This is a list comprised of my personal favorite albums. I tried to keep a limitation of two albums per band, but some musicians such will appear on the list at a higher frequency due to having multiple bands. Small reviews for each album will be added eventually. Please note that this list is still under heavy construction, and is no where near done. Many things are probably missing, and some albums may not remain for too long. My goal is to get 100 albums, but if that becomes too difficult I will chop the list down to 50 (or maybe 75). If you can think of any album you think I may be forgetting (read: an album you think I find to be one of my favorites, not your's), don't hesitate to remind me of it's existence.

1. Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

2. Agalloch - The Mantle

3. Aluk Todolo - Occult Rock

4. Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus

5. Ataraxie - Slow Transcending Agony

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My favorite (thus the best) album (NOT necessarily metal) of each year I've been alive. Any description I give is only my opinion (obviously).

1. Swans - Children of God

2. Bathory - Blood Fire Death

3. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

4. Bad Religion - Against The Grain

5. Slint - Spiderland

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25 best black metal albums to listen during the Winter season. In alphabetic order.

1. Abigail Williams - Becoming

2. Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia

3. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

4. Battle Dagorath - Ancient Wraith

5. Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

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In the years since I began listening to metal, black metal has become my go-to genre. The despair, anger, dissonance, experimentation, beauty, passion and hatred are second to none. These are the albums which sit at the forefront of my listening experience.

1. Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2. Agrypnie - Exit

3. Bathory - Blood Fire Death

4. Blut Aus Nord - Odinist - The Destruction of Reason By Illumination

5. Burzum - Det Som Engang Var

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This is the cream of the crop of what I've heard from the previous decade. Good times.

1. Isis - Oceanic

2. Agalloch - The Mantle

3. Drudkh - Autumn Aurora

4. Deathspell Omega - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice

5. Opeth - Blackwater Park

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Orthodoxy is for morons who cannot compose or create themselves and need to copy the blueprint of someone else. Daring to be different might make your music stand apart. Daring to be different and standing apart might draw more people to your music. Daring to be different might make you more popular - and thus more hipster. So grow some facial hair, put on an ironic shirt, grab a PBR, and listen up.

1. Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

2. Alcest - Écailles de lune

3. Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Sect(s)

4. Darkspace - III

5. Darkthrone - Circle The Wagons

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Updated version of the list previously published here. You'll notice that the comments are a bit different for sure, as is the order:
1 to 3: best of the year (in preference order)
4 to 25: other great stuff (alphabetical order)

And then there were some average (sometimes bad, sometimes good) albums that didn't make it in this list, but they featured some of the most awesome songs of the year. Like Voices Of The Fallen by Battlelore, Dylath-Leen's Frozen Reflect On A Broken Mirror, and particularly Iced Earth's Come What May...

1. Textures - Silhouettes

2. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

3. Burst - Lazarus Bird

4. ADX - Division Blindée

5. Cynic - Traced In Air

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My top 100 albums of all time (featured on MS).
One album per band.

In alphabetical order.

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

2. Ævangelist - De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis

3. Abyssal - Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius

4. Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

5. Agalloch - The Mantle

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As a lover of all things sci-fi I find metal to be the most accommodating of genres when it comes to themes of space/aliens. This is a list of those albums which use this theme and/or evoke an overall 'spacey' atmosphere and which I find particularly intriguing and enjoyable. No order for now and a work in progress (recommendations most welcome) Last Updated: 20th May 2013

1. Atoma - Skylight

2. Dolorian - Voidwards

3. Angst Skvadron - Flukt

4. Slough Feg - Hardworlder

5. Slough Feg - Traveller

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1. Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty

2. Agalloch - The Mantle

3. Gris - Il Était Une Forêt...

4. Darkspace - III

5. Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

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Okay guys the countdown is really not a countdown, as in they aren't in any specific order.
PS: I'm sure I forgot some albums, so I might edit this list later on.

1. Lair of the Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master

2. Saattue - Jäähyvästi

3. Isole - Bliss of Solitude

4. Forefather - Steadfast

5. Grand Magus - Iron Will

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This list, like the others, is only in alphabetical order. If I had to pick a favorite then it would be Darkspace's 'III' hands down.

1. Ásmegin - Arv

2. A Forest Of Stars - The Corpse Of Rebirth

3. Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

4. Averse Sefira - Advent Parallax

5. Black Lotus - Harvest Of Seasons

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1. Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

2. Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

3. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

4. Setherial - Nord

5. Dark Funeral - The Secrets Of The Black Arts

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Only 1 album per band;
Rating:
10: 1-4.
9: 5-32.
8: 33-50.

1. Summoning - Stronghold

2. Dornenreich - Bitter Ist's Dem Tod Zu Dienen

3. Shining - V - Halmstad

4. Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

5. Kampfar - Kvass

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Favorite albums released in 2008

1. Bonded By Blood - Feed The Beast

2. Origin - Antithesis

3. Hour Of Penance - The Vile Conception

4. Decrepit Birth - Diminishing Between Worlds

5. Deeds Of Flesh - Of Whats To Come

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