LATEST EDIT: December 12/2016- Added a whole bunch of progressive rock albums; processing earlier suggestions on the list.

Assembled below are some choice selections in alternative metal, prog rock, prog metal, jazz and avant-garde metal. I don't necessarily consider these styles to be my favourite (I do have a penchant for post-metal and cavernous death metal these days), but they have been the foundations of my taste for the last seven or eight years.

1.

2.Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

3.Rishloo - Living As Ghosts With Buildings As Teeth

4.Karnivool - Asymmetry

5.Blindead - Absence

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Because I reached the word limit on the previous list, and don't want to lose my quite excellent in-depth descriptions. Those without descriptions are from my other list.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

4.Abigail Williams - Becoming

5.Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Area 52

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These are my favorite 20 Progressive/Symphonic/Neo-Classical Power Metal albums

1.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Symphony X - The Odyssey

4.Symphony X - Paradise Lost

5.To-Mera - Delusions

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Once again I have put together a top list of albums released during the year from best to worst. However, this time around I have also written a short personal opinion/mini review for most of the albums in their respective comment sections.

1.Agruss - Morok

2.Menace Ruine - Alight In Ashes

3.Summer Fades Away - We Meet The Last Time, Then Departure

4.Sigh - In Somniphobia

5.Faal - The Clouds Are Burning

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Another year, another favourites of the year list... But hopefully this will be more complete than the previous years ones. Rather than making a massive list of everything I have listened to, I'll be as selective as possible. I've only started listening to 2012 releases since February, so I'll be playing catch up throughout the year as my time is limited. I've only gone through 556 releases this year properly as of 07/01/2013, so the list can only expand! If you feel strongly about certain albums released this year and it's not here, be sure to leave a comment! Feel free to make a list that's exactly the same =P

1.CSSABA - Underground Lo-Fi Songs

2.Indesinence - Vessels Of Light And Decay

3.Monolithe - Interlude Second

4.Nadja - The Primitive World

5.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

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Well, it's been a terrific 2012 for metal fans. I listened to hundreds of albums and I'd like to share my favs with you. Although it was very difficult I have narrowed down my top 20.

1.Sunpocrisy - Samaroid Dioramas

2.Downfall Of Gaia - Suffocating In The Swarm Of Cranes

3.Rush - Clockwork Angels

4.Adrift - Black Heart Bleeds Black

5.Constants - Pasiflora

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Other good lists with some melodic metal in them:
strade's - R'Vannith's - Unhealer's - Lkoturnindrin's

Will only add 7.5+ releases, so this won't be a gargantuan list... last year saw maybe forty or so releases I thought of as 7.5+'s, a lot of them rated only at the end of the year, and some not rated at all due to the extensiveness of pre-MSA listening sessions... if you want to stalk my "bad" ratings, they're all in my album votes.

1.Enochian Theory - Life... And All It Entails

2.Dissona - Dissona

3.Big Big Train - English Electric 1

4.Headspace - I Am Anonymous

5.Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man And The Spirit

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I will be logging here everything I check out and at least slightly enjoy on 2012, so I don't miss anything by the end of the year. Scores are subject to change.

1.Ihsahn - Eremita

2.Hypno5e - Acid Mist Tomorrow

3.Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata

4.Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

5.Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

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This is currently undergoing a year end overhaul. All albums added, but not ordered or commented. Expect completion whenever I get round to it!

1.Lamb Of God - Resolution

2.Wilds Forlorn - We, The Damned

3.Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron

4.Monolithe - Interlude Second

5.Liberteer - Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees

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1.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

2.Katatonia - Dead End Kings

3.Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol

4.Adrenaline Mob - Omertá

5.To-Mera - Exile

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