I'm (sorta) back. *The Finishing Touches* OKAY, so obviously not as much stuff from the last half of the year as the first. Sorry guys, but that first six months nearly killed me. Some stuff as a result will be missing, but major stuff not present is stuff I probably didn't care for. Alrighty then, enough with the "stuff"...

1.Bound By Entrails - The Stars Bode You Farewell

2.Royal Thunder - CVI

3.Akphaezya - Anthology IV: The Tragedy Of Nerak

4.Dissona - Dissona

5.Anhedonist - Netherwards

      View entire list ››

My list of favourites and interests for this year ordered roughly in descending order. My new years resolution is to branch out a bit and listen to new and unfamiliar genres, metal and non-metal.

Edit: Anything above about a 7/10 I'll keep here. Now with approximate rating in a .5 scale and ordered according to **replay value** i.e how often I listen to them. AND now with some comments, adding them gradually.

1.Enslaved - RIITIIR

2.Pharaoh - Bury The Light

3.Anglagard - Viljans Öga

4.Overkill - The Electric Age

5.The Foreshadowing - Second World

      View entire list ››

I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

      View entire list ››

I've been listening to metal for over a decade now. Here's my all time "favorites" list. Updated with comments March 24th, 2016. I started with death metal acts of In Flames and Dark Tranquility. I went to power metal for a long time, yet have circled back with getting re-introduced to Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, and Be'lakor.

1.In Flames - The Jester Race

2.Omnium Gatherum - Beyond

3.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

4.Wintersun - Wintersun

5.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

      View entire list ››

To explain the title, there is no year 0, regardless of what Ghost may tell you. Thus, the first decade was years 1-10, instead of 0-9. So then it would be 11-20, and so on. But I know that would imply that Paranoid is a 60s album, which we cannot have.

So now that all the cool kids are doing it, here is my top 100 albums of the "decade", most of it might be a bit too mainsteam, most of it you'll find on others' lists, and so on. Restricted to one album per artist/band (including collabs), ordered alphabetically.

1.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

2.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

3.Akhlys - The Dreaming I

4.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

      View entire list ››

Too many 2012 lists around, you complain? You don't have to complain about this, though, it is NOT a 2012 list!

Previously, this list contained long-ass reviews, and distorted orders. But then this made people lose order and no one really reads what I write except about a handful of albums, so I decided to remove the X/10 rating system and use an "A-F" kinda stuff.

1.Rush - Clockwork Angels

2.Cytotoxin - Radiophobia

3.Overkill - The Electric Age

4.Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

5.Testament - Dark Roots Of Earth

      View entire list ››

My favorite albums of 2012.

2012 was a good year for Metal, or should I say for Metal of my taste. The year was packed with a lot of Doom Metal albums, and the big names like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Candlemass and Katatonia all came good.

My favorites Moonspell and Saturnus also came up with good albums. Epica was a bit of a let down, but still good enough for me. Then there were a couple of really good debut albums (Atoma and In The Silence top the list for me). So overall, it was a year where the hits just kept coming and music-wise I was never bored.

1.Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

2.Swallow The Sun - Emerald Forest And The Blackbird

3.Moonspell - Alpha Noir / Omega White

4.My Dying Bride - A Map Of All Our Failures

5.Falling Leaves - Mournful Cry Of A Dying Sun

      View entire list ››

Input:
10 years
20 decade lists
749 bands
973 albums

Output:
200 top albums from 2010-2019


FAQ

How are the points calculated?
Simple math.

Ranked top lists:
1st place = 150 pts.
2nd place = 149 pts.
...
100th place = 51 pts.
...
150th place = 1 pt.

Alphabetically sorted lists:
Each place = 100 pts.

Why just a Top 200?
Because 200 list entries are more than enough.

Is it by pure coincidence that the first four positions are occupied by bands with the initial letter "E"?
Yes.

Will your list be updated on a regular basis?
No.

Why is my favorite power metal abum not featured?
I don't know. Let's ask the list owners:

AgentOrange94 - Top 10 Albums Of The 10's
andreosokin - Top 25 Albums Of 2010s
ChapuLviz - Top 100 Grind List (2010-2019)
Chobo_jokeR - JokeR's Top Hunnid From 2010 - 2019
Desha - Me(tal) In The 2010s
Draugen - Top 100 of the 2010s
embracing - My Completely Subjective Top 10 Of The 2010-2019 Decade
Enemy of Reality (RIP) - 100 Album Guide To The Decade 2010-19
FullyOttoMatic - 50 Favorite Metal (And Metal-Adjacent) Albums Of The 2010's
Iron Men - A Decade Of Aggression
Kuroboshi - Top 100 Albums Of 2010-2019
Maco - 2010-2019 Top 100
musclassia - 150 Albums To Become An Adult To: 2010-2019
mz - Best Of 2010-2020 By Mz
Neachy - Neachy's Select: Top 100 Albums Of The 10s
nikarg - Old Nick's Top-101 Of The '10s
nonZero - My Top 50 Albums of the 2010s (deleted)
RaduP - You Know It's Technically 2011-2020, Right?
VIG (RIP) - VIG's Top 100 Of The 2010s
Zap - I Too Listened To Some Metal In The 2010's

1.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

2.Esoteric - Paragon Of Dissonance

3.Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole

4.Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence

5.Tribulation - The Formulas Of Death

      View entire list ››

Voila.

1.Saturnus - Saturn In Ascension

2.Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Cosmosophy

3.Dordeduh - Dar De Duh

4.Indesinence - Vessels Of Light And Decay

5.Enslaved - RIITIIR

      View entire list ››

Other good lists with some melodic metal in them:
strade's - R'Vannith's - Unhealer's - Lkoturnindrin's

Will only add 7.5+ releases, so this won't be a gargantuan list... last year saw maybe forty or so releases I thought of as 7.5+'s, a lot of them rated only at the end of the year, and some not rated at all due to the extensiveness of pre-MSA listening sessions... if you want to stalk my "bad" ratings, they're all in my album votes.

1.Enochian Theory - Life... And All It Entails

2.Dissona - Dissona

3.Big Big Train - English Electric 1

4.Headspace - I Am Anonymous

5.Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man And The Spirit

      View entire list ››

1.Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

2.Amiensus - Restoration

3.Mors Principium Est - ...And Death Said Live

4.Deftones - Koi No Yokan

5.Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

      View entire list ››

I began this decade in my final year of high school, in the early phases of my metal journey (Mastodon, Machine Head, Dream Theater, Pantera and Avenged Sevenfold were still recent discoveries). One Masters degree and one PhD later, I'm now a tax-paying Londonian, and have ploughed through what must be comfortably over 2000 new releases during the previous ten years. To commemorate the end of a turbulent decade, I've put together a list of the albums that have stuck with me throughout this decade - I wouldn't consider this to be a 'best albums' list, as there have been some truly ingenious works released in more avant-garde territories, but ultimately these are the albums that have ended up dominating my listening habits, or otherwise making a sufficient impression to make this list.

1.Sylosis - Monolith

2.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Cult Of Luna - Vertikal

      View entire list ››

Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

      View entire list ››

This is my order of preference of the 2012's albums I've listened for now. Feel free to make recommendations or ask anything.

1.Devin Townsend - Epicloud

2.Moonspell - Alpha Noir / Omega White

3.Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

4.Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol

5.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

      View entire list ››

My top list by far......
last update : 23/01/2019

1.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

2.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

3.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

4.Amorphis - Silent Waters

5.Death - Symbolic

      View entire list ››