1.Devil Doll - The Girl Who Was... Death

2.Afflicted - Prodigal Sun

3.Atheist - Piece Of Time

4.At The Gates - The Red In The Sky Is Ours

5.Atrocity - Todessehnsucht

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The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1.

2.

3.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

2007 was a really good one, possibly my favorite of the 2000's until now, a lot of great release in Progressive metal, Black metal and Doom metal had a really strong comeback that year, overall a really great year for metal

1.Devin Townsend - Ziltoid The Omniscient

2.Epica - The Divine Conspiracy

3.Ensiferum - Victory Songs

4.Symphony X - Paradise Lost

5.Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty

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This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

2.Wachenfeldt - The Interpreter

3.Wake - Devouring Ruin

4.Waldgeflüster - Femundsmarka - Eine Reise In Drei Kapiteln

5.Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows

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**Trigger warning**

Albums and EPs rated 8.6+ from 100+ votes which I've given an 8 or lower to.

I've listened to and rated every album on MS that meets this criteria (at time of most recent update) - some of them multiple times - so I feel I can give my honest opinion.

The purpose of this is to list and order the albums that I simply don't "get" and to try re-listening to them in the hope of understanding why they've received so many 9 and 10 votes.

Ordered by my rating then MS rating then number of votes.

Updated: 03-Jan-24

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

1.Anathema - Judgement

2.Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

3.Anathema - Alternative 4

4.Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

5.Motörhead - Overkill

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The greatest albums of all time aka albums that nobody needs to listen to unless they want to aka only 9/10 and 10/10 albums here aka no memes, sorry. No particular order either. Will add more albums in the future. Because I can't add new albums in the past, can I?

1.Lurker Of Chalice - Lurker Of Chalice

2.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

3.Evoken - Quietus

4.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

5.Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828
2015-2019 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6722

I sure do love this site and it's rating system, it makes finding great music so easy and, even more importantly, when an album is overlooked for a while but starts getting a buzz a few months later, boom, there it appears in the top 20.

All that being said, I still wish there was some way to get a weighted ranking that not only takes the rating of the album into account, but also the number of votes that were cast. For example, an album with a rating of 8.8 and 1000 votes would rank higher than an album with a rating of 8.9 and 20 votes. So, I scraped all the albums on the site with at least 1 vote into a database. Then, taking a leaf out of IMDb's book, I used Bayesian estimation (like the IMDb's Top 250) to calculate a weighted rating for each album based on its Metal Storm rating and the number of votes it had received.

The formula for calculating the Top 100 Albums gives a true Bayesian estimate:
Bayes rating (BR) = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) where:
C = average expected rating given...
m = minimum number of votes
R = average rating for the album = (Metal Storm rating)
N = number of votes for the album = (votes)

The way the Bayesian estimator works is that all albums in the database are given and additional m fake votes with an average rating of C, irrespective of how many true votes it already has. Then a new weighted rating is calculated...
If the album has no true votes ( N = 0 ), then BR = ( C × m + R × 0 ) ÷ ( m + 0) = C × m ÷ m = C (the average expected rating).
If the album has a number of true votes equal to the minimum ( N = m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × m ) ÷ ( m + m ) = ( C + R ) × m ÷ 2m = ( C + R ) ÷ 2 (halfway between the two ratings).
If the album has a very large number of true votes ( N >> m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) ≈ R × N ÷ N = R (the Metal Storm rating).
This means that the Bayes rating will never equal the Metal Storm rating but will approach it as the true votes grow arbitrarily large.

Now that the maths bit is out of the way, here was my methodology:
Only Studio and EP album types, from the years 2005 to 2009, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2005-2009.
The minimum number of votes (m) was determined by calculating the 75th percentile of the votes, rounded to the nearest 10.
I also decided that if an album's Bayes rating was within 0.005 of #100, it would be included too; hence the +8.

C for 2005-2009 = 7.593
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2005 - 26
2006 - 20
2007 - 23
2008 - 17
2009 - 23

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

4.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

5.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

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Current Top 100 as of September 2019. Having listened to metal for 45 years or so - here are my favourites (favourite track). One album limit per band. Enjoy!

1.Absu - Absu

2.AC/DC - If You Want Blood You've Got It

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone

5.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

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1.Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage

2.Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

3.Burzum - Filosofem

4.Bell Witch - Four Phantoms

5.Warning - Watching From A Distance

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I always admired people who do really cool lists. But since I don't know anything, I can't really make a good one. So here's the babby-boy of lists, just to get my juices flowing.
Will be updated and expanded upon as I have time and see fit. The goal is to get my top 50 maybe, but there's a long road ahead of that.

1.Neurosis - Souls At Zero

2.A Forest Of Stars - Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes

3.Neurosis - Times Of Grace

4.Terra Tenebrosa - The Tunnels

5.Amigo The Devil - Everything Is Fine

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In early 2018, I started my long and perilous (and awesome) journey of discovering doom metal. This is my doom noob's room of gloom aka a list of those doom albums, that I've come to love during my explorations into the genre. Will add new albums regularly. *weeps in solitude*

1.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

2.Solitude Aeturnus - Into The Depths Of Sorrow

3.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

4.Warning - Watching From A Distance

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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Music is not taken into account here.
Enjoy!

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

3.Korn - Korn

4.Tool - Lateralus

5.Mägo De Oz - Gaia II - La Voz Dormida

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1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

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This is a list of the doom albums I have listened to.

The list starts with a handful of what I'd call my favorite doom albums. The first few of those count among my favorite of all time, with Paranoid, Watching From A Distance, and Черно at present holding a perfect 10. This list does have a cutoff point, stretching from those 10s through some high 9s and all the way down to middling 6s. If I rated it below a 6, it does not appear on this list, and that's because I disliked the album.

Given how much music I listen to and how many lists I have going concurrently, I don't update this as I go; I let albums accumulate for a while and then do periodic overhauls, so the list won't change for months at a time.

Last updated October 17, 2021.

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Warning - Watching From A Distance

3.Kypck - Черно

4.Woods Of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light

5.Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know

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Here is a list of my favourite albums of all time (that are on Metalstorm). I have limited it to one album per band. The albums are ordered in alphabetical order. The list is subject to change over time, but nearly all albums on here are set in stone and have been extremely influential on my musical tastes. If you think you have an album that could squeak its way onto this list, by all means suggest away.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Ahab - The Divinity Of Oceans

3.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

4.Cult Of Luna - Somewhere Along The Highway

5.Death - Symbolic

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