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.Aara - En Ergô Einai

2.Aarni - Bathos

3.Aaskereia - Dort, Wo Das Alte Böse Ruht

4.Aastraal - Tuba mirum spargens sonum per sepulcra regionum, coget omnes ante thronum

5.AATHMA - Avesta

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My personal favorites. These albums are as perfect as an album can get, they always bring up the adrenaline and have in many ways changed the way I perceive music, expanding the horizons of metal in various ways. Most important of all they never get old or boring and therefore should be given a chance.

1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

4.Adagio - Underworld

5.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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A list of albums considered by me to be totally worth checking out, even if you are not into whichever genre they belong to. No particular order, maybe except for the first three

1.Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood

2.Tool - Lateralus

3.Gorguts - Obscura

4.Neurosis - Souls At Zero

5.In The Woods... - Omnio

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Without following any specific order. Some albums are more power/symphonic/thrash than prog but for some reasons i thought they deserved a place in this list.

1.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

2.Guilt Machine - On This Perfect Day

3.Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter

4.Opeth - Blackwater Park

5.Sun Caged - The Lotus Effect

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Compilation of many Hard Rock or Metal Ballads I've heard. Bands and Albums are ordered by name alphabetically.

1.Accept - Balls To The Wall

2.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

3.Accept - Eat The Heat

4.Adagio - Underworld

5.Aerosmith - Aerosmith

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My other lists:
Tasty Stuff Not Currently Featured On MS
So I Heard You Like Opeth...

A concise list of my metalhead man-crushes (now featuring ladies.)

While there is little introduction required for some of these bands and their front(wo)men, there are no words that can accurately describe such jaw-dropping talent anyhow. The albums and youtube links listed are meant to display the full capacity of vocalists' talents, not the bands' most quality or popular tracks - click the links below and behold the prowess.

1.Abstrakt Algebra - Abstrakt Algebra

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone

4.Amorphis - Silent Waters

5.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

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Since many of you felt annoyed by my previous list title I changed it and hopefully you will be ok with it.Power up everybody!!!

1.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

4.Riot - ThunderSteel

5.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

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A list for power metal bands and albums, which are sadly overlooked by the majority, but are highly deserving much more attention. That means obviously that this is no place for the genres biggest and most well known acts, like Blind Guardian, Helloween, Sabaton or the likes.
This list is ever progressing, so feel free to suggest as many bands as they come up in your mind. I will check them out and then decide if they need to be included or not.
The only requirements: They should be quite well hidden in the metal world and not only be extraordinary good but also really something else (I obviously don't want to fill this list with a bunch of unknown, but average, generic and thousand times copied plastic power metal bands).
This list is ordered by my personal impressions.

1.Crom - Vengeance

2.Wuthering Heights - The Shadow Cabinet

3.Fairyland - Score To A New Beginning

4.Dol Ammad - Ocean Dynamics

5.Eldritch - El Niño

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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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The best ballads in the history of Metal. Of course, all these bands and other bands have really good ballads but this list shows the very best, handpicked by me. In alphabetical order by bands name to make the list less chaotic and not by order of preference.

1.Accept - Eat The Heat

2.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

3.Adagio - Underworld

4.Aerosmith - Aerosmith

5.Allen/Lande - The Battle

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My favorite and most enjoyed album's of the decade 2000-2009. Roughly in order, but not exactly.

You can kinda tell from this list that I joined Metalstorm in 2009. I started discovering far more music thanks to this site, hence the number of '09 releases featured. I'm slowly starting to pick back through the top lists of previous years, so I expect more pre-'09 releases will be added to this list.

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Vektor - Black Future

3.Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect

4.SikTh - Death Of A Dead Day

5.Protest The Hero - Fortress

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Progressive (and anything progressed) albums I'd like to take with me to the underground. I'm 25 years old and 8 "metal years old" when this list is created.
In not any particular order, and to be continued : ))

1st time edited (06Nov2013): adding more, including kinds of Symphony X 2007, Persefone 2013, Haken 2013...

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

4.Symphony X - The Odyssey

5.Adagio - Sanctus Ignis

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My personal top-list, limited to one album per band. I only add albums that I own physical copies of.

1.Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape

2.Pan.thy.monium - Khaooos & Kon-Fus-Ion

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

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1.Adagio - Underworld

2.Evergrey - Recreation Day

3.Twilightning - Delirium Veil

4.Anathema - A Natural Disaster

5.Gojira - The Link

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