1.Kauan - Sorni Nai

2.Wilderun - Sleep At The Edge Of The Earth

3.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega

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1.Leprous - Bilateral

2.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

3.Persefone - Spiritual Migration

4.Threshold - March Of Progress

5.Witherscape - The Northern Sanctuary

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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
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828

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 grows 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 2015 to 2019, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2015-2019.
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 2015-2019 = 7.422
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2015 - 31
2016 - 24
2017 - 18
2018 - 12
2019 - 17

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Vektor - Terminal Redux

5.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

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1.Behemoth - The Satanist

2.Rhapsody Of Fire - From Chaos To Eternity

3.Mors Principium Est - Dawn Of The 5th Era

4.Insomnium - Shadows Of The Dying Sun

5.Wintersun - Time I

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1.Thou - You, Whom I Have Always Hated [Collaboration]

2.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

3.Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

4.Cloud Rat - Qliphoth

5.Ghost - Meliora

      View entire list ››

I'm not saying anything apart from that these hit me the hardest last year. Feel free to comment, recommend or just hate my taste.

Honorable mentions:
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms | Remmirath - Shambhala Vril Saucers | Tribulation - Children of the Night | Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

1.Mesarthim - Isolate

2.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

3.Myrkur - Myrkur

4.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

5.Leprous - The Congregation

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My favourite albums of 2015. (In order of preference, and only including albums I would rate 7+).

1.Periphery - Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega

2.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

3.Fear Factory - Genexus

4.So Hideous - Laurestine

5.I, Valiance - The Reject of Humanity

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1.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

2.Senegal Grindcore Mafia - Hay Daño En Casa

3.Leviathan - Scar Sighted

4.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

5.A Forest Of Stars - Beware The Sword You Cannot See

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1.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

2.Avatarium - The Girl With The Raven Mask

3.Ghost - Meliora

4.Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful

5.Jess And The Ancient Ones - Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes

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A list of my favorite 2015 albums. Also with my favorite tracks.

1.A Forest Of Stars - Beware The Sword You Cannot See

2.Shape Of Despair - Monotony Fields

3.Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction

4.Gloryhammer - Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards

5.Misþyrming - Söngvar Elds Og Óreiðu

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...And since that day, he was never the same.

"He who speaks without an attentive ear is mute."

1.Across The Sun - Before The Night Takes Us

2.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

3.Agent Fresco - Destrier

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Angel Vivaldi - Universal Language

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1.Heart Of A Coward - Deliverance

2.Paradise Lost - The Plague Within

3.Soilwork - The Ride Majestic

4.Sylosis - Dormant Heart

5.Lamb Of God - VII: Sturm Und Drang

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1.Soilwork - The Ride Majestic

2.Symphony X - Underworld

3.Lamb Of God - VII: Sturm Und Drang

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Sylosis - Dormant Heart

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2015 was the edge, the cliff, the abyss looking back at us... and we jumped... oh yes we did...

Top 50 of my 8+ ratings

Enjoy! or not I don't really care

Album count: 155
Average rating: 7.15

1.Shape Of Despair - Monotony Fields

2.Arcturus - Arcturian

3.Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

4.Kauan - Sorni Nai

5.Swallow The Sun - Songs From The North I, II & III

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1.Avantasia - Ghostlights

2.Iced Earth - Incorruptible

3.Kamelot - The Shadow Theory

4.Soilwork - The Ride Majestic

5.Jorn Lande & Trond Holter - Dracula: Swing Of Death

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