Here's my AotY for each year from 1970, with a runner up (or two) following.
Pink Floyd and Yes aren't here, King Crimson is, so I'll include King Crimson

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

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I've been listened to Black Metal since the late 2000s starting with Emperor and Dimmu Borgir. Since then, I've discover dozens of amazing bands thanks to MS and it has become one of my favourite genres, especially the more melodic/symphonic/epic bands.

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of black metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

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

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

3.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

4.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

5.Windir - 1184

      View entire list ››

These CDs are on the highest shelf

1.Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal

2.Anthrax - Among The Living

3.Anthrax - Sound Of White Noise

4.Biohazard - State Of The World Address

5.Biohazard - Nativity In Black - A Tribute To Black Sabbath

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Here is my top 50 of 2011. Albums rated 8+

In 2011, I started my second MS account after losing the first to the discontinuation of my Uni email address.

"But your account says you joined in 2020" I hear you say. Yes I also lost access to my second account you see. Be welcomed on my third you smartass

Album count: 248
Average rating: 6.69 (so close but still nice)

1.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

2.Mastodon - The Hunter

3.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

4.Leprous - Bilateral

5.Helheim - Heiðindómr Ok Mótgang

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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.

2011 was a solid year for metal, one of the best for black metal in years, a revival of 70s stone and doom metal sound, and a strong showing of power metal.

My favorite non metal albums of 2011

1.Aquilus - Griseus

2.Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust

3.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

4.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

5.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

      View entire list ››

The second part of my list year by year!

1.The Foreshadowing - Oionos

2.Aquilus - Griseus

3.Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

4.Hamferð - Evst

5.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

      View entire list ››

1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.King Diamond - Abigail

3.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5.Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

      View entire list ››

The goats. The near perfect albums that never get old. Some are full of catchy bangers I'm always humming, and some are so full to the brim of details that I still haven't even uncovered them all.

A brief outline of my ratings:
8.5-9.0 = An excellent album with a few mild drawbacks (Weak song, slightly irritating vocals, odd flow)
9.0-9.5 = Perfect albums that haven't quite warranted the time-earnt 9.5+.
9.5-9.9 = Perfect albums that have stood the test of time, ranked by preference.
10 = I don't expect to hear another album like these, ever.

(I use 'perfect' lightly as it makes no sense for a man-made creation to be flawless. 'Perfect' is simply a term to outline how high a level of enjoyment is, specifically the level of enjoyment when minor faults become insignificant.)

(I evaluate albums outside of metal vastly differently to the ones here, which explains the lack of representation of my other favourite genres. Blue Sky Mining is an exception due to being structured very similarly to my optimal metal album. I may add some picks from other genres down the line.)


STATS:
I know y'all don't look at my lists, so these are purely for my own interest.

-Decades
'10s: 36
'20s: 22
'00s: 7
'90s: 2

-Genres (By best fit or most prominent)
Prog: 35
Death: 11
Power: 9
Symphonic: 4
Black: 3
Contemporary: 2
Folk: 1
Doom: 1
Rock: 1

1.Devin Townsend - Empath

2.Memories Of Old - The Zeramin Game

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.An Abstract Illusion - Woe

5.Persefone - Aathma

      View entire list ››

1.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

2.Kauan - Sorni Nai

3.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

4.Wilderun - Veil Of Imagination

5.Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

      View entire list ››

1.Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

2.Leprous - Bilateral

3.Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two

4.Aquilus - Griseus

5.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

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* Updating this as I get around to doing song-by-song on RYM.
* 1 album per band
* limiting this to actual black metal releases, as opposed to releases by bands that were, at one time, black metal.
>> Some bands really do incorporate a lot of both death metal or doom (or avant garde or folk, etc) and black metal in their albums, so I consider them to be 'black metal adjacent' even if it might not be 'purely black metal'

1.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

2.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

3.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

4.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

      View entire list ››

A little list of some great black metal albums by someone who generally doesn't listen to black metal. So there will not be any Mayhem, Bathory, Immortal, Watain, Burzum, Marduk or the likes of them on this list since I'm not interested in that kind of traditional old school black metal.
A maximum of one album per band is allowed and they need to have some sort of black metal labeled to them. Enjoy!

1.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

2.Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

3.Hoth - Infinite Darkness

4.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

      View entire list ››

Here are albums (ordered by subgenre) that I want to listen to, but haven't yet.
For some albums, I've heard one or two songs, but not the entire album. Therefore, these albums still await my judgement!
Recommendations are always welcome!

1.

2.Frail Body - Artificial Bouquet

3.Ulterror - Transcendent Origins

4.Mastiff - Deprecipice

5.Verberis - The Apophatic Wilderness

      View entire list ››

All my favourite songs ranked in order best down.

1.Rush - 2112

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Jethro Tull - Aqualung

4.Rainbow - Rising

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

      View entire list ››