Night Thoughts

A dark concept album about death nnd water that bears more than a passing resemblance both in theme and in mood to Marillion’s “Brave” as well as their own career-defining “Dog Man Star”. Even though it’s not quite in the same league as either of those records it’s still the best things they’ve done for years.

Voodoo Vegas – Freak Show Candy Floss

An album of no-nonsense twin-guitar hard rock that does what it says on the tin. When working within a fairly traditional form, you have to be very good at what you do to avoid sounding like a derivative pastiche of other, better bands that came before. Voodoo Vegas pass that test with ease. To put it simply, they rock.