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

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Some albums are really good. Many of these are good all the way around. And, in many cases, there is a single song that stands out, sometimes it's the last song on the album. This is a list of those songs.

For a more in depth look at this, I've codified each into a given category:
Type 1 - 'The long song at the end.' Often the title track. These have a tendency to be most well written and dynamic pieces on the album.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.Abigail Williams - Becoming

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

5.Anekdoten - Vemod

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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

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These are my 20 favorite albums ever. There is a lot of a prog here, which is my favorite genre.

My taste isn't exactly defined yet, but that's because I'm still young.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

3.Tool - Lateralus

4.Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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Right... Let's get this out of the way from the get-go. Alternative metal is hard to define. I guess that comes from it always wanting to experiment, explore and fuse heavy metal with non-metal music genres. It also makes it an ever changing and growing genre.

Also, before you guys flood me, yes my list contains a lot of Industrial & Nu Metal bands, as well as other genre.. As far as I'm concerned, my picks all fit quite well in the scope of an alternative metal list. Don't you agree? Wait... You disagree? Well, let's agree to disagree and move on.

As for the list itself, I'm going to try and list through time what I (me, myself & moi) consider as essential alternative albums. I will also limit myself to a maximum of 4 releases each year to prevent a messy list, which often makes it a difficult decision, especially in the early 2000's. So yes, it is possible your personal favourite won't be featured. You can tell me all about it in the comments below and we can discuss it, even argue it.

Now, have fun, enjoy my list and let me know what you think or would personally put in your favourite alt-metal list!

-Guib-

EDIT: I will now add my pick for best album of each year using the (best of xxxx) in the chosen album's description.

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Guib's Best Alternative Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2022
Polyphia - Remember That You Will Die

Best Of 2023
Mutoid Man - Mutants

Best of 2024 So Far
...tbd

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Last Updated: March 27th, 2024

1.Living Colour - Vivid

2.Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

3.Faith No More - The Real Thing

4.Godflesh - Streetcleaner

5.L7 - Smell The Magic

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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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NO MORE ARGUMENTS ABOUT OPETH EDITION!

Ever had that one album that a band has made that everybody just passes off as being decent while you see it as a masterpiece? Well, here are (in no particular order) the albums that I feel deserve much more attention than what they got from their fanbases.

1.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

2.Queensrÿche - Promised Land

3.Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold

4.Queen - Innuendo

5.System Of A Down - Steal This Album!

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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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my 100 favorite metal albums of all times. Alphabetical order.

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

3.Ahab - The Giant

4.Alice In Chains - Dirt

5.Altar Of Plagues - Mammal

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Progressive rock / metal - what I love the most in my collection. Would love suggestions to add to it.

1.Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders

2.Animals As Leaders - The Joy Of Motion

3.Ayreon - The Human Equation

4.Between The Buried And Me - Colors

5.Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

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This is very simple, I took the ratings for a bunch of alternative metal albums on MS and ranked them accordingly

To qualify:
The album must have been released when the band was labelled as "Alternative Metal" by MS. So for example the three most recent Gojira albums count, but early Gojira does not.

The band must have more than 10 fans on MS

Therefore this is not a reflection of my opinions, rather a reflection of numbers so if you wanna get mad, get mad at the numbers, not me. And remember that this really isn't that serious

1.Mass Hysteria - Contraddiction

2.Tool - Lateralus

3.The Butterfly Effect - IV

4.Tool - Ænima

5.Mass Hysteria - Le Bien-Être Et La Paix

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this list is related to this forum thread, please check
this list is a collaborative one and will surely grow ; it is a proof of concept for a club feature, see here.

Hi people. I'd like to create a list of albums with the purpose of being as complete as possible. I'm looking for music that is technical or progressive, although I really don't like when things get out of hand, with crazy vocals in 4 different registers building tension and brutally stoping to yield it to a shredding solo in mixolydian helped by drums in 11/12 which try to imitate the synth syncopation in counterpoint, for ten seconds before jumping into something else.

1.Angra - Angels Cry

2.Angra - Holy Land

3.Angra - Fireworks

4.Angra - Rebirth

5.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

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Recently, instead of scouring too much the albums of the year I'm in, I decided to take a deeper journey and appreciate progressive music (prog metal/rock). While I'm still in the early beginnings of my journey, I decided to make a list to the albums I fully listen to so that I can keep charting my voyage in these vast seas. Some albums are not yet added because I need to listen them well and grab my favorites out, and some bands are on queue. I'm also eager to hear some recommendations, so thanks in advance for them!

1.Ayreon - The Human Equation

2.Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve

3.Blotted Science - The Machinations Of Dementia

4.Control Denied - The Fragile Art Of Existence

5.Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons [EP]

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This is my top albums (only with those where I gave 8 or more). I will update the list now and then

1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Slipknot - Iowa

4.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

5.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

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Listen to these on LSD, they're good.

1.Arcturus - Sideshow Symphonies

2.Ulver - Teachings In Silence

3.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

4.Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn

5.Tool - Lateralus

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