A lot of bands have great debut albums. Obviously this list is just a fraction of all the great debut albums out there, but it's a start. I'll keep expanding this list continuously, so all suggestions are welcome (granted they are featured on MS). All the albums here are ranked according to genre and then alphabetically. If a certain album belongs to the (in your opinion) wrong genre, then definitely let me know.

1.

2.Aarni - Bathos

3.Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia

4.Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom

5.Sadness - Ames De Marbre

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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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This is the list of my favourite progressive metal/rock albums of the decade. I decided to do this list because a new decade is starting, so it's a good time to look back. Beware, this is not a "best progressive metal albums of the decade" list, it's my favourites, not necessarily the ones that were the best for everyone else or me.

1.Riverside - Out Of Myself

2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

3.Riverside - Second Life Syndrome

4.Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

5.Opeth - Blackwater Park

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1.Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech

2.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Empyrium - Songs Of Moors And Misty Fields

5.Mors Principium Est - The Unborn

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So, these are basically my favourite albums of all time, including non-metal/rock acts, compilations and live albums. Needless to say, I would need a couple of days to go through all of these.

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

3.Riverside - Out Of Myself

4.Rotting Christ - Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers

5.Anathema - Alternative 4

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Here are the most captivating atmospheres I've ever heard. Including metal and non-metal albums. Grouped according to genre and one album per band.

1.Division By Zero - Independent Harmony

2.Beyond Twilight - The Devil's Hall Of Fame

3.Riverside - Out Of Myself

4.Suspyre - When Time Fades...

5.Redemption - The Fullness Of Time

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A list of my favourite Progressive albums on Metal Storm, ranked roughly in order of preference.

1.Ayreon - The Human Equation

2.Dol Ammad - Ocean Dynamics

3.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

4.Porcupine Tree - Signify

5.Opeth - Still Life

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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.Katatonia - Brave Murder Day

2.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came

3.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

4.Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion

5.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

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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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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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I picked one album by each of my favorite bands for this list. Keep in mind that after the first few albums I put on the list, it became increasingly difficult to figure out where to place artists in my list. Also, this is kind of how my favorite bands lie now, as far as how often I listen to them - whereas some of these bands used to be much more frequently played, years ago. But this is, more or less, a list of my favorite albums by my favorite bands.

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

2.Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape

3.Symphony X - The Odyssey

4.Circus Maximus - Nine

5.Haken - Visions

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My favourite prog rock/metal albums. In no order.

1.Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon

2.Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

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

4.Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

5.Yes - Close To The Edge

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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Progressive Metal/Rock is my main music, but you can't ignore the beauty in other genres.

1.Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR

2.Opeth - Damnation

3.Porcupine Tree - The Incident

4.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

5.Tool - 10,000 Days

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