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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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

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----Updated every weeks----

I'm looking for all genres without exceptions, with currently little preferencies for Progressive, Death and Black metal! Listenning to every albums 2 or 3 times at less before including it in my list.
I specify my favourite songs in order of preferency

❤ = Amazing song!

1.Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy

2.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

3.The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

4.Haken - Vector

5.Oceans Of Slumber - The Banished Heart

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Descriptions will probably be added/edited a few times as I always write this stuff pretty quickly and sometimes can't find the right words to describe somehting so abstract as music. A lot of my taste just boils down to "sounds interesting" or "catchy". So yeah. Most of this will have overlaps with other lists I made because I have very narrow taste.

1.Gnaw Their Tongues - L'Arrivée De La Terne Mort Triomphante

2.

3.Murmuüre - Murmuüre

4.

5.The Meads Of Asphodel - The Murder Of Jesus The Jew

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2018 sucks so far, and there hasn't been that much great music I've listened to. Let's see what I liked.
Listed in order of liking (1. is best, the lower on the list the least I like it compared to the other good releases on the list)

I don't give number ratings because I think they are fundamentally useless and more distracting than useful.

1.The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

2.

3.Nadja - Sonnborner

4.

5.Elysian Blaze - The Virtue Of Suffering

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Another installation of famous robpal's HIGH ENERGY list! This time for the year of 2018.
Here are the rules.

No rating=haven't heard yet/not enough spins

★★★★★ - Masterpiece!
★★★★½ - Excellent!
★★★★☆ - Great!
★★★½☆ - Very Good!
★★★☆☆ - Enjoyable!
★★½☆☆ - OK, Nothing Special
★★☆☆☆ - Mediocre
★½☆☆☆ - Poor

1.Odin's Court - Turtles All The Way Down Volume II

2.Kayak - Seventeen

3.White Wizzard - Infernal Overdrive

4.Corrosion Of Conformity - No Cross No Crown

5.Perfect Beings - Vier

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Order is sorted by album repeat.

1.Vola - Applause Of A Distant Crowd

2.Beyond Creation - Algorythm

3.Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology

4.Alterbeast - Feast

5.Khemmis - Desolation

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I'll be spending 2 months in the US so probably won't manage to beat the 130-odd albums I heard in the first half of the year, but I'll do my best.

1.Dirge - Lost Empyrean

2.Ingrina - Etter Lys

3.Between The Buried And Me - Automata

4.King Buffalo - Longing To Be The Mountain

5.A Forest Of Stars - Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes

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A personal collection of all things excellent from 2018. I want to share with you.

1.Møl - Jord

2.Vola - Applause Of A Distant Crowd

3.Dirge - Lost Empyrean

4.Erdve - Vaitojimas

5.The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

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All the 2018 albums I listened to this year. Just like last year I always added the specific genre/subgenre so you can get an idea what might be of interest to you.

1.Sunnata - Outlands

2.Crescent - The Order Of Amenti

3.IAH - ll

4.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

5.Riverside - Wasteland

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Last updated on 11 April 2024.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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1.Judas Priest - Firepower

2.Traitor - Knee-Deep In The Dead

3.Ashes Of Ares - Well Of Souls

4.Mantar - The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze

5.Anaal Nathrakh - A New Kind Of Horror

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

2.Galneryus - Angel Of Salvation

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Batushka - Litourgiya

5.Leprous - Bilateral

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2018 albums repos

1.Tribulation - Down Below

2.Anna Von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

3.Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs

4.Therion - Beloved Antichrist

5.The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

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1.Angra - ØMNI

2.Barren Earth - A Complex Of Cages

3.Between The Buried And Me - Automata I

4.Borealis - The Offering

5.In Vain - Currents

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