1.Angra - ØMNI

2.Barren Earth - A Complex Of Cages

3.Between The Buried And Me - Automata I

4.Borealis - The Offering

5.In Vain - Currents

      View entire list ››

Every metal album from 2018 I've heard and liked enough to play more than a couple of times.

1.Panopticon - The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness

2.Mike LePond's Silent Assassins - Pawn And Prophecy

3.Grá - Väsen

4.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

5.Ihsahn - Àmr

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2018 is far from being over, but there are some excellent albums out there already. This is my personal opinion, and I like to discuss opinions, and unbiased ones, not likings ok? So if you think there is something I should change, explain me respectfully why

1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

2.On Thorns I Lay - Aegean Sorrow

3.Thy Catafalque - Geometria

4.Euphoreon - Ends Of The Earth

5.Necrophobic - Mark Of The Necrogram

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**DISCLAIMER: This list is based on my own opinion and musical taste, and should not be taken otherwise.
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Self-explainatory list that's used mostly for personal reminders of upcoming releases.
Your recommandations & suggestions are welcome! :-)
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I think it won't be a surprise if I say that my favorite album of 2018 was:
AMORPHIS - Queen Of Time !!!

1.Riverside - Wasteland

2.Conception - My Dark Symphony

3.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

4.Lunatic Soul - Under The Fragmented Sky

5.Skálmöld - Sorgir

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Simple ranking of all my favorite albums. Favorite song from the album in the notes. Sure to change/expand as I learn and explore more within metal.
2023: This was starting to get too long so I split it into separate lists for albums at each ranking 10 to 7. This list will no longer be updated.
10: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6891
9: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7213
8: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7512
7: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=8058

1.Madder Mortem - Eight Ways

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Ayreon - 01011001

4.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

      View entire list ››

My top prog albums. The list will be regularly updated.

1.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

4.An Abstract Illusion - Woe

5.Gojira - Magma

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This list is my top 100 played albums ordered by the number of "scrobbles" since 2013 according to last.fm, if you also have a last.fm account, don't hesitate to follow me.
My last.fm user: daniloescolin

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.

3.W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children

4.Kreator - Enemy Of God

5.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

      View entire list ››

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

2018 was pretty good year, some solid releases in death and Melodic death metal, Symphonic metal had a pretty good record comparing to previous years, and Judas priest released there best album in almost thirty years.


My favorite non metal albums of 2018

1. Civilisation
By Southern Empire (Progressive rock, Symphonic rock)


2. Schmaltz
By Spanish Love Songs (Pop Punk, Emo)


3. Joy as an Act of Resistance
By Idles (Post-Hardcore, Art punk)


4. TA13OO
By Denzel Curry (Trap, Southern Hip Hop, Trap Metal)


5. OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES
By SOPHIE (Bubblegum Bass, Hyperpop, Experimental)



My favorite movie from 2018

1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

2.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

3.Crescent - The Order Of Amenti

4.Judas Priest - Firepower

5.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

      View entire list ››

1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

      View entire list ››

1.Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology

2.Antimatter - Black Market Enlightenment

3.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

4.Hamferð - Támsins Likam

5.Riverside - Wasteland

      View entire list ››

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
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828

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 grows 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 2015 to 2019, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2015-2019.
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 2015-2019 = 7.422
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2015 - 31
2016 - 24
2017 - 18
2018 - 12
2019 - 17

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Vektor - Terminal Redux

5.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

      View entire list ››

2018 was a great musical year for me as I finally had enough pocket money to satisfy my CD mania... It took me only three decades...

So here is my top 50 of 2018

Album count: 140
Average rating: 7.13

1.Ihsahn - Àmr

2.Skuggsjá - Hugsjá

3.Judas Priest - Firepower

4.At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself

5.Antimatter - Black Market Enlightenment

      View entire list ››

1.The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes The World Ain't Enough

2.Powerwolf - The Sacrament Of Sin

3.Judas Priest - Firepower

4.Brainstorm - Midnight Ghost

5.In Vain - Currents

      View entire list ››

The impossible task of choosing top 25 albums for this year... so many of them are not even on MS. But here they are, top 10 are kinda in order, the remaining 15 are not sorted by importance.

1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

2.Primordial - Exile Amongst The Ruins

3.Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest

4.Judas Priest - Firepower

5.Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog

      View entire list ››

1.Panopticon - The Scars Of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness

2.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

3.Tribulation - Down Below

4.Necrophobic - Mark Of The Necrogram

5.Primordial - Exile Amongst The Ruins

      View entire list ››