Here's my AotY for each year from 1970, with a runner up (or two) following.
Pink Floyd and Yes aren't here, King Crimson is, so I'll include King Crimson

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

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While 1987 woke me up to metal and I hoovered up the likes of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Helloween’s keepers, 1988 was my metal heyday and a year that produced albums that would still dominiate my top 20 list today. Lots of power metal and plenty of Noise Records!

1.Manowar - Kings Of Metal

2.Scanner - Hypertrace

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

4.Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

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1.Voivod - Nothingface

2.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

3.Voivod - Killing Technology

4.Voivod - The Outer Limits

5.Voivod - Synchro Anarchy

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Good day folks! T'day, I just wanted to share the best of what Canada has to offer when it comes to Metal, eh. It seems a lot of people don't yet know that Canada's a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the heavy stuff and I'll show you just how much!

The main goal here is to help people discover the history of Canadian Metal through time and amazing releases. To do so, I'll be listing a single album per band and order the list by year of release from oldest to newest then I'll identify the genre for each of them. Note that the albums chosen aren't necessarily the best of each band but my personal favorites and in my humble opinion, good points of entry into a band's discography. I will try to fill each gaps in years over time and add new bands as I discover them. (So this list is permanently under construction).

Also, as always in my lists, releases with a ''★'' are the ones I believe you shouldn't miss because of their impact, uniqueness or just because they are my favourites.

There is a lot of different styles, I did my best to diversify so there should be something interesting for everyone!

- - - - - - - - - -

To my fellow Canadians, if you have recommendations or wanna point out obvious albums I might have missed, please feel free to let me know. To everyone else, I hope you'll like this virtual musical trip to the great white north! Enjoy. Oh and you're really all welcome to suggest albums.

- Guib -

Last Update: April 15th, 2024

1.Moxy - Moxy

2.Triumph - Just A Game

3.Rush - Moving Pictures

4.April Wine - The Nature Of The Beast

5.D.O.A. - Hardcore '81

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1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.King Diamond - Abigail

3.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5.Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

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Fairly self-explanatory. I don't think I will approach these in any particular order, I'll treat it whimsically. I'm not sure what I'll do once I have familiarized myself with these sufficiently. I might go and leave a comment on the album's page.

Last updated on 4 May 2023.

EDIT: Actually, I'll just go from top to bottom, although sometimes I add albums somewhere near the top of the list.

1.Sakis Tolis - Among The Fires Of Hell

2.Dio - The Last In Line

3.Swallow The Sun - Hope

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Extol - Undeceived

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The most interesting band in the metal scene with an unique style and great artwork

1.Voivod - Nothingface

2.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

3.Voivod - The Outer Limits

4.Voivod - Killing Technology

5.Voivod - Angel Rat

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What seems the most important albums for me in chronological order.
I wish I could carry the list year after year to see how my tastes changed and new findings.
I can help but notice that old albums immediately strike me, while in recent times most albums are good but nothing is groundbreaking. We have a tide of releases in the last decades, and standing above the other requires an impossible lot of talent.
Or is it my listen habbits that changed ? I felts I listened to the old albums albums for a lifetime while I'm only surface checking the new ones. Too little time, too little time to truly live...
Also the mixing technology, the sound is too flat nowadays and lack impact and personnality

1.Frank Zappa - Freak Out

2.The Who - Tommy

3.Frank Zappa - Uncle Meat

4.Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

5.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

2.Galneryus - Angel Of Salvation

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Batushka - Litourgiya

5.Leprous - Bilateral

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An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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1.Death - Leprosy

2.Coroner - Punishment For Decadence

3.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

5.Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey

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Just a list of classic thrash albums I really enjoy, since thrash has had such a good year this year. They are in no particular order.

1.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

2.Anthrax - Among The Living

3.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

4.Artillery - By Inheritance

5.Assassin - The Upcoming Terror

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1.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

2.The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand

3.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

4.Atheist - Unquestionable Presence

5.Beherit - Drawing Down The Moon

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