Here’s my list of best finnish metal albums of all time. Hopefully you can find some more music you like based on this list. I have listed only one album per band. Most of these bands have a lot more good music outside this list with the exception of perhaps of Whispered and Omnium Gatherum. What are the top finnish metal albums for you!?

1.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

2.Mokoma - Kuoleman Laulukunnaat

3.Kotiteollisuus - Kuolleen Kukan Nimi

4.Nightwish - Century Child

5.Insomnium - In The Halls Of Awaiting

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1.Nightwish - Once

2.Nightwish - Oceanborn

3.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

4.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

5.Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge

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Almost all album titles fall in one of two categories: The album shares the title with one of its songs (the title track) or, alternatively, the album title is independent from the songs (no title track).

However, there are examples of songs that have a central link to the album title without sharing the same name. In these cases, certain lyrics from the song were chosen as the album title.

This (alphabetical) list shows the names of these “hidden title tracks” and the central lyrics that gave the name to the corresponding album.

Please feel free to suggest more of your favorite metal/hard rock examples of these “hidden title tracks”.

1.40 Watt Sun - Wider Than The Sky

2.A Forest Of Stars - A Shadowplay For Yesterdays

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

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1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

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1.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

2.Blind Guardian - A Night At The Opera

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done

5.Dark Moor - The Gates Of Oblivion

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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.

2002 was a really strong year especially for progressive metal, black metal came back rowing and power metal going through its golden age.

My favorite non metal albums of 2002

1. In absentia

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done

3.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

4.Taake - ...Bjoergvin...

5.Symphony X - The Odyssey

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Welcome to what I consider the "1001 Metal Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" 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. This may be a very overwhelming list but 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.High Tide - Sea Shanties

2.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

4.Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come

5.Josefus - Dead Man

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1.Powerwolf - Bible Of The Beast

2.Iron Maiden - Brave New World

3.HammerFall - Renegade

4.HammerFall - Crimson Thunder

5.HammerFall - Threshold

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just rating albums as I listen to them, work in progress

1.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

5.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

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1.Nightwish - Once

2.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

3.Nightwish - Oceanborn

4.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

5.Nightwish - Wishmaster

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Must Listen: The First 12

1.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

2.In Flames - Reroute To Remain

3.Sentenced - The Cold White Light

4.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

5.Spiritual Beggars - On Fire

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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.N.K.V.D. - Vlast

2.Naamah - Resensement

3.Nachtig - Nachtig

4.Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1

5.Nader Sadek - In The Flesh

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1.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

2.Nightwish - Once

3.Nightwish - Century Child

4.Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful

5.Nightwish - Oceanborn

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1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness

3.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
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 2000 to 2004, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2000-2004.
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 +5.

C for 2000-2004 = 7.599
m = 30

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2000 - 15
2001 - 27
2002 - 14
2003 - 20
2004 - 29

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Tool - Lateralus

4.Wintersun - Wintersun

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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