Wow, what a great list. There are at least 4 masterpieces here: Morningrise, Brave Murder Day, Crimson and Paradise Belongs To You. After that I count 3 amazing albums: Irreligious, Like Gods Of The Sun and Moon In The Scorpio.

1996 is (according to my votes) the best year ever. Other masterpieces or amazing albums are in my opinion:
- Theatre Of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness They Fear (gothic)
- Empyrium - A Wintersunset... (folk doom)
- Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum (symphonic doom)
- Summoning - Dol Guldur (atmospheric black)
- Evereve - Seasons (atmospheric gothic)

Anyway, I rarely thumb up top lists of any year, but this one deserves it.

Thanks for the comment

To be honest if I had to update this list I wrote three years ago there would be quite a few changes, namely removing Tool and Samael for instance. Empyrium would definitely be on that list, as well as Blut Aus Nord's Memoria Vetusta I. Also, Estatic Fear would not be far from this top 10, so I guess I could thumb up a similar list of yours