On the picture - John Cobbett - Hammers Of Misfortune, Vhöl, Ludicra, The Lord Weird Slough Feg

1.Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Hammers Of Misfortune - The August Engine

4.Mastodon - Remission

5.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

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I'll start with the disclaimer that I am not, nor ever have been, a musician. This list is of my own favorite performers, not the actual technical best musicians as I am a layman and can only go by what my stupid ears tell me. You'll notice the list is vocalist heavy which is a byproduct of my lack of musical talent. The list contains the artist, their instrument and the release where I feel they are at their best. **Last Update 08/16/11**

1.Symphony X - The Odyssey

2.Septicflesh - Communion

3.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

4.Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress

5.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

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My personal top-list, limited to one album per band. I only add albums that I own physical copies of.

1.Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape

2.Pan.thy.monium - Khaooos & Kon-Fus-Ion

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

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What we have here is a greatest track number list. Below are the best songs, in Jiri's opinion, by their track number. For instance, Jiri examined every track 1 on his iTunes and chose what he feels is the the best track 1 of all the other track 1's and entered below, the best track 2 of all other track 2's in his iTunes was chosen and entered below, etc. The band name is first, followed by the track, then the album it comes from with the original track number. Of course, the selections are ordered by track number. It stops at track 14, because there aren't too many albums with tracks after 14

1.Ulver - I Troldskog Faren Vild

2.Mayhem - Freezing Moon

3.Forgotten Tomb - Alone

4.Dissection - Where Dead Angels Lie

5.Root - Rulbräh

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Progressive (and anything progressed) albums I'd like to take with me to the underground. I'm 25 years old and 8 "metal years old" when this list is created.
In not any particular order, and to be continued : ))

1st time edited (06Nov2013): adding more, including kinds of Symphony X 2007, Persefone 2013, Haken 2013...

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

4.Symphony X - The Odyssey

5.Adagio - Sanctus Ignis

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The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1.

2.

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

4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

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

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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This is a list of all the power metal albums I have listened to that are worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is not meant to be a definitive guide to power metal or a binding judgment on what power metal is or is not. The list exists purely for my own organizational purposes and may contain bands or albums that are not strictly True Knights of the Eternal Thundersword.

The first cluster includes my favorite albums in the genre (and a significant number of my all-time favorites); beyond that, they are listed by rating from 9/10 down to 6/10 and alphabetically within each bracket.

Last updated November 27, 2021.

1.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

4.Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne

5.X Japan - Art Of Life

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These are probably my favorite cds. Although there are many many others I think this list defines my musical tastes pretty much.

1.Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

2.Fates Warning - Awaken The Guardian

3.King Diamond - Abigail

4.Rush - 2112

5.Shadow Gallery - Carved In Stone

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1.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

2.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

3.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

4.Metallica - Metallica

5.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

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Bands almost unknown for the most, Cds or Vinyls out of print or never print, Sometimes record production sucks, thats why I love US power metal. An original style Classic and Epic Heavy Metal Mixed With Thrash, Speed and High Doses of Virtuosity, different than Europe PM with more testosterone and heaviness

1.Manilla Road - Crystal Logic

2.Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction

3.Riot - ThunderSteel

4.Savatage - Hall Of The Mountain King

5.Cirith Ungol - Frost And Fire

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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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Favorite means Favorite!

1.Wintersun - Time I

2.Wintersun - Wintersun

3.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

4.Woods Of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light

5.Týr - The Lay Of Thrym

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20 Albums From The Past Decade That Changed My Life!

1.Cynic - Traced In Air

2.Symphony X - The Odyssey

3.Opeth - Damnation

4.Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor

5.Ayreon - The Human Equation

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Top metal albuns based on the influence they have in my personality and by the way they changed some ideas and theories I had.

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

2.Symphony X - The Odyssey

3.Therion - Secret Of The Runes

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Primordial - Spirit The Earth Aflame

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