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 MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

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3.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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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.

2004 was a another good year, especially for my favorite genres Symphonic metal and power metal, even if it wasn't the strongest overall year for metal the 2000's started pretty slowly for metal, but 2004 was a fantastic year for other music genres

1.Haggard - Eppur Si Muove

2.Ayreon - The Human Equation

3.Orphaned Land - Mabool: The Story Of The Three Sons Of Seven

4.Nightwish - Once

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

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Progressive metal and post metal might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for us highly intellectual listeners, it can really tickle our twigs and berries…

1.Mastodon - Blood Mountain

2.Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

3.Opeth - Blackwater Park

4.Tool - Lateralus

5.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

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1.The Ocean - Pelagial

2.Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma

3.Neurosis - The Eye Of Every Storm

4.Isis - Panopticon

5.Ghost Brigade - IV - One With The Storm

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These are my favorite metal albums in no particular order.

1.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

2.Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh

3.Cattle Decapitation - Monolith Of Inhumanity

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

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The bands are in that order on purpose, from most to least favorite, but favorite nonetheless. The format is:

band | favourite album by the band | favorite song (or 2) by the band

Last updated on 4 November 2022.

1.Meshuggah - Nothing

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Immolation - Close To A World Below

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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The albums below is my definition of extreme metal music, regardless of their genre. Entire list is based only on my personal preferences in metal.
Rules:
1. One album per band
2. 305 groups/305 albums

1.In Flames - Clayman

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Chimaira - Chimaira

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Testament - The New Order

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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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Note: Tool intentionally ommitted because they don't consider themselves metal. Otherwise you'd see their first 4 albums in top 25.

Last updated: 27 March 2024.

1.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Opeth - Blackwater Park

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

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I just want to note that these are my favorites to listen to right now, and not necessarily the albums I would rate "best" or "most classic". Pure preference

1.Entombed - Left Hand Path

2.Antestor - The Forsaken

3.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

4.Amenra - De Doorn

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

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All my favourite songs ranked in order best down.

1.Rush - 2112

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Jethro Tull - Aqualung

4.Rainbow - Rising

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

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

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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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/

All bands will be limited to one album unless they had a significant change in style (e.g. Amorphis and Katatonia). It goes without saying that as this is my personal list the genres that are included more than others expresses my bias and I am open to listening to any suggestions on additional albums to add. This list will be separated by letters as including them all in one list would make it overly long. Just to give you an idea: my personal collection is over 10,000 songs, most of them in the metal genre.

Most of the bands featured here have other great albums so if you like the album featured here be sure to peruse their other works. Artists whose names start with 'The' or A/An' will be included in whatever letter follows, e.g. ' A Forest of Stars' will be included in F. This list(s) contains the most well-known bands e.g. Opeth, to the most obscure e.g. Vanguard x Mortem.

The list(s) will be updated periodically. If you have trouble locating an album on this list or think I missed a particular album feel free to contact me, and share this list far and wide so that more people can benefit from the incredible array of musical experience metal has to offer.

You can find me on all of these other websites: https://my.bio/friedrich-ux

(Broke 10k songs!, onward to 20k...): https://imgur.com/a/PvgLCy3

1.I - Between Two Worlds

2.I Built The Sky - The Sky Is Not The Limit

3.I Shalt Become - Poison

4.Iapetus - The Body Cosmic

5.IATT - Nomenclature

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Since I discovered MS, I got introduced to a lot of great albums/EPs that hadn't been mentioned from other sources, and I'm really thankful for all the discoveries from all kinds of people in this site. So I decided to make a personal all-time best MS albums list myself! Enjoy~~

(bands are in alphabetical order)

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Agents Of Oblivion - Agents Of Oblivion

4.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

5.Alcest - Kodama

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