Here's my AotY for each year from 1970, with a runner up (or two) following.
Pink Floyd and Yes aren't here, King Crimson is, so I'll include King Crimson

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

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Heavy Metal (like most people I imagine) was one of the first metal genres I got into around 2005. My friend introduced me to Iron Maiden and from there I was hooked! He would recommend me which of their albums to buy each month from HMV with my saved up pocket money (one of the highlights of the month). Thanks to MS, I've now discovered many more incredible heavy metal bands such as Judas Priest, Deep Purple and King Diamond.

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of heavy 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 25 EPs (also 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.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

2.Metallica - Metallica

3.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4.Judas Priest - Painkiller

5.Deep Purple - Machine Head

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1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Obituary - Cause Of Death

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law

5.Venom - Black Metal

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I'm not good at making a click baity list name, but here is my Judas Priest ranking. Not an easy thing to do, I could switch a couple of them around. Just like Iron Maiden, no lists look the same.

1.Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

2.Judas Priest - Sin After Sin

3.Judas Priest - Stained Class

4.Judas Priest - Killing Machine (Hell Bent For Leather)

5.Judas Priest - Painkiller

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My favorite metal albums sorted alphabetically by band name and chronological by release date.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot

2.Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations

3.Allegaeon - Proponent For Sentience

4.Amon Amarth - Once Sent From The Golden Hall

5.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

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My Favorites songs on drums…
A tribute to those great drummers…A Huge investigation about the name of those drummers and their best moments and songs

1.Rush - 2112

2.Van Halen - 1984

3.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

4.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

5.Dio - The Last In Line

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These CDs are on the highest shelf

1.Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal

2.Anthrax - Among The Living

3.Anthrax - Sound Of White Noise

4.Biohazard - State Of The World Address

5.Biohazard - Nativity In Black - A Tribute To Black Sabbath

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The concept of this list is not exceptionally well defined, but I'm circling a basic concept of lean, fast-paced metal with high-pitched vocals that tend to be on the harsher side. The album that inspired the compilation was Evil Invaders' Shattering Reflection, so that can serve as a template; not everything here necessarily sounds exactly like that, but it's all somewhere in the blackened speed/power-thrash/particularly aggressive heavy metal continuum. I'm going entirely by what feels right to me and not necessarily what makes sense on paper, so don't hold this to a rigid standard of consistency.

Here are a few individual tracks that I also thought fit the mood nicely:

Accept - "Fast As A Shark"
Accept - "Fight It Back"
3 Inches Of Blood - "Leather Lord"
Judas Priest - "Ram It Down"
Judas Priest - "Hard As Iron"
Satan - "Trial By Fire"
Crisix - "Ultra Thrash"
Fifth Angel - "In The Fallout"

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Evil Invaders - Shattering Reflection

3.Bütcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot

4.Agent Steel - Skeptics Apocalypse

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

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My favorite 26 albums in metal

1.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

2.In Mourning - Shrouded Divine

3.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

4.Opeth - Blackwater Park

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

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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.

1.

2.

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

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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This is the most unquestionably difficult ranking I could undertake. The # of albums I consider borderline flawless from each of these bands is ridiculous. Over a dozen albums from these 3 bands have legitimate arguments to be considered the greatest traditional heavy metal album of all time.

I have a few rankings that are likely hot takes here
** Yes, I like Dance of Death more than most folks. Title track and Paschendale are both top 10 Maiden songs, and Montsegur is only a small step behind that. Those 3 songs are better than anything on Brave New World to me, but the rest of BNW is better and higher quality.
** Yes I kinda like Turbo. It's silly but it's fun and the guitar work and Rob's vocals are absolutely stellar. That kinda sucks about Ram It Down, it's got some of Priests' best lead guitar work and I don't think Rob ever sounded better, but dear lord, some of those songs...
As for the top 6 albums here, honestly put them in whatever order you want. They're that close to me and mood depending it could change

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Judas Priest - Painkiller

3.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4.Black Sabbath - Sabotage

5.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

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Mind map:

Blue = win
Undead = win
Hell = win
Blue = win
Nature ft. Water = win
Color eyegasm = win
Grim reaper = win
Boys being boys = win
Badly done CGI = win
Blue = win
Blue = win
Orthodox stuff = win
Black and white = win, sometimes

Last updated on 29 July 2023.

1.Emperor - Reverence

2.Wintersun - Wintersun

3.The Ruins Of Beverast - Rain Upon The Impure

4.Dissection - Live Legacy

5.Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of A Madman

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Limiting my picks to one album per band (otherwise it would have been a much larger list), here are my top 50 favorite metal albums of all time including my favorite track for each album:

1.Stratovarius - Episode

2.Angra - Angels Cry

3.Helloween - Better Than Raw

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

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This list is my top 100 played albums ordered by the number of "scrobbles" since 2013 according to last.fm, if you also have a last.fm account, don't hesitate to follow me.
My last.fm user: daniloescolin

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.

3.W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children

4.Kreator - Enemy Of God

5.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

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