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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1.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

2.Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika

3.

4.Carcass - Heartwork

5.Cynic - Focus

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1.Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar

2.After Forever - After Forever

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

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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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same as rym except this obviously limits to metal albums which might be interesting. ah well it just meant iron maiden are 2x more of the albums

1.Deep Purple - The Book Of Taliesyn

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Vol. 4

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Take a look at the Top Album lists of recent years and you'll notice an obvious trend. In 2005 the average rating of the top 25 albums is 8.76. Jump to 2014 and the average among the top 25 has dropped to 8.26. An almost linear decrease is observable for the 10 years in between.

I was curious to see what a Top 100 for 2000-2014 would look like if I factored the votes to account for the 'rating decline'. I hope you find it interesting.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Aquilus - Griseus

5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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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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1.Cryptopsy - None So Vile

2.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson II

3.Deicide - Deicide

4.Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos

5.Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding

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From A to Z.

1.Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

2.Alkerdeel - Dyodyo Asema [Collaboration]

3.Bongripper - The Great Barrier Reefer

4.Boris - Flood

5.Boris - Boris At Last - Feedbacker

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These are my rankings for all times of what personally like. Regardless of the style and year. Can someone to his appeal grutine and they are great ... Please comment if you wish.
regards

1.The Ruins Of Beverast - Blood Vaults (The Blazing Gospel Of Heinrich Kramer)

2.Evoken - Antithesis Of Light

3.Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson II

5.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

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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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List of my favorite concept albums. Feel free to drop any suggestions if you think something great is missing here!

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

2.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

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

4.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

5.Opeth - Still Life

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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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Creating good music might not be an easy task, but most bands in existence consist of multiple members who contribute to the music. One-man bands however are simply musicians who create the music all by themselves, which, in my opinion, is very impressive. Because of the fact that there are quite a few of these talented musicians, I created this list. Of course there are many more one-man band albums than I have listed here and that's why I'm open to suggestions. So be sure to give me recommendations and also let me know if I listed the "wrong" album by a band (in your opinion). Lastly, the list is ranked according to genre and then alphabetically. I only add 1 (full-length) album per band (and only albums that are featured on MS).

1.

2.Aarni - Bathos

3.Brown Jenkins - Death Obsession

4.Cloak Of Altering - Ancient Paths Through Timeless Voids

5.De Magia Veterum - The Divine Antithesis

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1.Katatonia - Viva Emptiness

2.The Haunted - One Kill Wonder

3.Epica - The Phantom Agony

4.Soilwork - Figure Number Five

5.Moonspell - The Antidote

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