Ranking Symphony X albums from best to worst. Also featuring my three top cuts from each albums. To be perfectly clear, the three bottom albums aren't bad albums however they don't offer the same interesting experience as the others.

1.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

2.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

3.Symphony X - The Damnation Game

4.Symphony X - Twilight In Olympus

5.Symphony X - The Odyssey

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of 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 25 EPs (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)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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My absolute favorite prog rock/metal albums. None of these are less than a 9/10 to my ears. No particular order.

1.Spock's Beard - Snow

2.Devin Townsend Project - Terria

3.IQ - Dark Matter

4.Dream Theater - Awake

5.Marillion - Clutching At Straws

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Metal albums that blow me away every time I hear them. Loosely ordered... list gets less organized as it goes on. My favorite song from each album is included.

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Faith No More - Angel Dust

3.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

4.Tool - Ænima

5.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

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Just for my favorite
2016.09.16

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

3.Pain Of Salvation - Remedy Lane

4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

5.Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter

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Obviously, a list of my favorite songs, or songs that mean something special to me at least. I don't remember them all of course so I'll be adding more as soon as I'm reminded of them.
I wanted to pull this off on Spotify but I'm missing a whole lot of songs, so I figured this would be a good place to save it.

1.After Forever - Decipher

2.Ahab - The Giant

3.Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

4.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

5.Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect

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1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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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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1.

2.Fates Warning - The Spectre Within

3.Slauter Xstoyes - Winter Kill

4.Watch Tower - Energetic Disassembly

5.Trilogy - Life On Earth

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Pretty self-explanatory, with a couple caveats: first, this is mostly just a list of my favorite metal bands in approximate order (after the top 10 or so the order matters far less), with extra weight given to influence and timelessness of sound; and second, the albums selected are not necessarily the band's "best" album, or even my personal favorite -- they are the albums that I feel best represent the band's classic sound and/or well-represent the span of their career. List includes all sub-genres of metal and some post-metal metal. Feel free to spew your hatred below. \m/ (xx) \m/

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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My personal favorites. These albums are as perfect as an album can get, they always bring up the adrenaline and have in many ways changed the way I perceive music, expanding the horizons of metal in various ways. Most important of all they never get old or boring and therefore should be given a chance.

1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

4.Adagio - Underworld

5.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

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A bunch of albums with a big circle on the cover

1.Karnivool - Sound Awake

2.Skyclad - The Silent Whales Of Lunar Sea

3.Death - Scream Bloody Gore

4.Pentagram - Pentagram

5.Russian Circles - Empros

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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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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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This is the 40 best metal albums for me.

1.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

2.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

3.Dream Theater - Images And Words

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Riot - Narita

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