1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

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Limiting my picks to one album per band (otherwise it would have been a much larger list), here are my top 50 favorite metal albums of all time including my favorite track for each album:

1.Stratovarius - Episode

2.Angra - Angels Cry

3.Helloween - Better Than Raw

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

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1.Wintersun - Wintersun

2.Forefather - Ours Is The Kingdom

3.Mastodon - Leviathan

4.Motörhead - Inferno

5.Amon Amarth - Fate Of Norns

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1.Iced Earth - Night Of The Stormrider

2.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

3.Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

4.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

5.Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings

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1.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

2.Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Iced Earth - Dystopia

5.Iced Earth - Horror Show

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1.Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

2.Iced Earth - Incorruptible

3.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

4.Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings

5.Iced Earth - Dystopia

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Must Listen: The First 11

1.Evergrey - The Inner Circle

2.In Flames - Soundtrack To Your Escape

3.Ayreon - The Human Equation

4.Nightwish - Once

5.Wastefall - Soulrain 21

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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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1.Lordi - The Arockalypse

2.Iron Maiden - Virtual XI

3.Kamelot - Dominion

4.W.A.S.P. - Helldorado

5.Stratovarius - Fright Night

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A list ranking the Iced Earth studio recordings. I didn't put Tribute To The Gods in the list because I wanted the list to be about Iced Earth's own original work.

Also Days Of Purgatory is also not added to the list since that album was mostly a re-recording of their older songs.

And I added the 3 best songs (imo) of every album in the list as well.

1.Iced Earth - The Dark Saga

2.Iced Earth - Night Of The Stormrider

3.Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings

4.Iced Earth - Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked - Part 1)

5.Iced Earth - Horror Show

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1.Primal Fear - Black Sun

2.Grave Digger - Rheingold

3.Wolf - Ravenous

4.Paragon - The Dark Legacy

5.Sentenced - The Funeral Album

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1.Nightwish - Once

2.InnerWish - Silent Faces

3.Dream Evil - The Book Of Heavy Metal

4.Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

5.Olympos Mons - Conquistador

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Some albums are really good. Many of these are good all the way around. And, in many cases, there is a single song that stands out, sometimes it's the last song on the album. This is a list of those songs.

For a more in depth look at this, I've codified each into a given category:
Type 1 - 'The long song at the end.' Often the title track. These have a tendency to be most well written and dynamic pieces on the album.

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

2.Abigail Williams - Becoming

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

5.Anekdoten - Vemod

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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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These are my favorite power metal albums. Not only are they liked for their musical quality, but also for their sheer genius.

1.Dragonland - Astronomy

2.Sabaton - The Art Of War

3.Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden

4.Kamelot - Ghost Opera

5.Dream Evil - Dragonslayer

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