These are my top 25 albums. You probably don't agree with me and you may not of heard of all of these but I do encourage you to check them out!
I had a very hard time ordering these so they are in alphabetical order. That just means you should check them all out!

1.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

2.Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes

3.Autumns eyes - The Awakening of the Sleeping King

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Bethlehem - Sardonischer Untergang Im Zeichen Irreligiöser Darbietung

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Favorite releases from 1994

Updated 8/4/20

1.Kyuss - Kyuss

2.Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory

3.Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding

4.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

5.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

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1.Bathory - Bathory

2.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

3.Mayhem - Deathcrush

4.Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

5.Darkthrone - Under A Funeral Moon

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This list shows only my preferences in metal. These albums are not necessarily the best of the bands written by, but I return to them again and again. In my opinion, all this masterpieces confirm the variety and greatness of metal music.
Rules:
1. One album per band.
2. Ordered from highest position (top) to lowest (bottom).
3. No heavy, power, doom, gothic, sludge/stoner albums.

1.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

2.Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia

3.In Flames - Clayman

4.Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos

5.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

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This is a list of black metal (and blackened metal) albums based on their artwork (in reverse alphabetical order). It includes iconic cover art from classic albums as well as fascinating work from more recent releases.
There is a saying that "you should not judge a book by its cover", which is of course also true in the case of music albums. However, the artwork can complement the production and give a visual introduction to the musical theme and atmosphere. More than for any other kind of music, this may be true for metal.

(Updated 02.10.2023)

1.Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor

2.Yoth Iria - As The Flame Withers

3.Watain - Lawless Darkness

4.Vreid - Lifehunger

5.Venom - Black Metal

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1.Virgin Steele - The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell Part I

2.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

3.Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

4.Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory

5.Savatage - Handful Of Rain

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The albums below is my definition of extreme metal music, regardless of their genre. Entire list is based only on my personal preferences in metal.
Rules:
1. One album per band
2. 305 groups/305 albums

1.In Flames - Clayman

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Chimaira - Chimaira

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Testament - The New Order

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1.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

2.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

3.Satyricon - Nemesis Divina

4.Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness

5.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

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1.Tiamat - Wildhoney

2.Soundgarden - Superunknown

3.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

4.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

5.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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1.Paradise Lost - Gothic

2.Tiamat - Wildhoney

3.Dissection - The Somberlain

4.Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory

5.Deicide - Deicide

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1.Paradise Lost - Gothic

2.Tiamat - Wildhoney

3.Dissection - The Somberlain

4.Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory

5.Deicide - Deicide

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10 essential Black Metal albums, that every self-respecting Black Metal fan should own. Well, that's my opinion.

1.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Ulver - Nattens Madrigal - Aatte Hymne Til Ulven I Manden

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1.The Bug - London Zoo

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Sarcófago - I.N.R.I.

4.Cheshyre - Cheshyre

5.Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky

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1.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

2.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

3.Mayhem - Chimera

4.The Ruins Of Beverast - Rain Upon The Impure

5.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

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