So, these are basically my favourite albums of all time, including non-metal/rock acts, compilations and live albums. Needless to say, I would need a couple of days to go through all of these.

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

3.Riverside - Out Of Myself

4.Rotting Christ - Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers

5.Anathema - Alternative 4

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In this list, many Death Doom have also

1.Empyrium - A Wintersunset...

2.Empyrium - Songs Of Moors And Misty Fields

3.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

4.Shape Of Despair - Illusion's Play

5.Shape Of Despair - Angels Of Distress

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An entirely subjective list of my all-time favourite metal albums, well lets better say albums/genres featured on MS, since not all here is precisely metal.
Objective quality is not a criteria here, just how much I like the album. Ordered by preference, top down.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Opeth - Morningrise

3.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

4.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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Limited to two albums per band a work in progress.

1.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

2.Heavenwood - Diva

3.Skyclad - The Answer Machine?

4.Moonsorrow - Suden Uni

5.Moonspell - Wolfheart

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1.Katatonia - Brave Murder Day

2.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came

3.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

4.Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion

5.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

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These are the bands, which because of their sheer beauty and creativity have a special place in my collection.

1.Kayo Dot - Bath

2.Negură Bunget - OM

3.Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom

4.Cynic - Focus

5.Unexpect - In A Flesh Aquarium

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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1.Death - Symbolic

2.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

3.Ihsahn - After

4.Virgin Black - Elegant...And Dying

5.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

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Progressive Metal/Rock is my main music, but you can't ignore the beauty in other genres.

1.Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR

2.Opeth - Damnation

3.Porcupine Tree - The Incident

4.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

5.Tool - 10,000 Days

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1.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

2.Theatre Of Tragedy - Theatre Of Tragedy

3.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

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This is an alphabetical list of metal songs and albums that inspired the names of other artists.

While comparable lists often focus on the band name and explain its origin, this list turns the point of view and presents the influential albums and songs that were the basis for the inspiration of other artists and therefore highlights their general impact.

Please feel free to suggest more (MS listed) metal/hard rock examples.

SUMMARY
BANDS THAT INFLUENCED SEVERAL OTHER ARTIST NAMES WITH THEIR WORK

1st Place (14):
Black Sabbath

2nd Place (7):
Judas Priest

3rd Place (4):
Morbid Angel, Venom

4th Place (3):
Celtic Frost, Metallica

5th Place (2):
Cynic, Darkthrone, Deftones, Iron Maiden, Kreator, Motörhead



SUMMARY
ALBUMS THAT INFLUENCED THE NAMES OF SEVERAL OTHER ARTISTS

1st Place (3):
Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath),
Ride The Lightning (Metallica), Altars Of Madness (Morbid Angel), Welcome To Hell (Venom)

2nd Place (2):
Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Master Of Reality (Black Sabbath), Mob Rules (Black Sabbath), To Mega Therion (Celtic Frost), Focus (Cynic), Sin After Sin (Judas Priest), Stained Class (Judas Priest), Pleasure To Kill (Kreator)

1.Amebix - No Sanctuary: The Spiderleg Recordings

2.Anathema - Alternative 4

3.Arch Enemy - Black Earth

4.Architects - Ruin

5.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

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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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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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1.The Gathering - How To Measure A Planet?

2.Tiamat - Wildhoney

3.My Dying Bride - A Line Of Deathless Kings

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Samael - Ceremony Of Opposites

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Stuff that got me hooked in the course of the years, from my very first blurred memories as a toddler to the present day.
Lots of catchy tunes, some cheese, very few flowers.
Songs that had a big impact on me and influenced my taste in music.
Stuff to let it all hang out, songs for campfire sing-alongs and soundtracks to slit your wrists to.

1.Queen - Jazz

2.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

3.Dio - Holy Diver

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Einstürzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch

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