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Thumbs up: +2
Top 40 Power Metal Albums

Power Metal is a genre I've gotten into quite a bit over the past few years. I'd only really listened to Symphony X before, but discovered Blind Guardian, Wuthering Heights, Gamma Ray and others thanks to MS!

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 power 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.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side
2.Wuthering Heights - Far From The Madding Crowd
3.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free
4.Symphony X - The Odyssey
5.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

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Created by nonZero on 12.02.2024



Thumbs up: +1
Essential Power Metal

1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows
2.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part I
3.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part II
4.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond
5.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

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Created by em6568 on 19.06.2023



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

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Created by Roman Doez on 13.04.2023



My Top 50 Favorite Metal Albums Of All Time

Limiting my picks to one album per band (otherwise it would have been a much larger list), here are my top 50 favorite metal albums of all time including my favorite track for each album:

1.Stratovarius - Episode
2.Angra - Angels Cry
3.Helloween - Better Than Raw
4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning
5.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

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Created by stratogustav on 18.03.2023



Thumbs up: +1
My Most Frequently Listened-to Albums Of 2022

Collected thanks to Last.fm. Looks like there's been an odd mixture of brutal death metal, symphonic deathcore, old school death metal and... power metal (among others) because i'm a fantasy enjoyer.

1.Infant Annihilator - The Battle Of Yaldabaoth
2.Immolation - Acts Of God
3.Shadow Of Intent - Elegy
4.Meshuggah - Immutable
5.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

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Created by Qualeen on 01.01.2023



Thumbs up: +1
Top Metal Albums Each Year I Have Been Alive, 2003

A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

2003 may not have been that spical, but for me I think it was possibly one of the best years for Power and Symphonic metal, also this was the year where I started to listen to metal regularly going back to classic albums and bands, starting my metal journey.

1.Masterplan - Masterplan
2.Epica - The Phantom Agony
3.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath
4.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
5.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came

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Created by Handala on 22.09.2022



Thumbs up: +1
Top 50 Of 2000-2004

1.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
2.Evergrey - The Inner Circle
3.Dark Tranquillity - Haven
4.Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I
5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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Created by Alex Avagianos on 12.08.2022



Thumbs up: +6
Park Metal

Music I listen to in an English-styled park in Warsaw, where nature grew in such a way that a controlled wilderness was achieved. Some songs match certain seasons better than others! This music goes well with the wonderful fantasy-themed imagination I've been gifted through my autism.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle
2.Opeth - Blackwater Park
3.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
4.Wintersun - Wintersun
5.Summoning - Stronghold

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Created by Qualeen on 04.07.2022



Thumbs up: +3
400+ Favorite Songs

Last updated on 9 Feb 2024.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words
2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
3.Wintersun - Wintersun
4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane
5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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Created by Qualeen on 10.10.2021



Thumbs up: +5
200+ Favorite Albums

Note: Tool intentionally ommitted because they don't consider themselves metal. Otherwise you'd see their first 4 albums in top 25.

Last updated: 7 March 2024.

1.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
2.Agalloch - The Mantle
3.Opeth - Blackwater Park
4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
5.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

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Created by Qualeen on 30.09.2021



Thumbs up: +16
Andy's top ranked 10 Minutes+ songs 🤘🤘

All my favourite songs that are 10 minutes+

1.Rush - 2112
2.Deep Purple - In Rock
3.The Doors - The Doors
4.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself
5.Rush - Hemispheres

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Created by AndyMetalFreak on 23.08.2021



Top 20 Of 2003

Must Listen: All

1.Masterplan - Masterplan
2.Kamelot - Epica
3.Evanescence - Fallen
4.Katatonia - Viva Emptiness
5.Deadsoul Tribe - A Murder Of Crows

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Created by Alex Avagianos on 15.02.2021



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

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Created by metalriff on 05.02.2021



Thumbs up: +4
The Best Metal Albums* From A To # (L)

This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.Labyrinth - Return To Heaven Denied Pt. II
2.Lacrimas Profundere - Memorandum
3.Lacrimosa - Elodia
4.Lacuna Coil - Comalies
5.Lahmia - Resilience

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Created by Uxküll on 01.01.2021



Thumbs up: +5
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

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Created by Crys1s on 26.09.2019