1.Opeth - Still Life

2.Katatonia - Last Fair Deal Gone Down

3.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

4.In Flames - Whoracle

5.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

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1.Behemoth - The Satanist

2.Rhapsody Of Fire - From Chaos To Eternity

3.Mors Principium Est - Dawn Of The 5th Era

4.Insomnium - Shadows Of The Dying Sun

5.Wintersun - Time I

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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
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 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
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 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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My personal favorite studio albums of 2012

1.Wintersun - Time I

2.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

3.Katatonia - Dead End Kings

4.Khors - Wisdom Of Centuries

5.If These Trees Could Talk - Red Forest

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This serves as a memory note, pretty much.

1.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

2.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

3.Ghost Brigade - IV - One With The Storm

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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1.Enslaved - RIITIIR

2.Meshuggah - Koloss

3.Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage

4.In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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This is a list of bands featuring some of the best guitar work. This covers overall writing, riffs, grooves, and whatnot.
It isn't really in any particular order.

1.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

2.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3.Leprous - Tall Poppy Syndrome

4.The Project Hate MCMXCIX - Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate

5.Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders

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So, I figure with all the staff picks and ms awards going around, I'd post some of the new favorites I've found in 2012, as well as some anticipated favs of the year! Some of these have really changed since the MS awards, since I found myself enjoying certain albums way more than others, which likely would have been on my list otherwise.

1.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

2.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

3.Enslaved - RIITIIR

4.Xanthochroid - Blessed He With Boils

5.Atoma - Skylight

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1.Vision Divine - Destination Set To Nowhere

2.Weeping Silence - For The Unsung

3.Paradox - Tales Of The Weird

4.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

5.Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending To Infinity

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1.Sabaton - Carolus Rex

2.Wintersun - Time I

3.Eluveitie - Helvetios

4.Kamelot - Silverthorn

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

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1.Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme

2.Borknagar - Urd

3.Katatonia - Dead End Kings

4.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

5.The Gathering - Disclosure

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1.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

2.In Mourning - The Weight Of Oceans

3.Bilocate - Summoning The Bygones

4.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

5.In The Silence - A Fair Dream Gone Mad

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The title is self-explanatory, i guess.

1.Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme

2.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

3.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

4.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

5.Meshuggah - Koloss

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1.Enslaved - RIITIIR

2.Ancestors - In Dreams And Time

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

5.Royal Thunder - CVI

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1.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

2.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

3.Gorod - A Perfect Absolution

4.Swallow The Sun - Emerald Forest And The Blackbird

5.Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme

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