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Thumbs up: +2
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums

Doom Metal is one of those genres that I'd never really taken much notice of until I started working my way through the MS top 200 albums. I'd listened to Black Sabbath when a teacher at my school gave me his copy of Paranoid to borrow around 2007/08, which I highly enjoyed! Since then, Over the last few years, I've discovered so many great doom metal bands such as Slumber, Doom:VS, October Tide and Swallow the Sun.

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of doom metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid
2.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality
3.Slumber - Fallout
4.Doom:VS - Dead Words Speak
5.October Tide - Rain Without End

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Created by nonZero on 18.03.2024



AJ's Ranking Of 2009

Top 50 of albums I rated 8 and above.

Album count: 222
Average rating: 6.96

1.Ahab - The Divinity Of Oceans
2.Insomnium - Across The Dark
3.Fen - The Malediction Fields
4.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs
5.Isis - Wavering Radiant

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Created by AJ The Great on 02.01.2024



Thumbs up: +13
Song Puzzles: One Song In Several Parts On Different Albums

Some stories, themes or concepts are presented not just in one single song but are split in separate tracks that (often) share the same title but are distinguished by a number of the corresponding part of the song series.

However, sometimes these parts are not found together on one album, but are included on different releases of the artist.
They can be found on two (or more) conceptually linked albums (where they function as part of an ensemble together with the other songs), or they can be included on independent releases (where only they alone continue their story).

Therefore, the main purpose of this list is to give an overview that enables the reader to find the missing song pieces - or even to inform that these pieces exist at all.

Please feel free to find and suggest more examples of these "song jigsaw puzzles": one song(concept) in separate parts on different albums.



1.After Forever - Prison Of Desire
2.Agathodaimon - Higher Art Of Rebellion
3.Agathodaimon - Phoenix
4.Alestorm - Sunset On The Golden Age
5.Alestorm - Curse Of The Crystal Coconut

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Created by Plattner on 28.05.2023



Thumbs up: +7
Making My Way Through The MS Top 200

The MS top 200 is supposed to represent the absolute peak of metal music, the timeless classics. I have been listening to metal for about 6 years now and would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the genre. Yet, I have barely heard half of what the top 200 has to offer. I am now on a quest to listen to it all and give an honest opinion on what I thought of it.
This list will show every album of the top 200 and if I've listened to it whether it's an all-time favourite of mine (+++), I really like it (++), I like it (+), it’s good (*), it’s not great (-), I really dislike it (--) or I hate it from the bottom of my heart (---). The same symbols will be used to characterize what I think my opinion of the albums I haven't heard yet will be, based on my knowledge of the bands and of the genre they play. (?) signifies that I have no idea of whether I'll enjoy it or not and (/) means that my opinion of the album is probably obsolete, and I need to listen to it again. A ★ means the album is in my own top 200.
Edit: The bottom of the top 200 has been changing a lot, with some stuff formerly in the list now closer to 240th, so this is now a top 250. I’m not sure I want to expand the list further down, but I’ll see whenever it’s completed if I feel like going for a top 300 or something like that.
Best discoveries so far: Wildhoney, Nightfall, Out Of Myself, Portal Of I, Autumn Aurora, Nemesis Divina, Abigail, V: Hävitetty, Sounds Of Pain.

1.
2.
3.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol
4.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die
5.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

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Created by Roman Doez on 13.04.2023



Thumbs up: +2
Top Metal Albums Each Year I Have Been Alive 2009

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

2009 was one of the best, a lot of great release came out that year especially within black, Progressive and Death metal. Had to make some rough cuts so honorable mentions goes to: Róka Hasa Rádió by Thy Catafalque, Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us by Paradise Lost, Evangelion by Behemoth, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da by Rammstein, Axe To Fall by Converge, The Great Misdirect by Between The Buried And Me, Endgame by Megadeth, Time Waits For No Slave by Napalm Death and In The Constellation Of The Black Widow by Anaal Nathrakh, over all a fantastic year.

