Technical and Progressive albums. Pretty much alphabetical order. comment for suggestions. If I added a band but didn't put all the albums, its because I never got around to listening to their complete discography or didn't find it technical or progressive.

1. After The Burial - Rareform

2. Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders

3. Animals As Leaders - Weightless

4. Arsis - We Are The Nightmare

5. August Burns Red - Messengers

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Here is my provisional favorite-metal-albums-of-all-time-list! Enjoy!
The first 10 albums are in pretty accurate order. However, after that, it becomes harder and harder to separate the albums clearly. Thus, you can say that I enjoy album x on the list as much as the others in the interval of (x-5) to (x+5). For example album 37 would be as much enjoyed as 32, 33, 34, ..., 42, or something like that.

1. Cult Of Luna - Somewhere Along The Highway

2. Disillusion - Back To Times Of Splendor

3. Grand Alchemist - Intervening Coma-Celebration

4. Opeth - Blackwater Park

5. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

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I know this is a bit late, but whatever...

1. Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2. SepticFlesh - The Great Mass

3. Machine Head - Unto The Locust

4. Opeth - Heritage

5. Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg

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I picked one album by each of my favorite bands for this list. Keep in mind that after the first few albums I put on the list, it became increasingly difficult to figure out where to place artists in my list. Also, this is kind of how my favorite bands lie now, as far as how often I listen to them - whereas some of these bands used to be much more frequently played, years ago. But this is, more or less, a list of my favorite albums by my favorite bands.

1. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2. Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape

3. Symphony X - The Odyssey

4. Circus Maximus - Nine

5. Haken - Visions

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I'm still catching up on 2011 while putting together my 2012 list. Here's what I've heard from 2011. This is bound to change a bit as I re-listen to these albums with a more critical ear and discover albums I missed entirely.

1. Deafheaven - Roads To Judah

2. Cormorant - Dwellings

3. Sleestak - The Fall of Altrusia

4. Dirge - Elysian Magnetic Fields

5. Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells In Rotten Wood

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These are my picks of "must haves" of 2011 for those who enjoy progressive, technical, djent, and/or experimental metal and hybrids thereof. Derived from over 50 2011 metal releases I purchased and many more that I heard but did not buy. Maybe you missed a masterpiece that I've identified here -- I know I've found a few from others' lists!

1. Leprous - Bilateral

2. Tesseract - One

3. Unexpect - Fables Of The Sleepless Empire

4. Cynthesis - DeEvolution

5. Blotted Science - The Animation of Entomology

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Title says it all. Best 50 albums in 2011. chosen by me.

1. Vomitory - Opus Mortis VIII

2. Ghost Brigade - Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

3. Insomnium - One For Sorrow

4. Hedon Cries - The End Of The Path Is Nigh

5. Autopsy - Macabre Eternal

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1. SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

2. Absu - Abzu

3. Mastodon - The Hunter

4. Enslaved - The Sleeping Gods

5. Disma - Towards The Megalith

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1. Tesseract - One

2. Anathema - Falling Deeper

3. Riverside - Memories In My Head

4. Born Of Osiris - The Discovery

5. Corelia - Nostalgia

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1. Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

2. Ahab - The Call Of The Wretched Sea

3. Ahab - The Divinity Of Oceans

4. Animals As Leaders - Animals As Leaders

5. Animals As Leaders - Weightless

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Purely subjective list based on personal preferences for the year, unrelated to mass opinion of an album or a band's abilities (e.g. Trivium, Oranssi Pazuzu) - many albums lined up to listen to so will increase in size. Also, not entirely in order, middle order mainly just an approximation.

1. Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

2. Protest The Hero - Scurrilous

3. Infestus - E x I s t

4. Amorphis - The Beginning Of Times

5. Ouroboros - Glorification Of A Myth

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2011 Metal

1. Mastodon - The Hunter

2. Opeth - Heritage

3. Animals As Leaders - Weightless

4. Unearth - Darkness in the Light

5. Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy

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It remains to add bands that haven't released album and add personal comments.

1. Symphony X - Iconoclast

2. Iced Earth - Dystopia

3. Vektor - Outer Isolation

4. Megadeth - Th1rt3en

5. Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

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Even in 2012 (update: 2013), 2011 still isn't too hot a year for me. Still, new stuff keeps on coming, and 2012 itself is looking pretty good, so I'll forgive it. New in the new year is the lack of ratings. It's bothersome, especially since I've decided to sacrifice a few newborns and (retrospectively and retroactively) rate on RYM.

1. Hell - Human Remains

2. SubRosa - No Help For The Mighty Ones

3. Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate

4. Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street

5. Mastodon - The Hunter

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Ordered best to worst. This is entirely my opinion.

1. Insomnium - One For Sorrow

2. Graveyard - Hisingen Blues

3. Havok - Time Is Up

4. Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

5. Deafheaven - Roads To Judah

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