Metal Storm logo
Top lists


Order by:  Date | Popularity | Show all



Thumbs up: +255
Beginner's Guide To Building A Prog Collection (Standards, And A Few Unorthodox Choices)

Limited to only those albums featured on Metal Storm.


1.Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
2.Rush - Moving Pictures
3.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
5.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

      View entire list ››
Created by Introspekrieg on 03.03.2010



Thumbs up: +37
A Brutal Poem Of Technicalities (Ordered By Years)

So here are some Brutal, Technical, Progressive and sometimes Atmospheric death metal works I enjoy or that I believe should be given a try because they're unique and interesting, almost an essentials list when it comes to that style. There are some unorthodox choices as well in the mix that aren't just full-on tech death, some bands also incorporate grind, black, core elements or even jazz. Hope you'll all find something that suits your taste! The list is ordered by years. Feel free to comment and give recommendations! Just refrain from telling me an album shouldn't be featured here... All the albums here are deliberately hand-picked and if it made the list, it's for a reason.

Personal absolute favorites of mine have a ★ beside the genre. And my pics of best album for each year are identified by (best of xxxx) beside the albums.

🇨🇦 = From Canada, My Country! We're quite good at Technical and Brutal Death Metal... Trust me. I mean, you'll see for yourself.

-Guib-

- - - - - - - - - - -

Guib's Best Tech/Brutal/Prog Death Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2023:
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium

Best of 2024 So Far:
Exist - Hijacking The Zeitgeist

- - - - - - - - - - -

TAGS: Technical Death Metal, Melodic Tech-Death, Brutal, Atmospheric, Progressive, Blackened Tech-Death, Technical Thrash, Deathgrind, Deathcore, Symphonic, Dissonant Tech-Death, Experimental, Avantgarde, Grindcore, Jazz

Last Updated: May 7th, 2024

1.Atheist - Piece Of Time
2.Nocturnus - The Key
3.Atrocity - Hallucinations
4.Death - Human
5.Suffocation - Effigy Of The Forgotten

      View entire list ››
Created by Guib on 17.10.2011



Thumbs up: +27
Jay's Top Metal Albums...no Particular Order 2.0

I havnt been into metal all that long...so this is a good chuck of the metal albums i own...though ive heard many, many more....these are all albums ive spent a lot of time with (or soon will). I tried to stay away from multiple albums by an artist, but a few exceptions were made hehe.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)
2.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom
3.Absu - Tara
4.ADX - Division Blindée
5.Agalloch - The Mantle

      View entire list ››
Created by JÄY on 28.07.2010



Thumbs up: +19
Best TDM Albums Of All Time

1.Nocturnus - The Key
2.Spawn Of Possession - Noctambulant
3.Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked
4.Illogicist - The Insight Eye
5.Origin - Antithesis

      View entire list ››
Created by gorguts on 01.10.2010



Thumbs up: +15
Guib's Essentials (Alphabetical Order)

Wanna know what I headbang to on the regular? The releases that have seen countless re-spins... Well, this is a very simple list and something you've probably seen a lot of other MS users do in the past. Basically, I'm just going to list what are essential metal albums for me, my all time gems & masterpieces (very subjective and some are also in there due to nostalgia and sentimental value).

There's no particular ''Genre'' that I'll be covering and I will also try to limit myself to two albums per band and a few of my favorite tracks or highlights per album. Of course everything in this list is just my opinion, meaning that I'm not saying these albums are all masterpieces or whatnot, it's just my personal favorites. I hope most of you will agree with me and those few who don't, well... it's okay to be wrong, the next step is acceptance

🇨🇦 = From Canada, My Country!

Last Updated: April 15th, 2024

1.Absu - The Third Storm Of Cythrául
2.AC/DC - High Voltage
3.Alestorm - Black Sails At Midnight
4.Alien Weaponry - Tū
5.Amon Amarth - Fate Of Norns

      View entire list ››
Created by Guib on 02.05.2015



Thumbs up: +11
KB's Favorite Albums Of All Time (Only Metal)

Here is my provisional favorite-metal-albums-of-all-time-list! Enjoy!
The first 10 albums are in pretty accurate order. However, after that, it becomes harder and harder to separate the albums clearly. Thus, you can say that I enjoy album x on the list as much as the others in the interval of (x-5) to (x+5). For example album 37 would be as much enjoyed as 32, 33, 34, ..., 42, or something like that.

