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

2.Borknagar - Urd

3.Dalriada - Napisten Hava

4.Delain - We Are The Others

5.Kamelot - Silverthorn

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To commemorate the top 100 albums of 2010 - 2019 I thought I would follow suit and make a list of my own. This has been a very challenging task to say the least. As I reflected on the releases from the last 10 years, it became increasingly difficult to settle on album rankings. In the interest of getting my top 100 published I am potentially releasing the list a little prematurely. The top 30 or so are quite firm. I don't anticipate much change in those albums, however, there could be some mobility throughout the rest of the list.

1.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

2.Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence

3.Un - Sentiment

4.Mournful Congregation - The Incubus Of Karma

5.Ulcerate - Shrines Of Paralysis

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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

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One band, one album in alphabetical order. No EPs, demos, etc.
Favourite album: Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
Favourite song: Schammasch - "Above The Stars Of God"

1.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

2.Abbath - Abbath

3.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

4.Aenaon - Hypnosophy

5.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

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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
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 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
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 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Wintersun - Wintersun

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

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1.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

2.Cult Of Fire - Triumvirát

3.Abyssal - Denouement

4.Cannibal Corpse - Torture

5.Marduk - Serpent Sermon

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1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

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- My TOP 75 from 90s (and 80s), 00s and 10s.
- Each TOP 75 ordered from my most favourite down.
- One album for every band in one TOP 75.
- Only full-lengths or EPs/demos with more than half an hour.

Description includes: Genre (traditional/true BM bands are labeled with their countries, e.g. Norwegian Black), year and my personal favourite song of the particular album with link.

Hall of Fame (bands in each time period): Agalloch, Blut Aus Nord, Enslaved, Immortal, Nokturnal Mortum, Summoning

1.

2.Windir - Arntor

3.Paysage d'Hiver - Paysage D'Hiver

4.Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

5.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

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Its in alphabetical order by albums... Some albums on this list may or may not be the exact description of Black or Doom Metal or their subgenres. They just seem to fit for my taste and way I like my Black And Doom dosage. I'm sure some may say Les Discrets and Alcest and other bands on the list can't be Black or Doom because of their sounds and lyrical themes, but if their music gives me that darkness that let's say Watain or Gorgoroth give in Black Metal just without the Satanic lyrics and more of the emotions of Blackness and Doom then to me its Black Metal and the same goes to whatever Doom bands are on my list. If anyone checks out my list, thanks.

1.Mental Home - Угра

2.Forgotten Tomb - ...And Don't Deliver Us From Evil

3.Profetus - ...To Open The Passages In Dusk

4.Narrow House - A Key To Panngrieb

5.A Forest Of Stars - A Shadowplay For Yesterdays

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Max 2 albums per band.

1.Riverside - Out Of Myself

2.Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

3.Division By Zero - Independent Harmony

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Obscure Sphinx - Void Mother

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Maximum three Albums per Year, starting in 1991

1.Bathory - Twilight Of The Gods

2.Master's Hammer - Ritual

3.Samael - Worship Him

4.Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

5.Immortal - Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism

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A really good year, full of surprises. Never been much of a Sabaton fan and especially not a fan of Lamb of God. Both bands released kick ass albums. Avatar keep on getting better and better. Rush released their best album in 25 years. Kreator gave me one of the best thrash albums I've ever heard.

1.Dråpsnatt - Skelepht

2.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.An Autumn For Crippled Children - Only The Ocean Knows

5.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

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1.Les Discrets - Ariettes Oubliées...

2.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

3.In Aevum Agere - The Shadow Tower

4.Der Weg Einer Freiheit - Unstille

5.Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata

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my favourites of 2012 from an extreme metal point of view

1.Abyssal - Denouement

2.Anhedonist - Netherwards

3.Ignivomous - Contragenesis

4.Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron

5.Azoic - Gateways

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