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Top 20 Of 2002

Must Listen: The First 12

1.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
2.In Flames - Reroute To Remain
3.Sentenced - The Cold White Light
4.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
5.Spiritual Beggars - On Fire

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Created by Alex Avagianos on 08.02.2021



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: +3
The Best Metal Albums* From A To # (P-Q)

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.P.H.O.B.O.S. - Phlogiston Catharsis
2.Paara - Riitti
3.Pagan Altar - Mythical & Magical
4.Pagan's Mind - Enigmatic : Calling
5.Paganizer - Into The Catacombs

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Created by Uxküll on 01.02.2021



Thumbs up: +1
Albums For Metal Virgins

These albums are fantastic musically but with minimal to no extreme harsh vocals. Perfect for someone who wants to start their metal journey.

1.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance
2.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind
3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid
4.Dream Theater - Images And Words
5.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

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Created by Ryanm123 on 28.12.2020



Thumbs up: +3
Essential Metal/ Hard Rock Albums

It's possible that you've glossed over some of these because they're too "popular".
Maybe you've never heard of a few.
Regardless, these are albums that I think everyone should hear at least once if you're a novice metal fan or have been head banging for years.

1.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
2.Summoning - Stronghold
3.Death - Human
4.Rush - A Farewell To Kings
5.The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand

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Created by Ryanm123 on 05.11.2020



A Little Further (Into The Progressive)

One album per artist in alphabetical order which happen to be my favorites. Feels like an addendum to the ?Beginner's Guide To Building A Prog Collection" (http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=58) often mentioning the same band but different releases.

1.36 Crazyfists - A Snow Capped Romance
2.Agrypnie - 16[485]
3.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea
4.Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
5.Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy

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Created by niklas_sn7 on 28.04.2020



Top 30 Albums Of 2002

1.Agalloch - The Mantle
2.Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness
3.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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Created by al3xjpt on 01.04.2020



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



Thumbs up: +1
My Favourite Albums Of 2000s

1.Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar
2.After Forever - After Forever
3.Agalloch - The Mantle
4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

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Created by In Bone Factory on 01.09.2018



Top Rock Bands

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
2.Rush - Rush
3.Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
4.AC/DC - The Razor's Edge
5.Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains

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Created by tysly on 12.05.2018



My Top Of 2002

1.Audioslave - Audioslave
2.Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage
3.Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness
4.Opeth - Deliverance
5.Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

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Created by Archie 666 on 18.08.2017



Thumbs up: +2
Best Metal Albums Ever (IMO)

Metal albums that blow me away every time I hear them. Loosely ordered... list gets less organized as it goes on. My favorite song from each album is included.

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
2.Faith No More - Angel Dust
3.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
4.Tool - Ænima
5.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

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Created by matthewdurham on 09.05.2017



Five-Second 30 Favorite Progressive Metal Album

Just for my favorite
2016.09.16

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
2.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy
3.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane
4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
5.Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter

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Created by HowieWu on 16.09.2016



Thumbs up: +5
Progressive Metal Bands For People Who Hate Prog

Progressive metal has some of the most creative musicians in metal, but the tendency for progressive bands to make extremely long, technical songs with no sense of structure can be turnoff to some people, and often these bands take themselves too seriously, making them unenjoyable for people who like their metal to have some good rock n' roll fun. These bands frequently avoid such prog cliches, they are completely capable of writing a pop song without sacrificing complexity if they choose to, and weave a range of influences in creative and even fun ways.

1.Devin Townsend - Accelerated Evolution
2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
3.Toehider - What Kind Of Creature Am I?
4.Coheed and Cambria - Volume 4
5.Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

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Created by Ganondox on 16.10.2015



Thumbs up: +24
2000-2014: A 'Factored' Top 100

Take a look at the Top Album lists of recent years and you'll notice an obvious trend. In 2005 the average rating of the top 25 albums is 8.76. Jump to 2014 and the average among the top 25 has dropped to 8.26. An almost linear decrease is observable for the 10 years in between.

I was curious to see what a Top 100 for 2000-2014 would look like if I factored the votes to account for the 'rating decline'. I hope you find it interesting.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle
2.Opeth - Blackwater Park
3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI
4.Aquilus - Griseus
5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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Created by Moose on 13.09.2015