An interesting year. My top five would be:
1. Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade
2. Neurosis - Souls At Zero
3. Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes
4. Unleashed - Shadows in the Deep
5. Dream Theater - Images and Words

Pantera is also good, although I prefered Cowboys from Hell. Asphyx - Last One on Earth would be another honorable mention, although I prefer Necroceros.

I like all Megadeth albums from their debut up to Youthanasia. However, Countdown to Extinction I could never really enjoy as much. It felt kind of like an awkward transition between Rust in Peace and Youthanasia.

Nice to see Dehumanizer. I should listen to that album in full. I've only listened to the songs that are also on the compilation CD The Dio Years (After All, I, TV Crimes) and they were pretty good

It certainly was an interesting year, grunge, progressive, thrash, heavy, power, folk etc, and lot's of various genre's being formed, it even saw the birth of the Norwegian black metal scene, the darkest scene in music history, and lot's of great bands still producing great music around that time.

My top 15 would be:

1. W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol
2. Dream Theater - Images And Words
3. Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond
4. Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade
5. Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky
6. Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power
7. Running Wild - Pile of skulls
8. Skyclad - Burnt Offering For The Bone Idol
9. Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction.
10. Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer
11. Alice In Chains - Dirt
12. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
13. Cannibal Corpse - Tomb Of The Mutilated
14. Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark
15. Burzum - Burzum

One of the best years in metal if you ask me and an extremely important year for me since it was the year when I started listening to metal.

For me it goes:

1. Blind Guardian - Somewhere far beyond
2. Tiamat - Clouds
3. Bolt Thrower - The IVth crusade
4. Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of violence
5. Dream Theater - Images and words
6. Dark Millennium - Ashore the celestial burden
7. Alice in Chains - Dirt
8. Danzig - How the Gods kill
9. Iron Maiden - Fear of the dark
10. Rage against the machine - Rage against the machine
11. At the Gates - The red in the sky is ours
12. Running Wild - Pile of skulls
13. Pantera - Vulgar display of power
14. Paradise Lost - Shades of God
15. Malevolent Creation - Retribution

Those are some great lists, I'm definitely going to listen to some more albums and update the list as I do