A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

2010 was a great start for the decade, a lot of great release came out that year, one of the strongest in power metal, black metal had a strong showing same with Progressive, Gothic and Doom metal, even thrash and old school Havey metal had a great number of releases.

1.Blind Guardian - At The Edge Of Time

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

4.Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape

5.Anthriel - The Pathway

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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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1.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

2.Galneryus - Angel Of Salvation

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Batushka - Litourgiya

5.Leprous - Bilateral

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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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My favourite black metal albums listed and ranked, all varieties within the black metal genre.

1.Summoning - Oath Bound

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

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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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To commemorate the top 100 albums of 2010 - 2019 I thought I would follow suit and make a list of my own. This has been a very challenging task to say the least. As I reflected on the releases from the last 10 years, it became increasingly difficult to settle on album rankings. In the interest of getting my top 100 published I am potentially releasing the list a little prematurely. The top 30 or so are quite firm. I don't anticipate much change in those albums, however, there could be some mobility throughout the rest of the list.

1.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

2.Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence

3.Un - Sentiment

4.Mournful Congregation - The Incubus Of Karma

5.Ulcerate - Shrines Of Paralysis

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"CALENDAR MADE OF METAL"
February = Black Metal
Listening to as many albums as possible in said genre during said month and listing them here as I go. Suggestions welcome.

1.Tsjuder - Kill For Satan

2.Lord Belial - Kiss The Goat

3.Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times

4.Enthroned - Prophecies Of Pagan Fire

5.Advent Sorrow - Kali Yuga Crown

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One band, one album in alphabetical order. No EPs, demos, etc.
Favourite album: Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
Favourite song: Schammasch - "Above The Stars Of God"

1.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

2.Abbath - Abbath

3.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

4.Aenaon - Hypnosophy

5.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
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 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
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 +2.

C for 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

2.Rotting Christ - Aealo

3.Allegaeon - Fragments Of Form And Function

4.Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship

5.Dark Fortress - Ylem

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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AtoZ (Album)

1.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

2.Ihsahn - After

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Faith No More - Angel Dust

5.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

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For many, some of the more extreme types of metal can be challenging to penetrate. I'll admit that my first time listening to Burzum was nearly the equivalent of listening to a buzz-saw. But over time, I found my ears became acclimated, so to speak. All of the beauty and subtlety within became more and more apparent. Now I find listening to Darkthrone to be little different from listening to Vivaldi. Okay, maybe that is an overstatement, but you get the idea. The point of this list to help those looking for a more gradual path from unkvlt to kvlt, if you will. IHopefully it provides some assistance. The top represents some of the more mainstream, well-produced (but still solid) releases, while working your way down results in a stripping away of sound quality, melody, and radio-friendly content. The list ends with a mixture of gritty second wave and mentally challenging avant guarde stuff. This is far from comprehensive, so feel free to hit the forums for some deeper cuts. I also welcome thoughts on reordering as this was no easy task for one set of ears.

1.Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon

2.Melechesh - Enki

3.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

4.Immortal - All Shall Fall

5.Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant

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