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Thumbs up: +10
Playing Outside Of The Box! (An Alternative Metal Guide & Journey)

Right... Let's get this out of the way from the get-go. Alternative metal is hard to define. I guess that comes from it always wanting to experiment, explore and fuse heavy metal with non-metal music genres. It also makes it an ever changing and growing genre.

Also, before you guys flood me, yes my list contains a lot of Industrial & Nu Metal bands, as well as other genre.. As far as I'm concerned, my picks all fit quite well in the scope of an alternative metal list. Don't you agree? Wait... You disagree? Well, let's agree to disagree and move on.

As for the list itself, I'm going to try and list through time what I (me, myself & moi) consider as essential alternative albums. I will also limit myself to a maximum of 4 releases each year to prevent a messy list, which often makes it a difficult decision, especially in the early 2000's. So yes, it is possible your personal favourite won't be featured. You can tell me all about it in the comments below and we can discuss it, even argue it.

Now, have fun, enjoy my list and let me know what you think or would personally put in your favourite alt-metal list!

-Guib-

EDIT: I will now add my pick for best album of each year using the (best of xxxx) in the chosen album's description.

- - - - -

Guib's Best Alternative Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2022
Polyphia - Remember That You Will Die

Best Of 2023
Mutoid Man - Mutants

Best of 2024 So Far
...tbd

- - - - - - - - - -

Last Updated: March 27th, 2024

1.Living Colour - Vivid
2.Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
3.Faith No More - The Real Thing
4.Godflesh - Streetcleaner
5.L7 - Smell The Magic

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Created by Guib on 20.08.2023



Thumbs up: +5
Top 200 Alternative Metal Albums

This is very simple, I took the ratings for a bunch of alternative metal albums on MS and ranked them accordingly

To qualify:
The album must have been released when the band was labelled as "Alternative Metal" by MS. So for example the three most recent Gojira albums count, but early Gojira does not.

The band must have more than 10 fans on MS

Therefore this is not a reflection of my opinions, rather a reflection of numbers so if you wanna get mad, get mad at the numbers, not me. And remember that this really isn't that serious

1.Mass Hysteria - Contraddiction
2.Tool - Lateralus
3.The Butterfly Effect - IV
4.Tool - Ænima
5.Mass Hysteria - Le Bien-Être Et La Paix

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Created by Wildebean on 05.04.2023



Thumbs up: +1
Best Debuts Of All Time

The best debut records of all time by year…

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
2.KISS - Kiss
3.Rush - Rush
4.AC/DC - High Voltage
5.Motörhead - Motörhead

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Created by Blackcrowe on 10.03.2023



Thumbs up: +1
Velmoth: My Greatest Albums Of All Time

...Diving Into The Void...

1.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought
2.Tool - Undertow
3.Metallica - Kill 'Em All
4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid
5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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Created by Human Waste on 07.06.2022



1993 (An Exploration)

1.Motörhead - Bastards
2.Carcass - Heartwork
3.Dissection - The Somberlain
4.Dio - Strange Highways
5.Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses

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Created by Artorix Carlsson on 02.06.2022



Thumbs up: +4
Metal Albums Ranked From WORSHIP To DISLIKE

Ratings go from:

WORSHIP ❤️❤️❤️: Absolute greatness, a mindblowing album.
LOVE ❤️❤️🖤: Amazing release with very few flaws.
LIKE ❤️🖤🖤: Enjoyable but far from perfect.
DISLIKE 💔: Not very good or maybe not fitting my tastes.

I've decided to stop rating albums with a numerical value as I tend to feel uncomfortable with that. This list has a minimalistic, subjective and visceral approach, based purely on sensations and personal tastes. Mainly for personal use and doesn't pretend to be a serious ranking, but emerges from the need to remember which bands and albums I enjoyed and the ones I disliked. I constantly revisit new releases so first impressions may change over time. It usually takes 8-10 spins for me to get completely sure of a rating.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot
2.Abhoria - Abhoria
3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops
4.Agrypnie - Metamorphosis
5.Allegaeon - Fragments Of Form And Function

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Created by Rinbel on 14.03.2022



Top 11 Favourite Metal Albums Of 1993

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (Groove/Thrash)
Morbid Angel - Covenant (Death)
Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times (Black)
KMFDM - Angst (Industrial)

Non-Metal mentions:
Nirvana - In Utero (Alternative/Rock)
:Wumpscut: - Music For A Slaughtering Tribe (Industrial)

1.Dissection - The Somberlain
2.Immortal - Pure Holocaust
3.Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror
4.Carcass - Heartwork
5.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

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Created by blackwreath13 on 04.10.2021



Top Favourite Progressive Metal Albums

Not my genre so this is a pretty limpdicked list.

Inc. Avant Garde Metal because I'm a Philistine who can't tell the difference.

1.Tool - Lateralus
2.Celtic Frost - Monotheist
3.Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
4.Opeth - Ghost Reveries
5.Death - Symbolic

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Created by blackwreath13 on 27.04.2021



Tool Albums Ranked (Best To Worst)

1.Tool - Ænima
2.Tool - Lateralus
3.Tool - 10,000 Days
4.Tool - Fear Inoculum
5.Tool - Undertow

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Created by Mario Montes on 31.05.2020



Top Metal Bands

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
2.Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme
3.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God
4.Amorphis - Skyforger
5.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

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Created by tysly on 29.03.2018



Top Ten Riffs Of Each Decade

While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.
2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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Created by Ganondox on 04.08.2017



Tool Albums Ranked

1.Tool - Lateralus
2.Tool - 10,000 Days
3.Tool - Undertow
4.Tool - Ænima

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Created by pablogl on 03.06.2017



Thumbs up: +2
Best Metal Albums Ever (IMO)

Metal albums that blow me away every time I hear them. Loosely ordered... list gets less organized as it goes on. My favorite song from each album is included.

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
2.Faith No More - Angel Dust
3.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
4.Tool - Ænima
5.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

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Created by matthewdurham on 09.05.2017



My Top 10 Metal Bands And Their Best Albums

What the title says.

1.Metallica - ...And Justice For All
2.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality
3.Alice In Chains - Dirt
4.Megadeth - Rust In Peace
5.Faith No More - Angel Dust

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Created by Vulturus on 22.07.2016



Thumbs up: +13
Goatse.cx

That Circles list inspired me to do a Goatse list. If you don't know what Goatse is then consider yourself fortunate and don't investigate. You will regret it.

For the rest of us though, let's see how many album images we can destroy together!

1.Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void
2.Quintessence Mystica - The 5th Harmonic Of Death
3.Tool - Undertow
4.Tool - Ænima
5.Coal Chamber - Rivals

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Created by psykometal on 09.06.2015