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

1.Rush - Caress Of Steel

2.Threshold - Wounded Land

3.Shadow Gallery - Carved In Stone

4.Porcupine Tree - Up The Downstair

5.Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways

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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
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 2000 to 2004, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2000-2004.
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 +5.

C for 2000-2004 = 7.599
m = 30

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2000 - 15
2001 - 27
2002 - 14
2003 - 20
2004 - 29

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Tool - Lateralus

4.Wintersun - Wintersun

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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This won't go well as I'm not sure if I could rank my favorites albums...

1.Beyond The Bridge - The Old Man And The Spirit

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

4.Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica

5.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

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1.Cradle Of Filth - Damnation And A Day

2.Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon

3.Katatonia - Viva Emptiness

4.The Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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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

      View entire list ››

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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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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1.Dream Theater - Awake

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

3.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Dream Theater - The Astonishing

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

2.Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

3.Dream Theater - Images And Words

4.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

5.Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

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Simple ranking of all my favorite albums. Favorite song from the album in the notes. Sure to change/expand as I learn and explore more within metal.
2023: This was starting to get too long so I split it into separate lists for albums at each ranking 10 to 7. This list will no longer be updated.
10: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6891
9: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7213
8: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7512
7: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=8058

1.Madder Mortem - Eight Ways

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Ayreon - 01011001

4.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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1.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

2.Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death

3.Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion

4.Cradle Of Filth - Damnation And A Day

5.Stratovarius - Elements Part I

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My favorite progressive metal albums (derived/mixed genres included). Lot of stuff still missing here since I have a terrible memory I think everything here is at least 8,5/10.

Please, feel free to drop suggestions. I'd love to make it more or less complete one day.

I will eventually rate these albums too...

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Dream Theater - Images And Words

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

4.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

5.Redemption - Snowfall On Judgment Day

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The end of 2013 marks the end of the fifth year of my journey into metal. I had listened to a select few songs prior to that, but around five years ago, I started to delve into the genre and I've discovered a lot of great music as a result. Much of my success I owe to Metalstorm for providing such an excellent platform. I want to express my sincere thanks to everyone who keeps this site running. I mostly enjoy the more melodic genres of metal, so don't expect a lot of extreme stuff. Also, please keep in mind that the following list is not a list of what I consider to be the best metal albums of all time or anything like it. It is simply a collection or a countdown of the albums that I have enjoyed the most during my journey so far.

1.Kamelot - The Black Halo

2.Rush - Hemispheres

3.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

4.Crimson Glory - Transcendence

5.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

      View entire list ››

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

2.Dream Theater - Awake

3.Dream Theater - Octavarium

4.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

5.Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

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Compilation of many Hard Rock or Metal Ballads I've heard. Bands and Albums are ordered by name alphabetically.

1.Accept - Balls To The Wall

2.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

3.Accept - Eat The Heat

4.Adagio - Underworld

5.Aerosmith - Aerosmith

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