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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These albums are fantastic musically but with minimal to no extreme harsh vocals. Perfect for someone who wants to start their metal journey.

1.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

2.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
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 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
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 +2.

C for 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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My favorite albums from various genres

1.Slipknot - Iowa

2.Nirvana - Nevermind

3.Summoning - Stronghold

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Anathema - Judgement

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My Favorite Albums Of The Year \m/

1.Onmyo-Za - 鬼子母神

2.Dragonland - Under The Grey Banner

3.Symphony X - Iconoclast

4.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

5.Iced Earth - Dystopia

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Take a look at the Top Album lists of recent years and you'll notice an obvious trend. In 2005 the average rating of the top 25 albums is 8.76. Jump to 2014 and the average among the top 25 has dropped to 8.26. An almost linear decrease is observable for the 10 years in between.

I was curious to see what a Top 100 for 2000-2014 would look like if I factored the votes to account for the 'rating decline'. I hope you find it interesting.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Aquilus - Griseus

5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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1.Black Cobra - Invernal

2.Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

3.In Solitude - The World. The Flesh. The Devil

4.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

5.The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

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At last but not least, my list of my favorite albums of 2011, a year on which I've been quite far from music because of my medical duties, but after some months listening to all the things I've been missing, I can say this albums are the ones I enjoyed the most last year. I was quite hard to order them, because in my humble opinion, most of them deserve the first place of their particular genre.

1.Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

2.40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room

3.Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance

4.Loss (USA) - Despond

5.Maligno - The Funeral Domine

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Here it is! Yet another unimaginative list of albums released in 2011!

1.MurkRat - Drudging The Mire

2.Woods Of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason

3.Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage

4.Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance

5.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

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In order roughly, by the number of spins. A lot = A LOT. So when I give ten more spins to the rest of the albums I've listened to, and forgot to rate most probably, this will grow larger. Or not. I'm making this for me anyway.

1.Subsignal - Touchstones

2.Symphony X - Iconoclast

3.Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times

4.Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two

5.Iced Earth - Dystopia

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This year was quite interesting as far as releases go. All-in-all, it was a GREAT year for good albums, but not a GOOD year for great albums. Usually, there are about 40 albums fighting vigorously for a spot in my lists. This year, there were ten clear cut favorites and a bunch of better-than-average arm arm wrestling for the rest of the final spots. Although my duties at metalreview.com prevent me from spending too much time around these parts, I was still a vicious lurker and enjoy being a part of this community (albeit somewhat silent). To anyone with similar tastes that may have had a good album or two fall through the cracks, I hope this list or any of my others will be of good use to you.

1.Blut Aus Nord - 777 - The Desanctification

2.40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room

3.Sorgeldom - ...From Outer Intelligences

4.Lifelover - Sjukdom

5.Mournful Congregation - The Book Of Kings

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Even in 2012 (update: 2013), 2011 still isn't too hot a year for me. Still, new stuff keeps on coming, and 2012 itself is looking pretty good, so I'll forgive it. New in the new year is the lack of ratings. It's bothersome, especially since I've decided to sacrifice a few newborns and (retrospectively and retroactively) rate on RYM.

1.Hell - Human Remains

2.SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

3.Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate

4.Hammers Of Misfortune - 17th Street

5.Mastodon - The Hunter

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Ordered best to worst. This is entirely my opinion.

1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

3.Havok - Time Is Up

4.Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

5.Deafheaven - Roads To Judah

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A list I created during 2011. No longer being edited. Just a nice snapshot in time of what albums really grabbed me in 2011.

1.Trap Them - Darker Handcraft

2.The Fallen Divine - The Binding Cycle

3.Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

4.Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

5.Smohalla - Resilience

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These are the albums I have enjoyed the most with a vague ordering. There are of course a few albums left to be heard. As for the albums I did not enjoy, they will not be making an appearance on this list.

1.Mastodon - The Hunter

2.Opeth - Heritage

3.Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony

4.Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

5.Hate Eternal - Phoenix Amongst The Ashes

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