Thought this would be a fun challenge to do, hope you guys enjoy it and especially the non-metal picks

Written by Roman Doez on 12.05.2025 at 15:01

Thought this would be a fun challenge to do, hope you guys enjoy it and especially the non-metal picks

It is pretty cool haha, kudos for Camel's Mirage.

Nice list idea, maybe I'll do something similar. Nice to see some love for Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, it's insanely underrated on this site. Just a one tiny nitpick is you could write the year the album came out in, I recognize of them so I know from the memory the year of release, but still.

Written by BurntEmbodiment on 13.05.2025 at 11:21

Nice list idea, maybe I'll do something similar. Nice to see some love for Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, it's insanely underrated on this site. Just a one tiny nitpick is you could write the year the album came out in, I recognize of them so I know from the memory the year of release, but still.

I was thinking about doing that, I'll update it right away
FFTtF is so good and it's weird how underrated it is here compared to other music websites, definitely the peak of Morbid Angel's career imo

Written by Roman Doez on 13.05.2025 at 12:22

Written by BurntEmbodiment on 13.05.2025 at 11:21

Nice list idea, maybe I'll do something similar. Nice to see some love for Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, it's insanely underrated on this site. Just a one tiny nitpick is you could write the year the album came out in, I recognize of them so I know from the memory the year of release, but still.

I was thinking about doing that, I'll update it right away
FFTtF is so good and it's weird how underrated it is here compared to other music websites, definitely the peak of Morbid Angel's career imo

Is it really underrated here though? It's a 7.6 out of over 300 votes. That's pretty fucking good. More than this would likely place it somewhere in the top 200 of all times (pushing a little there but hey!), which, although a good release, doesn't deserve that spot IMO. Also gotta keep in mind that some of the top 200 releases are also in there likely due to their major influence on metal as a whole or their respective subgenre, which isn't really the case for FFttF. That's essentially "respect" votes if you ask me. Anyways 7.6 is a good score.

All I can admit to is that in a general sense, MS definitely has a more critical and demanding crowd than some other sites. That's a good thing honestly.

Written by Guib on 13.05.2025 at 15:23

Is it really underrated here though? It's a 7.6 out of over 300 votes. That's pretty fucking good. More than this would likely place it somewhere in the top 200 of all times (pushing a little there but hey!), which, although a good release, doesn't deserve that spot IMO. Also gotta keep in mind that some of the top 200 releases are also in there likely due to their major influence on metal as a whole or their respective subgenre, which isn't really the case for FFttF. That's essentially "respect" votes if you ask me. Anyways 7.6 is a good score.

All I can admit to is that in a general sense, MS definitely has a more critical and demanding crowd than some other sites. That's a good thing honestly.

Alright, there is a lot of stuff I disagree with in there so stay with me while I rant for a (long) minute.

First, 7.6 is a relatively low score by MS standard. I will admit that the consensus for a pretty good score on modern MS is at around 7.5/10, but this is an album released in the 90s and there is strong positive bias for older releases.
For 1998, FFTtF is rated 158th out of 227 albums with 20+ votes, which would make it an unremarkable album within that year. As a comparison, with that same score, it would sit at around the 130th place out of 589 albums released in 2024. This puts it in the upper 25% of releases in 2024 vs in the lower 30% of releases in 1998. It's a strong improvement.

