My top 100 metal albums of all time (featured on MS).

- one album per band.
- in alphabetical order.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.Ævangelist - De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agruss - Morok

5.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

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- only studio albums
- only albums featured on MS

1.After Forever - Decipher

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

4.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

5.Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

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*** READ ME *** This list is about the greatest metal albums of all-time, from all sub-genres and all countries. You won't see bands like Deep Purple, Rush, BOC, Zeppelin, etc., nor will you see bands like Tool, Rage ATM, Melvins and Soundgarden. While I love many of those bands, my definition of metal does not include them.

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

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So, these are basically my favourite albums of all time, including non-metal/rock acts, compilations and live albums. Needless to say, I would need a couple of days to go through all of these.

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

3.Riverside - Out Of Myself

4.Rotting Christ - Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers

5.Anathema - Alternative 4

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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

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I've been listening to metal for over a decade now. Here's my all time "favorites" list. Updated with comments March 24th, 2016. I started with death metal acts of In Flames and Dark Tranquility. I went to power metal for a long time, yet have circled back with getting re-introduced to Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, and Be'lakor.

1.In Flames - The Jester Race

2.Omnium Gatherum - Beyond

3.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

4.Wintersun - Wintersun

5.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

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*** MAX 3 ALBUMS PER ARTIST!!! (Except Death) Also... While extra weight will be given to classic death metal albums, this list will also include exceptional examples of melodic death, death-grind, technical/progressive death, death-thrash, and blackened death. LPs ONLY. *** /\ UNDER CONSTRUCTION /\

1.Cryptopsy - None So Vile

2.Death - Symbolic

3.Suffocation - Effigy Of The Forgotten

4.Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious

5.Death - Human

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An entirely subjective list of my all-time favourite metal albums, well lets better say albums/genres featured on MS, since not all here is precisely metal.
Objective quality is not a criteria here, just how much I like the album. Ordered by preference, top down.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Opeth - Morningrise

3.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

4.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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1.In Flames - Colony

2.In Flames - The Jester Race

3.In Flames - Clayman

4.In Flames - Whoracle

5.In Flames - Lunar Strain

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These are my top 100 favorite albums - they are the reason why I love metal!
Enjoy!
Format: Band | Album | (genre, release year, country) What I like about the album; Favorite songs
Statistics:
Genre:
Death: 28
Black: 20
Thrash: 19
Heavy: 15
Progressive: 9
Power: 4
Doom: 4
Symphonic: 1
Years with most album favorites:
1995: 8
1996: 7
1990: 7
1984: 5
Countries with most album favorites:
USA: 35
Sweden: 20
UK: 16
Norway: 6

----Last Update: June 15, 2022----

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Death - Spiritual Healing

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In no particular order. Will be expanding as I listen to more albums. Only one album per band, be sure to check the rest of the discography by yourself.

1.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

2.System Of A Down - System Of A Down

3.Ulver - Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr I 5 Capitler

4.Anacrusis - Manic Impressions

5.Death - Symbolic

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This is buy or die stuff (in no particular order), the epitome of pure awesomeness!

1.Windir - Arntor

2.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

3.Cor Scorpii - Monument

4.Judas Priest - Painkiller

5.Summoning - Dol Guldur

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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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A list of bands ordered by the biggest difference between their highest rated album on MS and their lowest rated album on MS. Finally my Excel skills paid off. Some ratings may be a bit outdated. Open to suggestions because I barely scratched the surface.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Metallica - Lulu [Collaboration]

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Celtic Frost - Cold Lake

5.Machine Head - The Blackening

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These Are Albums that give metal a good name, and create metalheads who live for little else. Originality, Raw talent, Brilliant atmosphere, Brutality with a great technical aspect, and just plain ass kicking.

1.Lux Occulta - The Mother And The Enemy

2.Borknagar - The Archaic Course

3.Ancient - Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends

4.Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale

5.Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage

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