I never hear it brought up but I wanna throw 2009 into the Best Metal Year conversation, comparing this to the year before it's insane. I didn't even give my favourite band an honourable mention as there was already too many.

D666, Ruins, Nazxul, Razor of Occam, Pestilential Shadows... Nice year for Aussie Black Metal.

1.Behemoth - Evangelion

2.Deströyer 666 - Defiance

3.Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

4.Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know

5.Artillery - When Death Comes

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1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.King Diamond - Abigail

3.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5.Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

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1.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

2.Kauan - Aava Tuulen Maa

3.Katatonia - Night Is The New Day

4.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

5.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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1.In Flames - Reroute To Remain

2.Katatonia - Viva Emptiness

3.Crematory - Pray

4.The Project Hate MCMXCIX - Armageddon March Eternal (Symphonies Of Slit Wrists)

5.Mercenary - The Hours That Remain

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1.Agalloch - Pale Folklore

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

5.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

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My favorite albums on alphabetical order.

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

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AtoZ (Album)

1.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

2.Ihsahn - After

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Faith No More - Angel Dust

5.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

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As is the case with my other lists, this is for my own organizational purposes and is designed purely to help me keep track of all the many black metal bands and albums that I enjoy, since I can't keep all of this information in my head. It has no other benefit whatsoever and will likely result in tantrums should anyone else see it. I'm aware that I haven't listened to every black metal album that I should have. I only went down to the 6s on this list, so it's possible that I have listened to your favorite black metal album that you desperately need to suggest and I thought it was terrible. There are a lot of heinously incompetent black metal bands out there.

On the off-chance that you've found this and actually care about what I think (you shouldn't), be advised that my favorites come first. Some are favorites in the general sense; some are favorites within black metal. The first few of those are in some order and not so much after that.

Because this is for my own purposes and not intended to be a definitive list of pure black metal, there are some black metal-adjacent bands, or albums by black metal bands that may not themselves be black metal. That's why you'll find so much Sigh clogging up the top of the list. I prefer to keep whole discographies together on one list. I used to include Primordial, Forefather, and other such bands, but a while back I created a list for folk and I decided that those artists would fit better there.

I update these lists very infrequently. This was last updated December 7, 2022.

1.Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape

2.Sigh - Graveward

3.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

4.Sigh - Heir To Despair

5.The Meads Of Asphodel - The Murder Of Jesus The Jew

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Yeah... a very conventional idea for a list, but i couldn't resist in the end finally making this one.
A list of my personal favorites from the blackest metal of them all.
Ordered by personal preferences and updated periodically with only one album/ep/demo per band.
Please enjoy, you might also find some of your likings in here. ^^
...and if not, it can't be helped.

1.Summoning - Stronghold

2.Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

3.Midnight Odyssey - Firmament

4.Eismalsott - Best Before: Spring

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

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Alphabetical order.
Limited to 2 albums per band

Top 5 of non-metal:
Pink Floyd-The Wall
King Crimson-In The Court Of The Crimson King
Godspeed You! Black Emperor-Yanqui U.X.O
Comus-First Utterance
Explosions In The Sky-The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Vanitas

5.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

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1.Katatonia - Night Is The New Day

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Insomnium - Across The Dark

4.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

5.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

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Here we go... I'd rate this year a 9 for the unusual quality of album releases! Qué impressionante! \m/

1.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

2.Amorphis - Skyforger

3.Suidakra - Crógacht

4.Ensiferum - From Afar

5.Alestorm - Black Sails At Midnight

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My top Metal picks for 2009. It was in interesting year and a good transition into what I feel will be a decade of progression as never seen before.

If you don't agree with my list, make your own. I obviously don't have time to listen to 5,000 albums every year. Magazines that do, such as Decibel or Terrorizer, usually have trouble conjuring up 40 quality albums to throw on their yearly lists, so cut me some slack...I am not working with a team of people, and I don't get paid. I'm sure there are plenty of great albums that I have yet to discover or that I have just not been able to listen to...but all of those that are listed have been personally approved by me. The numbers are not as important to me. I would greatly appreciate some "Thumbs ups", as I have put a lot of my personal time into this list, and also into reviewing these great albums.

1.Wodensthrone - Loss

2.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough

5.Napalm Death - Time Waits For No Slave

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1.Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious

2.Fleshgod Apocalypse - Oracles

3.Dark Moor - Autumnal

4.The Ruins Of Beverast - Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite

5.3 Inches Of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

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