Welcome to what I consider the "1980s Metal Bible" or in other words, a list of records of various genres in the arrays of Metal and Hard Rock that I deem essential or at least very recommended to listeners of hard and heavy music. In this second part we conquer the mighty decade that many deem as the classic decade of Metal. This and the other parts of this journey through the decades may be a very overwhelming list. I essentially try to collect all albums in the History of Metal that strike me as worthwhile. May this be a guideline for people that seek for an entrance to a particular genre or certain bands. In no means I am saying, that this list is indisputable by any means. I consider these my personal picks for albums that should be listened to by die-hard metal fans at least once. Hopefully you can discover some new music or relate with my picks. If I missed something that you would include in such a list, please tell me in the form of a comment. Enjoy! \,,/

1. Tygers Of Pan Tang - Wild Cat

2. Krokus - Metal Rendez-Vous

3. Cirith Ungol - Frost And Fire

4. Witchfynde - Give 'Em Hell

5. Angel Witch - Angel Witch

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1. Three Days Grace - One-X

2. Celtic Frost - Monotheist

3. Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

4. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

5. Suicide Silence - The Cleansing

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The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1. Albums I am yet to hear:

2. -----------------------------

3. W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

4. Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5. Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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A list of my favorite album covers

1. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

2. Mercyful Fate - Melissa

3. Slayer - Reign In Blood

4. Motörhead - Motörhead

5. Iron Maiden - Powerslave

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Limiting my picks to one album per band (otherwise it would have been a much larger list), here are my top 50 favorite metal albums of all time including my favorite track for each album:

1. Stratovarius - Episode

2. Angra - Angels Cry

3. Helloween - Better Than Raw

4. Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5. Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

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i like it

1. Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade

2. Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory

3. Bolt Thrower - Warmaster

4. Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos

5. Bolt Thrower - Mercenary

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This is an alphabetical list of metal songs and albums that inspired the names of other artists.

Please feel free to suggest more examples.

1. Amebix - No Sanctuary: The Spiderleg Recordings

2. Anathema - Alternative 4

3. Arch Enemy - Black Earth

4. Architects - Ruin

5. Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

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The best debut records of all time by year…

1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2. KISS - Kiss

3. Rush - Rush

4. AC/DC - High Voltage

5. Motörhead - Motörhead

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A collection of totally family-friendly jams fitting the spooky season. One song per band!

1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2. Slayer - South of Heaven

3. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

4. Metallica - Ride the Lightning

5. King Diamond - Abigail

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1. Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments

2. Malevolent Creation - Retribution

3. Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence

4. Death - Scream Bloody Gore

5. Death - Leprosy

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1. King Diamond - Conspiracy

2. Annihilator - Alice In Hell

3. Blind Guardian - Follow The Blind

4. W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children

5. Savatage - Gutter Ballet

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I started listening to metal music when I was a teenager, somewhere around the end of the 90's. After all these years, I thought it was high time to compose my personal top list of metal albums. What you see here is the absolute best of the best ... according to my taste.

To compile this list I have put all albums that I have given a 10/10 here on MS. Then I have put all these albums in a Ranking Engine (https://www.pubmeeple.com/ranking-engine) where they were put head to head and I had to choose which I liked more. The list below is what came out of this exercise.

1. Opeth - Deliverance

2. Opeth - Blackwater Park

3. Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

4. Edge Of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow

5. Cobalt - Eater of Birds

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3 caveats
1. Death metal album (not just debut from band that became death metal, like Carcass)
2. Released calendar year 1999 or earlier
3. By a band with more than 1 album (1-album wonder list is elsewhere)

Yes, there are a few bands conspicuous in their absence. For whatever reason, I just never really got into them.
I don't dislike them, but I don't regard them as highly as most folks do

EDIT - I stayed away from death/thrash combo albums, more for convenience's sake. So Malleus Maleficarum, Illusions, Seven Churches, Serpent Temptation, etc are not on this list, but they'll be on the next list I make (top 25 Brutal thrash/death-thrash albums)

1. Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

2. Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence

3. Nocturnus - The Key

4. Sinister - Cross The Styx

5. Demigod - Slumber Of Sullen Eyes

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1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1. Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2. King Diamond - Abigail

3. Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4. Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5. Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

1989 was another great year for metal, I tried to add more obscure and overlooked albums on this list

My favorite non heavy metal albums of 1989

1. Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

1. Running Wild - Death Or Glory

2. Coroner - No More Color

3. Faith No More - The Real Thing

4. Alice Cooper - Trash

5. Titan Force - Titan Force

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