So here are ten alternative metal albums which I think are significant to defining the sound of alternative metal over the years, limiting it to one album per band and keeping to albums that are best described as alternative metal as opposed to subgenres like industrial or nu metal. I've also included what I consider to be the most important song from each album, even if it's not the best representative of the albums sound.

1. Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

2. Faith No More - Angel Dust

3. Helmet - Meantime

4. Alice in Chains - Dirt

5. Tool - Undertow

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1. Candlemass - King Of The Grey Islands

2. Machine Head - The Blackening

3. Therion - Gothic Kabbalah

4. Volbeat - Rock The Rebel/Metal The Devil

5. Manowar - Gods Of War

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1. Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

2. Insomnium - Shadows of the Dying Sun

3. Saor - Aura

4. Misery Index - The Killing Gods

5. Dead Congregation - Promulgation of the Fall

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1. Suffocation - Pierced From Within

2. Decapitated - Winds of Creation

3. Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefication

4. Revocation - Revocation

5. Obscura - Omnivium

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1. Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

2. Corrosion Of Conformity - IX

3. Trap Them - Blissfucker

4. Anathema - Distant Satellites

5. Vallenfyre - Splinters

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1. Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

2. Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

3. Cradle Of Filth - Thornography

4. Trivium - The Crusade

5. Necrophobic - Hrimthursum

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1. The Ocean - Pelagial

2. Persefone - Spiritual Migration

3. Avatarium - Avatarium

4. Witherscape - The Inheritance

5. The Dillinger Escape plan - One of us Is the Killer

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This is my top 9 Metallica albums.

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets

2. Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3. Metallica - Kill Em All

4. Metallica - And Justice For All

5. Metallica - St. Anger

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1. Septicflesh - Titan

2. Allegaeon - Elements Of The Infinite

3. Illdisposed - With The Lost Souls On Our Side

4. Inanimate Existence - Never-Ending Cycle Of Atonement

5. Monuments - The Amanuensis

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Hail the Metal Beginnings

1. Venom - Black Metal

2. Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

3. Slayer - Show No Mercy

4. Kreator - Pleasure To Kill

5. Possessed - Seven Churches

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A compilation of black metal studio albums and EPs from 1981 up to 1995. Feel free to recommend anything I've missed or misspelled

1. Venom - Welcome To Hell

2. Venom - Black Metal

3. Mercyful Fate - Mercyful Fate

4. Venom - At War With Satan

5. Mercyful Fate - Melissa

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1. (1955) BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS - ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

2. (1955) FATS DOMINO - ROCK AND ROLLIN WITH FATS DOMINO

3. (1956) FATS DOMINO - THIS IS FATS

4. (1956) ELVIS PRESLEY - ELVIS PRESLEY

5. (1956) ELVIS PRESLEY - ELVIS

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1. Septicflesh - Titan

2. Anathema - Distant Satellites

3. Mekong Delta - In a Mirror Darkly

4. Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

5. Lana del Rey - Ultraviolence

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1. Allegaeon - Elements of the Infinite

2. Arch Enemy - War Eternal

3. Septicflesh - Titan

4. Killer Be Killed - Killer Be Killed

5. Insomnium - Shadows Of The Dying Sun

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1. Insomnium - Shadows Of The Dying Sun

2. Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

3. Allegaeon - Elements Of The Infinite

4. Septicflesh - Titan

5. Words Of Farewell - The Black Wild Yonder

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