1.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

2.Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika

3.Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary

4.Ihsahn - Arktis.

5.Alcest - Kodama

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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
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828

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 grows 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 2015 to 2019, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2015-2019.
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 2015-2019 = 7.422
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2015 - 31
2016 - 24
2017 - 18
2018 - 12
2019 - 17

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Vektor - Terminal Redux

5.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

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1.Skyclad - Wayward Sons Of Mother Earth

2.Running Wild - Pile Of Skulls

3.Skyclad - Jonah's Ark

4.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

5.Moonspell - Wolfheart

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The choice was though, not only because there were some very good albums out there, but also because as you get older, life fucks you up, and you never have enough time to listen to all the albums you want, for as much as you want. Or as much as they deserve. I must add that the list could be different if I made it on any other day, depending on the mood. I would like to note some honorable mentions too, such as Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary, Rotting Christ - Rituals, Avantasia - Ghostlights, Skuggsja - A Piece For Mind and Mirror, Ihsahn - Arktis, Moonsorrow, Jumalten Aika, Be'lakor - Vessels, Thy Catafalque Meta, and most of all Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts and Fates Warning - Theories of Flight.

1.Borknagar - Winter Thrice

2.Dark Tranquillity - Atoma

3.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

4.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

5.Delain - Moonbathers

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1.Deströyer 666 - Wildfire

2.Asphyx - Incoming Death

3.Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole Of The Law

4.Meshiaak - Alliance Of Thieves

5.After All - Waves Of Annihilation

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I have never attempted to create a complete end of the year list so far, but here it is. It consists of the albums that I have either purchased myself throughout the year (most of them), or that I still spent enough time listening to to get a more or less complete impression (a few). I know that there are countless albums out there that I haven't paid any attention to so far and I might change the list a bit in the coming months because of that. Since I am mostly listening to Black Metal, expect to see a lot from that genre in my list.

1.Forteresse - Thèmes Pour La Rébellion

2.Mare Cognitum - Luminiferous Aether

3.Schammasch - Triangle

4.Inquisition - Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith

5.Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole Of The Law

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Very late starting on this one, been rather unable to keep up with releases over the summer so will try to catch up on as many cool releases as possible in the last couple of months of the year. Be prepared for pithy reviews

1.Ortega - Sacred States

2.Riverside - Eye Of The Soundscape

3.Oathbreaker - Rheia

4.Devin Townsend - Transcendence

5.Allegaeon - Proponent For Sentience

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1.Abbath - Abbath

2.Exumer - The Raging Tides

3.Rotting Christ - Rituals

4.Deströyer 666 - Wildfire

5.Fleshgod Apocalypse - King

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2016 was... well... oh oh... oh oh... well... what the fuck!

Anyhow, here is my top 50 ranking of albums I scored 8+

Album count: 126
Average rating: 7.1

1.Alcest - Kodama

2.Khemmis - Hunted

3.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

4.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

5.Skuggsjá - A Piece For Mind & Mirror

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1.Alcest - Kodama

2.Dark Tranquillity - Atoma

3.Omnium Gatherum - Grey Heavens

4.Uada - Devoid Of Light

5.Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma

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1.Saor - Guardians

2.Oathbreaker - Rheia

3.SubRosa - For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages

4.Astronoid - Air

5.Zeal and Ardor - Devil Is Fine

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A lot of great albums from different genres this year. Ereb Altor released the best cover album of all time.

1.Borknagar - Winter Thrice

2.Netherbird - The Grander Voyage

3.Equilibrium - Armageddon

4.Twilight Force - Heroes Of Mighty Magic

5.Katatonia - The Fall Of Hearts

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1.Mantar - Ode To The Flame

2.Temple Of Gnosis - De Secretis Naturae Alchymica

3.Uada - Devoid Of Light

4.Vanhelgd - Temple Of Phobos

5.Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary

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1.Cult Of Luna - Mariner [Collaboration]

2.Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

3.Mistur - In Memoriam

4.Thy Catafalque - Meta

5.In The Woods... - Pure

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Most wanted albums to get right here and now. Ranked from Most to More liked +++.

1.Thy Catafalque - Meta

2.Cult Of Luna - Mariner [Collaboration]

3.Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika

4.Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

5.Crippled Black Phoenix - Bronze

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