All my favorite albums (rated 9 or 10), in cronological order.

1.Iotunn - Access All Worlds

2.Soen - Imperial

3.Draconian - Under A Godless Veil

4.Soen - Lotus

5.Chapel Of Disease - ...And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye

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A lot has already been said about the best album openers in metal. Not that much do we talk about abum closers though.
I guess for me the ending of an album is at least as important as its start.
I have put here my favourite album closers in all metal of all time, in descending order of my preference. And I am looking forward to your comments on it.

1.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

2.Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings

3.Mercyful Fate - Melissa

4.Opeth - Morningrise

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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These are my favorite opening songs of all time. When I listened to them, I was instantly hooked! Whether it starts with a slow instrumental build-up or an aggressive assault of riffs, these openers set the tone for the rest of their respective albums. Enjoy!

1.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

2.Judas Priest - Painkiller

3.Summoning - Minas Morgul

4.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

5.Testament - The Legacy

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1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

5.Motörhead - Inferno

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Metal albums (and yes, I consider metalcore to be metal) that rocked my world, with maximum 2 albums per band sorted by bands in alphabetic order. Live, EP and compilation albums allowed, also including hard rock and stoner rock albums.

It will be updated as I discover new bands so check it sometime

1.Alabama Thunderpussy - Open Fire

2.Alice In Chains - Dirt

3.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

4.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

5.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

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This is my top albums (only with those where I gave 8 or more). I will update the list now and then

1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Slipknot - Iowa

4.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

5.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

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So, past half a century old, with my best years behind me, and, frankly, after looking at a post-lockdown world with all our current shit, the possibly sensible decision was made to eschew the standard "buy a sports car" mid-life crisis bullshit and instead take a spin around the world (while we're still able) to meet the people, eat the food, drink all the booze and listen to the tunes. Speaking of tunes, tried to time entry to each new country with a band/artist from the region. Behold.

1.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Entombed - Left Hand Path

4.Skepticism - Alloy

5.No Mercy - Lay Down Sally

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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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Inspired by Jiri's list of greatest track numbers, I decided to make a tracklist of my own!

I chose 1 song as the best 1st track of any album, 1 song as the best 2nd track of any album, etc. The list goes to 10 tracks, because I only know a few albums that have more than 10 tracks.

To keep it diverse, I've followed the rule of 1 song per band. I've tried to also choose the songs in such a way that the tracklist flows nicely, with diversity in pace and genres, but still working together to create one hell of an album!

1.Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

2.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

3.Slayer - Show No Mercy

4.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

5.Death - Leprosy

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It's possible that you've glossed over some of these because they're too "popular".
Maybe you've never heard of a few.
Regardless, these are albums that I think everyone should hear at least once if you're a novice metal fan or have been head banging for years.

1.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

2.Summoning - Stronghold

3.Death - Human

4.Rush - A Farewell To Kings

5.The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand

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1st Wave of Black Metal. Most bands here may not be considered black metal as we know it today or even in the 2nd wave, but had some sort of influence of the genre's subject matter, sound and imagery.

1.Bathory - Bathory

2.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

3.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

4.Blasphemy - Fallen Angel Of Doom

5.Bulldozer - The Day Of Wrath

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Pretty self-explanatory, with a couple caveats: first, this is mostly just a list of my favorite metal bands in approximate order (after the top 10 or so the order matters far less), with extra weight given to influence and timelessness of sound; and second, the albums selected are not necessarily the band's "best" album, or even my personal favorite -- they are the albums that I feel best represent the band's classic sound and/or well-represent the span of their career. List includes all sub-genres of metal and some post-metal metal. Feel free to spew your hatred below. \m/ (xx) \m/

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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1.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

4.Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force

5.Scorpions - Love At First Sting

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Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Non-Metal mentions:
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Hyæna (Goth)

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

4.Trouble - Psalm 9

5.Grim Reaper - See You In Hell

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Albums with the most epic cover art!

1.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

2.Rainbow - Rising

3.Death - Scream Bloody Gore

4.Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

5.Necrophobic - Mark Of The Necrogram

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