It is standard that albums contain several different songs that are separated by distinct track markers. Sometimes, these songs may contribute to one story, which is the case on concept albums. The next, more radical step is to include only one long song on an album, which may be presented as a single track. These one track albums provide a special kind of journey for the listener, demanding full commitment without the help and orientation that the separation in several tracks may have provided.

This list includes albums that consist of only one single song presented in one track.

Please feel free to suggest more one track metal albums.

1.Abruptum - In Umbra Malitae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum

2.Abruptum - Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes

3.Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

4.Alkerdeel - Dyodyo Asema [Collaboration]

5.Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

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I have finally caved in and made a top 200 list. The main focus here is metal, so no Rush, no King Crimson, Deep Purple, or GY!BE are in the list, but I do still love those bands and others that could have qualified.
The list mostly contains albums, but some EPs, demos, splits, and compilations are also featured every now and then. I also tried to avoid including demos or EPs that were too short but there’s still a few of them.
Enjoy!

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

2.Windir - Arntor

3.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

4.Sigh - Hangman's Hymn: Musikalische Exequien

5.Vektor - Terminal Redux

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The most difficult way to create the title for an album may be to try something that is clever and/or funny.

Likewise, making a list of these titles is also not easy as it would be a very subjective task. In order to apply at least some objective criteria, the resulting (alphabetical) list consists of album titles that contain a pun or pun-related word play ( - possibly even independent of how well these titles worked).

Puns (or pun-related word play examples) rely on (1) the different possible meanings of a word or (2) the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings.
In addition, this list contains numbers in titles that (3) contribute to the sound of the corresponding word or (4) that fit optically to the written word.

Please feel free to suggest more examples of such album titles for this list, if they fit to one of the criteria 1 – 4 (in order to keep the list in shape).
Still, it would also be interesting, if you could share other clever and/or funny album or song titles in the comments.

1.Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

2.Afflicted - Prodigal Sun

3.Alestorm - Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum

4.Anthrax - Attack Of The Killer B's

5.Alice Cooper - The Beast Of Alice Cooper

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Last updated on 11 April 2024.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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To me, an EP is a release of original music under 30m in length.

Score is an average of each EP's song ratings, full list located here (only new original songs included).

If you discovered any new EPs 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 500 Albums (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.Nine Inch Nails - Broken

2.Galneryus - 絆

3.Insomnium - Songs Of The Dusk

4.As I Lay Dying - Decas

5.Necromantia - Ancient Pride

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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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From A to Z.

1.Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

2.Alkerdeel - Dyodyo Asema [Collaboration]

3.Bongripper - The Great Barrier Reefer

4.Boris - Flood

5.Boris - Boris At Last - Feedbacker

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1.Ulver - A Quick Fix Of Melancholy

2.Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons

3.Cradle Of Filth - Vempire

4.Vader - The Art Of War

5.Darkestrah - Khagan

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1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Meshuggah - I

3.Kayo Dot - Hubardo

4.Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - Sol Niger Within

5.Between The Buried And Me - Colors

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Limited to only those albums featured on Metal Storm.

1.Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

2.Rush - Moving Pictures

3.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

4.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

5.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

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