1.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

2.Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos

3.Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology

4.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

5.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

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1.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

2.Ostura - The Room

3.The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

4.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

5.Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs

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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.

2018 was pretty good year, some solid releases in death and Melodic death metal, Symphonic metal had a pretty good record comparing to previous years, and Judas priest released there best album in almost thirty years.


My favorite non metal albums of 2018

1. Civilisation
By Southern Empire (Progressive rock, Symphonic rock)


2. Schmaltz
By Spanish Love Songs (Pop Punk, Emo)


3. Joy as an Act of Resistance
By Idles (Post-Hardcore, Art punk)


4. TA13OO
By Denzel Curry (Trap, Southern Hip Hop, Trap Metal)


5. OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES
By SOPHIE (Bubblegum Bass, Hyperpop, Experimental)



My favorite movie from 2018

1.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

2.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

3.Crescent - The Order Of Amenti

4.Judas Priest - Firepower

5.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

      View entire list ››

1.Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology

2.Antimatter - Black Market Enlightenment

3.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

4.Hamferð - Támsins Likam

5.Riverside - Wasteland

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

Trophy Goats for 2018 B)

1.Beartooth - Disease

2.Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy

3.Obscura - Diluvium

4.Bad Wolves - Disobey

5.Wolf King - Loyal To The Soil

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

These are MY Top 250 Albums that are featured on Metal Storm in chronological order to celebrate 50 Years of Metal.

Some bands are featured on this list with more than one album, which means that they are perticulary amazing to me.

I listen to a wide spectrum of metal genres, which is why I tried to keep it diverse and not focus on one genre.

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

      View entire list ››

1.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

2.Alcest - Spiritual Instinct

3.Wilderun - Veil Of Imagination

4.Ángeles Del Infierno - Si Tú No Estás Aquí

5.Ángeles Del Infierno - Al Otro Lado Del Silencio

      View entire list ››

1.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

2.Ihsahn - Àmr

3.The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

4.At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself

5.A Forest Of Stars - Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes

      View entire list ››

1.Dimmu Borgir - Eonian

2.Pestilence - Hadeon

3.Mantar - The Modern Art Of Setting Ablaze

4.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

5.Obscura - Diluvium

      View entire list ››

Yet another annual top 10.. well more like top25 list. I am sure I missed something, and that I would change something depending on the mood, but it is what it is.

1.Primordial - Exile Amongst The Ruins

2.Vermilia - Kätkyt

3.Amorphis - Queen Of Time

4.Thy Catafalque - Geometria

5.Cruachan - Nine Years Of Blood

      View entire list ››

Heavy, Doom, Black, Death, Thrash, Prog, Power...these are my favorite 100 albums of 2018... STAY METAL!!!

25 Honorable Mentions:

Mortuous - Through Wilderness
Arkheth - 12 Winter Moons Comes the Witches Brew
Lychgate - The Contagion In Nine Steps
Wolfheart - Constellation Of The Black Light
Cosmic Church - Täyttymys

1.Imperial Triumphant - Vile Luxury

2.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

3.Altars Of Grief - Iris

4.Horrendous - Idol

5.Sepulcher - Panoptic Horror

      View entire list ››

No reviews for this year.

Non Metalstrom Bands

Anicon: https://anicon.bandcamp.com/
Antigone's Fate: https://antigonesfate.bandcamp.com/
Pure Wrath: https://purewrath.bandcamp.com/
Reprisal: https://reprisal.bandcamp.com/
The Beast of Nod: https://thebeastofnod.bandcamp.com/

Best Covers

Suotana - Land of The Ending Time https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2771423527_10.jpg

1.Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos

2.Elderwind - The Colder The Night

3.The Beast Of Nod - Vampira: Disciple Of Chaos

4.Wilds Forlorn - Sapiens

5.Antigone's Fate - Insomnia

      View entire list ››

All the 2018 albums I listened to this year. Just like last year I always added the specific genre/subgenre so you can get an idea what might be of interest to you.

1.Sunnata - Outlands

2.Crescent - The Order Of Amenti

3.IAH - ll

4.Rivers Of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

5.Riverside - Wasteland

      View entire list ››