Secondly, to enter the MS top 200, you need 200 votes and an average score of 8.65/10. There is quite a big gap between 7.6 and 8.65, and after manually checking, I can tell you that FFTtF currently sits at the 1794th place out of the 2238 albums with more than 200 ratings, placing it firmly in the bottom 20% lowest rated albums with that many ratings on MS. That's nowhere near the top 200, even if you were to remove albums that get a good rating only for their historical influence. (this is the point I think was your strangest by far)

Thirdly (I'm not sure that's a real word but I'll roll with it), MS is absolutely not more critical and demanding than other websites. Let's look at the other biggest music websites: RYM, AOTY and SputnikMusic.
On RYM, the top 200 has albums rated between 8 and 8.8/10, and the top 20 albums of 2025 are rated between 7.36 and 7.88/10.
On AOTY, the top 200 ranges from 9.5 to 8.7 which is very slightly higher than MS, and the top 20 for 2025 goes from 8 to 8.5, which I'll give it to you is currently higher than on MS.
On SputnikMusic, the top 200 ranges from 9.3 to 8.74, which is once again slightly higher than MS but by a very small margin. And the top 20 for 2025 goes from 7.7 to 8.2 with one outlier at 8.6, which is roughly the same range as MS.
Overall, MS seems well within the average, and if anything, RYM is the more critical and demanding website by quite a margin.

Finally, and probably the only really important point here, what I mean when I say that Formulas is underrated on MS isn't simply that it has a low score, it's that it has a low score compared to the rest of Morbid Angel's discography, which is the easiest point of comparison.
Here, FFTtF is rated 0.9/10 below Blessed Are The Sick, 0.6 below Domination and 0.4 below Gateways, and it's the 158th highest rated album of 1998.
On Rate Your Music, it is rated 0.1/10 below Blessed Are The Sick, 0.5 above Domination and 0.02 above Gateways, and it's the 57th highest rated album of 1998. Not 57th highest metal album, 57th highest album in general.
On AOTY, it is rated 0.3 below Blessed, the same as Domination and 0.3 below Gateways. It's also 188th/429 on the overall charts for 1998.
On SputnikMusic, it is rated 0.9 below Blessed but the same as Domination and Gateways.

A random MS user looking at Morbid Angel's score would think Formulas is by far the low point of their golden age, while on other websites it clearly is within the same range as at least Domination and Gateways.

Anyway, this was a lot longer than it needed to be to simply say: Formulas is kinda underrated on MS.
This is also true for At The Gates' "The Red In The Sky Is Ours" but I don't really care about that album so I won't write an essay on it.

That N.O.D album is great. First time listening. I love Tommy Wright III so no idea how I didn't know about this album.

Written by Roman Doez on 13.05.2025 at 18:13

Written by Guib on 13.05.2025 at 15:23

Is it really underrated here though? It's a 7.6 out of over 300 votes. That's pretty fucking good. More than this would likely place it somewhere in the top 200 of all times (pushing a little there but hey!), which, although a good release, doesn't deserve that spot IMO. Also gotta keep in mind that some of the top 200 releases are also in there likely due to their major influence on metal as a whole or their respective subgenre, which isn't really the case for FFttF. That's essentially "respect" votes if you ask me. Anyways 7.6 is a good score.

All I can admit to is that in a general sense, MS definitely has a more critical and demanding crowd than some other sites. That's a good thing honestly.

Alright, there is a lot of stuff I disagree with in there so stay with me while I rant for a (long) minute.

First, 7.6 is a relatively low score by MS standard. I will admit that the consensus for a pretty good score on modern MS is at around 7.5/10, but this is an album released in the 90s and there is strong positive bias for older releases.
For 1998, FFTtF is rated 158th out of 227 albums with 20+ votes, which would make it an unremarkable album within that year. As a comparison, with that same score, it would sit at around the 130th place out of 589 albums released in 2024. This puts it in the upper 25% of releases in 2024 vs in the lower 30% of releases in 1998. It's a strong improvement.

Secondly, to enter the MS top 200, you need 200 votes and an average score of 8.65/10. There is quite a big gap between 7.6 and 8.65, and after manually checking, I can tell you that FFTtF currently sits at the 1794th place out of the 2238 albums with more than 200 ratings, placing it firmly in the bottom 20% lowest rated albums with that many ratings on MS. That's nowhere near the top 200, even if you were to remove albums that get a good rating only for their historical influence. (this is the point I think was your strangest by far)

... ... ...

