Power Metal is a genre I've gotten into quite a bit over the past few years. I'd only really listened to Symphony X before, but discovered Blind Guardian, Wuthering Heights, Gamma Ray and others thanks to MS!

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of power 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 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also 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)

1.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

2.Wuthering Heights - Far From The Madding Crowd

3.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

4.Symphony X - The Odyssey

5.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

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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.

2006 was okay there was a couple of great release, a really good year for Doom metal , but not as amazing as the year before but still a good one

My favorite non metal albums of 2006

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Summoning - Oath Bound

3.Draconian - The Burning Halo

4.Opera Magna - El Ultimo Caballero

5.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

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This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.D.C. Cooper - D.C. Cooper

2.Dali's Dilemma - Manifesto For Futurism

3.Damim - The Difference Engine

4.Dämmerfarben - Im Abendrot

5.Damned Spirits' Dance - Weird Constellations

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This is a list of all the power metal albums I have listened to that are worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is not meant to be a definitive guide to power metal or a binding judgment on what power metal is or is not. The list exists purely for my own organizational purposes and may contain bands or albums that are not strictly True Knights of the Eternal Thundersword.

The first cluster includes my favorite albums in the genre (and a significant number of my all-time favorites); beyond that, they are listed by rating from 9/10 down to 6/10 and alphabetically within each bracket.

Last updated November 27, 2021.

1.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

4.Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne

5.X Japan - Art Of Life

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828
2015-2019 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6722

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 grow 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 2005 to 2009, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2005-2009.
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 +8.

C for 2005-2009 = 7.593
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2005 - 26
2006 - 20
2007 - 23
2008 - 17
2009 - 23

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

4.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

5.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

My personal favorites. These albums are as perfect as an album can get, they always bring up the adrenaline and have in many ways changed the way I perceive music, expanding the horizons of metal in various ways. Most important of all they never get old or boring and therefore should be given a chance.

1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

4.Adagio - Underworld

5.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

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Since many of you felt annoyed by my previous list title I changed it and hopefully you will be ok with it.Power up everybody!!!

1.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

4.Riot - ThunderSteel

5.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

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These are my favorite power metal albums. Not only are they liked for their musical quality, but also for their sheer genius.

1.Dragonland - Astronomy

2.Sabaton - The Art Of War

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Kamelot - Ghost Opera

5.Dream Evil - Dragonslayer

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These are my favorite 20 Progressive/Symphonic/Neo-Classical Power Metal albums

1.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Symphony X - The Odyssey

4.Symphony X - Paradise Lost

5.To-Mera - Delusions

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1.Narnia - Course Of A Generation

2.Dragonland - Astronomy

3.Elvenking - Heathenreel

4.Elvenking - Two Tragedy Poets (...And A Caravan Of Weird Figures)

5.Falconer - Falconer

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One of the things I like most about Dragonland is their Death Metal roots. They wanted to expand outside the scope of Death Metal and mixed their formula with power, symphonic, and progressive sounds. Combine all those styles and you get Dragonland's epic sound.

1.Dragonland - Astronomy

2.Dragonland - Starfall

3.Dragonland - Under The Grey Banner

4.Dragonland - Holy War

5.Dragonland - The Battle Of The Ivory Plains

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AWesomest power metal albums I've heard in my life and Enjoy the most (and some which are extreme power which didnt feel right not to put them here..!), probably not ordered in the most right way...!!

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica

3.Dark Moor - Autumnal

4.Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

5.Stratovarius - Visions

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***Currently working through suggestions and adding some spacey non-metal things when they cross my mind***
As a lover of all things sci-fi I find metal to be the most accommodating of genres when it comes to themes of space/aliens. This is a list of those albums which use this theme and/or evoke an overall 'spacey' atmosphere and which I find particularly intriguing and enjoyable. No order for now and a work in progress (recommendations most welcome) Last Updated: 9th April 2014

1.Atoma - Skylight

2.Ayreon - The Universal Migrator Part I: The Dream Sequencer

3.Dol Ammad - Star Tales

4.Star One - Space Metal

5.Pagan's Mind - Enigmatic : Calling

      View entire list ››

My Favorite Metal Songs. I tried to limit myself to one song per album, so this list also doubles as my favorite song off of each of these albums also. Probably stop the list at 666 if I ever get there.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio

3.Testament - The Legacy

4.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

5.Wolf (UK) - Edge Of The World

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