1.Cult Of Luna - Somewhere Along The Highway
2.Disillusion - Back To Times Of Splendor
3.Grand Alchemist - Intervening Coma-Celebration
4.Opeth - Blackwater Park
5.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

      View entire list ››
Created by Kuroboshi on 06.02.2013



Thumbs up: +10
Albums That Changed Me

These are some of my all time favourite albums. Not really any order, just what came to mind first.

1.John Cougar Mellencamp - Nobody's Fool
2.AC/DC - Back In Black
3.Anthrax - Attack Of The Killer B's
4.Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
5.Shadows Fall - The Art Of Balance

      View entire list ››
Created by Boxcar Willy on 03.09.2014



Thumbs up: +10
Top 30 Albums

1.Death - Symbolic
2.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance
3.Ihsahn - After
4.Virgin Black - Elegant...And Dying
5.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

      View entire list ››
Created by SSM on 30.06.2011



Thumbs up: +9
The Timeless

1.All time & genre (including Non-Metal on MS)
2.Only studio albums & EPs
3.I DON'T modify this list. So, this list is THE FINAL edition and based on my selection on 1 April 2017. (Modified on 12 February 2022)
4.The genre is primary one.
Last modified on 1 April 2017

...NOTICE: I'm reselecting albums & EPs for "The Timeless Ver2". This will be a bit more stringently selected than "ver1".

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park
2.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk
3.Krallice - Diotima
4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane
5.Deathspell Omega - Kénôse

      View entire list ››
Created by Lastempire on 07.07.2012



Thumbs up: +9
Best Albums of the New Millennium

On the picture - John Cobbett - Hammers Of Misfortune, Vhöl, Ludicra, The Lord Weird Slough Feg

1.Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil
2.Opeth - Blackwater Park
3.Hammers Of Misfortune - The Locust Years
4.Mastodon - Remission
5.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

      View entire list ››
Created by Vasil de Shumen on 08.01.2012



Thumbs up: +7
Making My Way Through The MS Top 200

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

      View entire list ››
Created by Roman Doez on 13.04.2023



Thumbs up: +7
My Favorite Death Metal Albums

This list includes the death metal albums I enjoyed listening to the most. It will be frequently updated with new albums. Descriptions will probably be added soon.
Ordered alphabetically.

1.Asphyx - Last One On Earth
2.Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
3.Autopsy - Mental Funeral
4.Benighted - Asylum Cave
5.Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade

      View entire list ››
Created by Oaken on 27.06.2012



Thumbs up: +6
1001 Metal Albums to Hear Before You Die

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

      View entire list ››
Created by metalriff on 05.02.2021



Thumbs up: +6
Top 100 (+5) Of 2000-2004

2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
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 2000 to 2004, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2000-2004.
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 +5.

C for 2000-2004 = 7.599
m = 30

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2000 - 15
2001 - 27
2002 - 14
2003 - 20
2004 - 29

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park
2.Agalloch - The Mantle
3.Tool - Lateralus
4.Wintersun - Wintersun
5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

      View entire list ››
Created by Crys1s on 26.09.2019



Thumbs up: +6
After A Year Of Metal: The Albums With The Biggest Impact

It's nearly been a year since I've started listening to metal. I've listened to many albums since then, but it took me some time to get used to some genres, band ideologies and listening to full albums. This is a list of albums that had a big impact on the way I perceive metal. It is NOT a favorite album list as I don't still frequently listen to some of the listed albums anymore. Ordered by impact level.

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
2.Suffocation - Pierced From Within
3.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter
4.Agalloch - The Mantle
5.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

      View entire list ››
Created by Oaken on 13.04.2012