1.Metallica - Death Magnetic

2.Forefather - Steadfast

3.Trivium - Shogun

4.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

5.Theocracy - Mirror Of Souls

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The albums below is my definition of extreme metal music, regardless of their genre. Entire list is based only on my personal preferences in metal.
Rules:
1. One album per band
2. 305 groups/305 albums

1.In Flames - Clayman

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Chimaira - Chimaira

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Testament - The New Order

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1.Haste The Day - When Everything Falls

2.The Agony Scene - The Darkest Red

3.Feed Her To The Sharks - Savage Seas

4.Stick To Your Guns - Comes From The Heart

5.Chimaira - The Impossibility Of Reason

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1.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

2.Bleeding Through - The Truth

3.Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

4.Dry Kill Logic - The Darker Side Of Nonsense

5.Evergreen Terrace - Sincerity Is An Easy Disguise In This Business

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

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

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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Metal albums (and yes, I consider metalcore to be metal) that rocked my world, with maximum 2 albums per band sorted by bands in alphabetic order. Live, EP and compilation albums allowed, also including hard rock and stoner rock albums.

It will be updated as I discover new bands so check it sometime

1.Alabama Thunderpussy - Open Fire

2.Alice In Chains - Dirt

3.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

4.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

5.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

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1.Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil

2.DevilDriver - The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand

3.Five Finger Death Punch - War Is The Answer

4.Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

5.Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

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A cross selection of Thrash, Old School, Progressive, Power and Hair Metal.

1.Five Finger Death Punch - The Way Of The Fist

2.Overkill - The Years Of Decay

3.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

4.AC/DC - Back In Black

5.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

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These albums, in no particular order (except for the very 1st one) are the albums that have affected my life the most.

1.Seether - Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces

2.Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

3.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

4.Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli

5.Gorgoroth - Twilight Of The Idols

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From last.fm (27.07.12)

1.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

2.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

3.Machine Head - The Blackening

4.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

5.Machine Head - Through The Ashes Of Empires

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1.Anthrax - Worship Music

2.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

3.Bullet For My Valentine - Hand Of Blood

4.Bullet For My Valentine - Scream Aim Fire

5.Kittie - In The Black

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These albums are my favorite since I started listen to Metal.

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Epica - Consign To Oblivion

3.Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything

4.After Forever - After Forever

5.Blackfield - Blackfield

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1.All That Remains - Overcome

2.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

3.As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us

4.As I Lay Dying - The Powerless Rise

5.Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

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1.Trivium - Shogun

2.Avenged Sevenfold - Waking The Fallen

3.All That Remains - Overcome

4.Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk

5.Avenged Sevenfold - Sounding The Seventh Trumpet

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