Must Listen: The First 4

1.Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

2.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

3.Trivium - In Waves

4.Fair To Midland - Arrows & Anchors

5.Evergrey - Glorious Collision

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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If you already checked my previous list (http://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=312) and are aware about most of the albums on that list then you might want other solid power metal albums to check out. This is my list of 2nd line power metal albums that are really good and should be included in your musical library.

Notes:

- The first track in the favorite tracks description section of each album is usually my favorite on the album
- I avoided adding albums of bands that are included in the previous list

If you have a thing for stats like I do then countries by albums:

Germany - 7
Sweden - 5
Italy - 3
Finland - 2
USA - 2
Brazil - 1
England - 1
Netherlands - 1
Austria - 1
Mixed - 1

1.Victorius - Dreamchaser

2.Dreamland - Future's Calling

3.Theocracy - As The World Bleeds

4.Serious Black - As Daylight Breaks

5.Mob Rules - Savage Land

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2005-2009 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5838
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 2010 to 2014, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2010-2014.
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 +2.

C for 2010-2014 = 7.478
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2010 - 24
2011 - 28
2012 - 16
2013 - 22
2014 - 12

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon

2.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

3.Aquilus - Griseus

4.Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I

5.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

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1.Aria - Феникс

2.Bloodbound - Unholy Cross

3.Battle Beast - Steel

4.Kipelov - Against All Odds

5.Astral Doors - Jerusalem

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These are my favorite progressive/power metal albums that I have listened to. Some of them are for musical technique and others are simply because they blew my mind with the crazy story lines or whatever!

1.Symphony X - Paradise Lost

2.Symphony X - The Odyssey

3.Masterplan - Aeronautics

4.Nightwish - Dark Passion Play

5.Theocracy - As The World Bleeds

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Since many of you felt annoyed by my previous list title I changed it and hopefully you will be ok with it.Power up everybody!!!

1.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I

4.Riot - ThunderSteel

5.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

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1.Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2.Omnium Gatherum - New World Shadows

3.Symphony X - Iconoclast

4.Concerto Moon - Savior Never Cry

5.Brymir - Breathe Fire To The Sun

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1.Dreamtale - Epsilon

2.Galneryus - Phoenix Rising

3.ReinXeed - 1912

4.Powerwolf - Blood Of The Saints

5.Amaranthe - Amaranthe

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I tried to put one album per band, so it was a fucking hard choice in many cases.
Anyway, all of them are great albums in it' genre.
No order followed.

1.Almah - Fragile Equality

2.Andre Matos - Mentalize

3.Arryan Path - Ira Imperium

4.Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part 1

5.Astral Doors - New Revelation

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Just for my favorite
2016.09.15 update

1.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

2.Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free

3.Heavenly - Dust To Dust

4.Theocracy - Mirror Of Souls

5.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

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in MY OPINION, these are the bands and albums i just cannot stop listening to, the 1st 10 albums are the best ones (based on how many times i listened to the album) after the 1st 10, no specific order. If you have any suggestions let me know, chances are i've never listened to the album. Also I have requirements concerning the lyrics, so if i dont update the list with your suggestion is bc i might not like the music or the lyrics. Long Live Multi-Colored Flower Metal!!!

1.Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending To Infinity

2.Dark Moor - Tarot

3.Luca Turilli - Prophet Of The Last Eclipse

4.Rhapsody Of Fire - Dawn Of Victory

5.Theocracy - As The World Bleeds

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1.Rhapsody Of Fire - From Chaos To Eternity

2.Symphony X - Iconoclast

3.Nightwish - Imaginaerum

4.Stratovarius - Elysium

5.Versailles - Holy Grail

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1.Obscura - Omnivium

2.Pagan's Mind - Heavenly Ecstasy

3.Born Of Osiris - The Discovery

4.Magic Pie - The Suffering Joy

5.Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa

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1.Theocracy - As The World Bleeds

2.Iced Earth - Dystopia

3.Iron Mask - Black As Death

4.Edguy - Age Of The Joker

5.Symphony X - Iconoclast

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