Recently, instead of scouring too much the albums of the year I'm in, I decided to take a deeper journey and appreciate progressive music (prog metal/rock). While I'm still in the early beginnings of my journey, I decided to make a list to the albums I fully listen to so that I can keep charting my voyage in these vast seas. Some albums are not yet added because I need to listen them well and grab my favorites out, and some bands are on queue. I'm also eager to hear some recommendations, so thanks in advance for them!

1.Ayreon - The Human Equation

2.Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve

3.Blotted Science - The Machinations Of Dementia

4.Control Denied - The Fragile Art Of Existence

5.Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons [EP]

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The best ballads in the history of Metal. Of course, all these bands and other bands have really good ballads but this list shows the very best, handpicked by me. In alphabetical order by bands name to make the list less chaotic and not by order of preference.

1.Accept - Eat The Heat

2.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

3.Adagio - Underworld

4.Aerosmith - Aerosmith

5.Allen/Lande - The Battle

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As a long time guitarist, i have a passion to learn and play guitar riffs and solos and these ones are an ultimate guide for guitar playing. Some solos are just more memorable than others and the following are the most well craftted solos i have heard till now.

1.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

2.Scorpions - Love At First Sting

3.Judas Priest - Painkiller

4.Symphony X - The Odyssey

5.Savatage - Edge Of Thorns

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The albums that made me love prog/metal even more / that I can't get enough of.

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

3.Nightwish - Once

4.Carcass - Heartwork

5.Death - Symbolic

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My personal top favorite metal albums of all times. NOT IN ORDER.

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

2.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

3.Disillusion - Back To Times Of Splendor

4.Kreator - Violent Revolution

5.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

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No specific order

1.Lamb Of God - Ashes Of The Wake

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Strapping Young Lad - Alien

4.Slipknot - Slipknot

5.Divine Heresy - Bleed The Fifth

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This is my top albums (only with those where I gave 8 or more). I will update the list now and then

1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Slipknot - Iowa

4.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

5.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

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Dream Theater! Once my favourite band of all time, now number 2. I took an involuntary break from them for a while, and upon return realised my feelings had changed to a lot of their music. Also since at some point I stupidly deleted my old ranking of them, I feel now is the time to make a new one.

Feel free to bash my terrible taste.

1.Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

2.Dream Theater - Dream Theater

3.Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

4.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

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

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A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

1999 was surprisingly a really solid year for metal at least outside the mainstream, this year saw the release of the album that made me fell in love with progressive metal, the release of more classic black metal albums, more great Gothic and Symphonic albums and even some fun death and Trash metal. In my opinion if you actually look outside the mainstream of the time, the 1990's were a pretty great decade for metal all things considered.

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

2.Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance

3.Opeth - Still Life

4.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

5.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

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The goats. The near perfect albums that never get old. Some are full of catchy bangers I'm always humming, and some are so full to the brim of details that I still haven't even uncovered them all.

A brief outline of my ratings:
8.5-9.0 = An excellent album with a few mild drawbacks (Weak song, slightly irritating vocals, odd flow)
9.0-9.5 = Perfect albums that haven't quite warranted the time-earnt 9.5+.
9.5-9.9 = Perfect albums that have stood the test of time, ranked by preference.
10 = I don't expect to hear another album like these, ever.

(I use 'perfect' lightly as it makes no sense for a man-made creation to be flawless. 'Perfect' is simply a term to outline how high a level of enjoyment is, specifically the level of enjoyment when minor faults become insignificant.)

(I evaluate albums outside of metal vastly differently to the ones here, which explains the lack of representation of my other favourite genres. Blue Sky Mining is an exception due to being structured very similarly to my optimal metal album. I may add some picks from other genres down the line.)


STATS:
I know y'all don't look at my lists, so these are purely for my own interest.

-Decades
'10s: 36
'20s: 22
'00s: 7
'90s: 2

-Genres (By best fit or most prominent)
Prog: 35
Death: 11
Power: 9
Symphonic: 4
Black: 3
Contemporary: 2
Folk: 1
Doom: 1
Rock: 1

1.Devin Townsend - Empath

2.Memories Of Old - The Zeramin Game

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.An Abstract Illusion - Woe

5.Persefone - Aathma

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Every metalhead should have them in his collection!

1.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

2.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

3.Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

4.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

5.Opeth - Morningrise

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I tried to put one album per band, so it was a fucking hard choice in many cases.
Anyway, all of them are great albums in it' genre.
No order followed.

1.Almah - Fragile Equality

2.Andre Matos - Mentalize

3.Arryan Path - Ira Imperium

4.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part 1

5.Astral Doors - New Revelation

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The label metal includes heavy, power, black...

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

2.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

3.Rush - 2112

4.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

5.Opeth - Still Life

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1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

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

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

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That's all.

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Dream Theater - Images And Words

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

4.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

5.Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity

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