I'll just list four that's been on my mind/been listening to a lot lately.
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Mechanical Animals - Marilyn Manson: Wait, hear me out. I am mainly speaking to people who never really gave this band a shot because of the dark imagery or harsher sound. Mechanical Animals is a very unique and ballsy album. Coming scorching hot off the success of Antichrist Superstar, Manson could have easily made another dark and spooky album and called it a day. Instead, we got an album that ran the complete opposite direction. Popular hits such as "The Dope Show" and "Rock is Dead" originated from this album, but Mechanical Animals more sides to it then those glam rock inspired songs. In fact, those kinds of songs are literally half the album, as other tracks are far more emotionally driven and melodic. Seriously, give "Come White" or "Great Big White World" a listen.

http://youtu.be/tb33pEpsYR8


The Parallax II: Future Sequence - Between the Buried and Me: A good friend of mine introduced me to Between the Buried and Me when their amazing album Colors was released. Though I have listened to metal for many years, I'll admit it took me a bit to fully appreciate and understand how BTBAM's style works (lots of timing changes and very harsh sections of songs). However, he knew that I a huge fan of prog rock, and that album was around the time where BTBAM dove deep into their progressive sound. Colors was my favorite album of theirs, but that all changed when The Future Sequence was released. BTBAM seriously raised the bar here, and I enjoyed every second of it.

http://youtu.be/fYLl_s0_Erk (could not find full album link, but these two songs do a good job at showing how this band takes their music in a lot of places)


The Black Chord - Astra: Alright, so maybe you like prog, but not so much of the heavier stuff. Or maybe you just prefer the prog sound of the 70s. Well, Astra has you covered! Released in 2012, I am still convinced that this band has time traveled from the period when you couldn't get away from prog rock if you wanted to. Despite having a familiar style, The Black Chord does a fantastic job of establishing its own identity. If you like the more "Space Rock" aspect of the genre, definitely give this a listen.

http://youtu.be/0oU3Kgo-NWs


Disintigration - The Cure: Back in a very early episode of South Park when The Cure's frontman, Robert Smith, saved the day from Mecha Streisand one of the kids yelled as he was walking away, "Disintegration is the best album ever!" As much as South Park likes to joke around, I assure you that line was meant to be taken seriously. While I am sure you have heard many hits from this album on the radio many, many times, the entire album is worth exploring. My personal favorite is the title track, which is a soul wrenching song both lyrically and musically.

http://youtu.be/LeWhUL7kS80