Holy smokes, didn't expect such a deep dive and result. Respect!

So I was wrong it seems, probably too biased for being almost exclusively on MS. I still think 7.6 is a great score but sure it might be underrated compared to their own releases.

I knew I was pushing on the top 200, but didn't expect it was that far... My bad! Welp, we learn and move on. Thanks for that.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 13.05.2025 at 20:26

That N.O.D album is great. First time listening. I love Tommy Wright III so no idea how I didn't know about this album.

I'd say it's my favorite of the classic Memphis tapes, I think it's the one that embodies the dark and eerie atmosphere of the scene the best, it's really great

Written by Guib on 14.05.2025 at 00:09

Holy smokes, didn't expect such a deep dive and result. Respect!

So I was wrong it seems, probably too biased for being almost exclusively on MS. I still think 7.6 is a great score but sure it might be underrated compared to their own releases.

I knew I was pushing on the top 200, but didn't expect it was that far... My bad! Welp, we learn and move on. Thanks for that.

Hehehe thank you, I have way too much time on my hands

Fun list idea. A few choices I absolutely agree with, but seems like a good showcase of your taste. The non-metal selections are actually even more interesting to me, a few things I haven't heard before that I'll have to check out.

Love the range of bands (metal and non-metal) included in this list! Very nice and diverse taste!

Mine but from 1980 onwards:
1980: Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
1981: Iron Maiden - Killers
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1983: Mercyful Fate - Melissa
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Slayer - Hell Awaits
1986: Candlemass - epicus doomicus metallicus
1987: Savatage - hall of the mountain king
1988: Iron Maiden - seventh son of a seventh son
1989: Morbid Angel - altars of madness
1990: Megadeth - rust in peace
1991: Death - human
1992: Darkthrone - a blaze in the northern sky
1993: My Dying Bride - turn loose the swans
1994: Mayhem - de mysteriis dom sathanas
1995: At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
1996: Cradle Of Filth - Dusk And Her Embrace
1997: Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
1998: Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth
1999: Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter
2000: Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World
2001: Tool - Lateralus
2002: Mastodon - remission
2003: Katatonia - viva emptiness
2004: Cult of Luna - salvation
2005: Opeth - ghost reveries
2006: Celtic Frost - monotheist
2007: Watain - sworn to the dark
2008: Burst - lazarus bird
2009: Amorphis - skyforger
2010: Deathspell omega - paracletus
2011: Ulcerate - the destroyers of all
2012: Evoken - atra mors
2013: Cult of luna - vertikal
2014: Behemoth - the satanist
2015: Ghost - meliora
2016: Vektor - terminal redux
2017: Amenra - mass VI
2018: Judas Priest - Firepower
2019: Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
2020: Atramentus - Stygian
2021: Thy Catafalque - Vadak
2022: The Otolith - Folium Limina
2023: Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current
2024: Ulcerate - Cutting the Throat of God

Interesting idea, thanks.
A bit bias towards Iron Maiden, but everybody's taste different so still cool (in my list you'll probably have The Cure all over the place for non-metal throught the 80's...)
I'll admit that I have never heard of any of your non-metal bands after the 90's (obvious exception Bowie...) but I admire this eclectism.

Written by bddidier on 09.06.2025 at 18:36

Interesting idea, thanks.
A bit bias towards Iron Maiden, but everybody's taste different so still cool (in my list you'll probably have The Cure all over the place for non-metal throught the 80's...)
I'll admit that I have never heard of any of your non-metal bands after the 90's (obvious exception Bowie...) but I admire this eclectism.

It's not really a bias toward Iron Maiden, it's rather that there aren't that many metal albums I really like from 1980 to 1984 and Maiden were really consistent at the time. Somewhere In Time is a true all time favorite though.
I'm still making my way through The Cure's stuff but thank you for the reminder to actuallly update my list lol, Pornography is definitely up there for 1982!