My other lists:
Tasty Stuff Not Currently Featured On MS
So I Heard You Like Opeth...

A concise list of my metalhead man-crushes (now featuring ladies.)

While there is little introduction required for some of these bands and their front(wo)men, there are no words that can accurately describe such jaw-dropping talent anyhow. The albums and youtube links listed are meant to display the full capacity of vocalists' talents, not the bands' most quality or popular tracks - click the links below and behold the prowess.

1.Abstrakt Algebra - Abstrakt Algebra

2.Adagio - Underworld

3.Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone

4.Amorphis - Silent Waters

5.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

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I havnt been into metal all that long...so this is a good chuck of the metal albums i own...though ive heard many, many more....these are all albums ive spent a lot of time with (or soon will). I tried to stay away from multiple albums by an artist, but a few exceptions were made hehe.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

3.Absu - Tara

4.ADX - Division Blindée

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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This is a list dedicated to everything crazy, eclectic and technical. I know there are many many more albums that could be added, but these are the ones I personally recommend. One album per band order by the level of "technical madness" (whatever that metric is).

1.Blotted Science - The Machinations Of Dementia

2.Änglagård - Hybris

3.Coroner - No More Color

4.Invocator - Excursion Demise

5.Deathspell Omega - Paracletus

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These are 10 albums that really blew me away and either broke down all of my notions of what I though a metal album could sound like, or really opened my eyes to new sub-genres. You'll notice most albums are from after 2006, that's because it wasn't really until 2007 or so that I started listening to metal.

1.Between The Buried And Me - Colors

2.The Ocean - Precambrian

3.Warning - Watching From A Distance

4.Mirrorthrone - Gangrene

5.Equilibrium - Sagas

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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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My top-20 all time favorite (metal) albums. Obviously subject to change over long periods of time. Left out most recent finds - these are albums that have resonated with me for at least a few years.

1.High On Fire - Death Is This Communion

2.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

3.Turisas - The Varangian Way

4.Keep Of Kalessin - Kolossus

5.Motörhead - Inferno

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These are some of my all time favourite albums. Not really any order, just what came to mind first.

1.John Cougar Mellencamp - Nobody's Fool

2.AC/DC - Back In Black

3.Anthrax - Attack Of The Killer B's

4.Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe

5.Shadows Fall - The Art Of Balance

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1.Adagio - Underworld

2.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

3.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

4.Circus Maximus - Isolate

5.Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate

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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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Not nessecary my current favourites, but these are the albums that had a great impact on me or had opened up new horizons in different sub-genres. Most of these would be pretty recent and mainstream but I only started listening to Metal in 2007 after all. They are in chronological order of which I listened to them through these few years.

1.Within Temptation - The Heart Of Everything

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

4.To-Mera - Transcendental

5.Kamelot - Ghost Opera

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This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.P.H.O.B.O.S. - Phlogiston Catharsis

2.Paara - Riitti

3.Pagan Altar - Mythical & Magical

4.Pagan's Mind - Enigmatic : Calling

5.Paganizer - Into The Catacombs

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1.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

2.Bleeding Through - The Truth

3.Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

4.Dry Kill Logic - The Darker Side Of Nonsense

5.Evergreen Terrace - Sincerity Is An Easy Disguise In This Business

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Here are my top 25 albums for 2008

1.Equilibrium - Sagas

2.Protest The Hero - Fortress

3.Mirrorthrone - Gangrene

4.Opeth - Watershed

5.Oceans Of Sadness - The Arrogance Of Ignorance

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In no order, just the my favorite of that decade.

1.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came

2.Equilibrium - Sagas

3.The Defaced - Karma In Black

4.Susperia - Vindication

5.Masterplan - Aeronautics

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My favorite and most enjoyed album's of the decade 2000-2009. Roughly in order, but not exactly.

You can kinda tell from this list that I joined Metalstorm in 2009. I started discovering far more music thanks to this site, hence the number of '09 releases featured. I'm slowly starting to pick back through the top lists of previous years, so I expect more pre-'09 releases will be added to this list.

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Vektor - Black Future

3.Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect

4.SikTh - Death Of A Dead Day

5.Protest The Hero - Fortress

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