1.Leprous - Tall Poppy Syndrome
2.Devin Townsend - Addicted
3.Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious
4.Abandon - The Dead End
5.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

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Created by Handala on 05.11.2022



My Top 30 Albums Of 2009

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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Created by JHK on 03.05.2022



Thumbs up: +2
Top Favourite Doom Metal Albums

1.Candlemass - King Of The Grey Islands
2.Solitude Aeturnus - Alone
3.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
4.Dominion - Threshold - A Retrospective
5.Trouble - Psalm 9

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Created by blackwreath13 on 20.03.2021



Thumbs up: +4
The Best Metal Albums* From A To # (S)

This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.S.V.E.S.T. - Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum: Le Diable Est Ma Raison
2.Sabachthani - Miserable Endings
3.Sabaoth - Les Illuminations
4.Sabaton - Carolus Rex
5.Sabbat - Dreamweaver

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Created by Uxküll on 17.02.2021



Thumbs up: +6
1001 Metal Albums to Hear Before You Die

An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid
5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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Created by metalriff on 05.02.2021



Thumbs up: +1
Top 15 Doom Metal Albums Of The 00's

1.Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell
2.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came
3.Solitude Aeturnus - Alone
4.Helevorn - Forthcoming Displeasures
5.Candlemass - Candlemass

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Created by Mrtvozornik on 06.07.2020



Thumbs up: +2
pandrstudios Metal History

These are MY Top 250 Albums that are featured on Metal Storm in chronological order to celebrate 50 Years of Metal.

Some bands are featured on this list with more than one album, which means that they are perticulary amazing to me.

I listen to a wide spectrum of metal genres, which is why I tried to keep it diverse and not focus on one genre.

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
2.Deep Purple - In Rock
3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards
5.Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

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Created by pandrstudios on 01.05.2020



Most Consistent Bands By MS Rating By Best Album

1.Opeth - Ghost Reveries
2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate
3.Swallow The Sun - New Moon

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Created by Fallen22 on 26.04.2020



My Crashing Doom Metal List

1.Uaral - Sounds Of Pain
2.Virgin Black - Requiem - Fortissimo
3.My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light
4.Doom:VS - Dead Words Speak
5.Myriads - Introspection

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Created by jawharessence on 11.10.2019



Thumbs up: +1
Top 100 (+8) Of 2005-2009

2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828
2015-2019 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6722

I sure do love this site and it's rating system, it makes finding great music so easy and, even more importantly, when an album is overlooked for a while but starts getting a buzz a few months later, boom, there it appears in the top 20.

All that being said, I still wish there was some way to get a weighted ranking that not only takes the rating of the album into account, but also the number of votes that were cast. For example, an album with a rating of 8.8 and 1000 votes would rank higher than an album with a rating of 8.9 and 20 votes. So, I scraped all the albums on the site with at least 1 vote into a database. Then, taking a leaf out of IMDb's book, I used Bayesian estimation (like the IMDb's Top 250) to calculate a weighted rating for each album based on its Metal Storm rating and the number of votes it had received.

The formula for calculating the Top 100 Albums gives a true Bayesian estimate:
Bayes rating (BR) = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) where:
C = average expected rating given...
m = minimum number of votes
R = average rating for the album = (Metal Storm rating)
N = number of votes for the album = (votes)

The way the Bayesian estimator works is that all albums in the database are given and additional m fake votes with an average rating of C, irrespective of how many true votes it already has. Then a new weighted rating is calculated...
If the album has no true votes ( N = 0 ), then BR = ( C × m + R × 0 ) ÷ ( m + 0) = C × m ÷ m = C (the average expected rating).
If the album has a number of true votes equal to the minimum ( N = m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × m ) ÷ ( m + m ) = ( C + R ) × m ÷ 2m = ( C + R ) ÷ 2 (halfway between the two ratings).
If the album has a very large number of true votes ( N >> m ), then BR = ( C × m + R × N ) ÷ ( m + N ) ≈ R × N ÷ N = R (the Metal Storm rating).
This means that the Bayes rating will never equal the Metal Storm rating but will approach it as the true votes grow arbitrarily large.

Now that the maths bit is out of the way, here was my methodology:
Only Studio and EP album types, from the years 2005 to 2009, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2005-2009.
The minimum number of votes (m) was determined by calculating the 75th percentile of the votes, rounded to the nearest 10.
I also decided that if an album's Bayes rating was within 0.005 of #100, it would be included too; hence the +8.

C for 2005-2009 = 7.593
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2005 - 26
2006 - 20
2007 - 23
2008 - 17
2009 - 23

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries
3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach
4.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius
5.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

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Created by Crys1s on 19.09.2019



Thumbs up: +21
Top 500 Albums of All Time

I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
2.Opeth - Blackwater Park
3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets
4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
5.Opeth - Still Life

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Created by nonZero on 06.10.2018