1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part I

3.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part II

4.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

5.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

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1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

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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.

2005 was a fantastic year, especially for Progressive metal one of the best in my opinion, a lot of classics came out that year and power metal also had an amazing year the 2000's was the golden age of power metal.

1.Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Kamelot - The Black Halo

4.System Of A Down - Mezmerize

5.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

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1.System Of A Down - Mezmerize

2.Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

3.Firewind - Allegiance

4.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

5.Paradise Lost - In Requiem

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

Honourable mentions:
Shining - IV - The Eerie Cold (Black)
System Of A Down - Hypnotize (Nu/Alternative)
System Of A Down - Mezmerize (Nu/Alternative)
Immolation - Harnessing Ruin (Death)
Epica - Consign To Oblivion (Symphonic)
Sabaton - Primo Victoria (Power)

1.Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

4.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell

5.Kamelot - The Black Halo

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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

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1.Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar

2.After Forever - After Forever

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

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1.Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

2.Slipknot - Iowa

3.Summoning - Stronghold

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn

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This list is my own personal favorite albums of all-time, which will more than likely differ from the opinions of others. I'm only doing 1 album per band, otherwise this would be "My Personal Top 10 Dream Theater Albums". This list could be updated in the event that an incredibly good album is released in the future.

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

3.Opeth - Blackwater Park

4.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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*** /\ UNDER CONSTRUCTION /\ *** READ ME *** List of the best metal vocalists across all subgenres. The album that best exhibits their vocals will represent them -- not necessarily the best album they appear on. I will limit myself to the very top of each sungenre (i.e. death, black, doom, etc.) for variety's sake. Also -- AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT -- I consider several criteria, not just raw talent. Some of the criteria are vocal range, versatility, command of voice, fit/compatibility with band, feeling/emotion/energy and originality. Feel free to bitch and moan below. \m/

1.King Diamond - Abigail

2.Judas Priest - Painkiller

3.Savatage - Gutter Ballet

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Queensrÿche - Empire

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1.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell

2.Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine

3.Candlemass - Candlemass

4.System Of A Down - Hypnotize

5.Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

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Just a list of my favorite albums!

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Epica - Design Your Universe

3.Kamelot - Karma

4.The Gathering - Mandylion

5.Nightwish - Century Child

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A list of albums considered by me to be totally worth checking out, even if you are not into whichever genre they belong to. No particular order, maybe except for the first three

1.Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood

2.Tool - Lateralus

3.Gorguts - Obscura

4.Neurosis - Souls At Zero

5.In The Woods... - Omnio

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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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1.Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Epica - Consign To Oblivion

4.Demons And Wizards - Touched By The Crimson King

5.Arch Enemy - Doomsday Machine

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