Here's my AotY for each year from 1970, with a runner up (or two) following.
Pink Floyd and Yes aren't here, King Crimson is, so I'll include King Crimson

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

5.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

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1.Kauan - Sorni Nai

2.Wilderun - Sleep At The Edge Of The Earth

3.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

4.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

5.Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega

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1.All time & genre (including Non-Metal on MS)
2.Only studio albums & EPs
3.The genre is primary one.
4.Only ESPECIALLY favorite (a bit more stringently than ver1 and rating 10 is not enough)
5.The order: A to Z (initial of band's name), next release date
6.Black Wisdom, an album of Russian band Grey Heaven Fall, is deleted. When the situation gets better, I will repost.
Last modified on 3 March 2022

1.Akhlys - The Dreaming I

2.Altar Of Plagues - Mammal

3.Angra - Temple Of Shadows

4.Anthrax - Among The Living

5.Arkha Sva - Gloria Satanae

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* Updating this as I get around to doing song-by-song on RYM.
* 1 album per band
* limiting this to actual black metal releases, as opposed to releases by bands that were, at one time, black metal.
>> Some bands really do incorporate a lot of both death metal or doom (or avant garde or folk, etc) and black metal in their albums, so I consider them to be 'black metal adjacent' even if it might not be 'purely black metal'

1.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

2.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

3.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

4.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

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My favourite black metal albums listed and ranked, all varieties within the black metal genre.

1.Summoning - Oath Bound

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

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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.Aara - En Ergô Einai

2.Aarni - Bathos

3.Aaskereia - Dort, Wo Das Alte Böse Ruht

4.Aastraal - Tuba mirum spargens sonum per sepulcra regionum, coget omnes ante thronum

5.AATHMA - Avesta

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To explain the title, there is no year 0, regardless of what Ghost may tell you. Thus, the first decade was years 1-10, instead of 0-9. So then it would be 11-20, and so on. But I know that would imply that Paranoid is a 60s album, which we cannot have.

So now that all the cool kids are doing it, here is my top 100 albums of the "decade", most of it might be a bit too mainsteam, most of it you'll find on others' lists, and so on. Restricted to one album per artist/band (including collabs), ordered alphabetically.

1.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

2.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

3.Akhlys - The Dreaming I

4.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

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The best of 2010-2019. At the end it tuned out to be less diverse than what I thought it would be in terms of musical genres, with mostly black and death metal record filling the spots.
Recommendations more than welcomed.

1.Sutcliffe Jugend - Blue Rabbit

2.Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole

3.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

4.Schammasch - Contradiction

5.Lorn - Subconscious Metamorphosis

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This was probably the second-best decade in music for me (with the first being 2000s). There were albums that changed my perspective on how to perceive the world and helped me dive deeper into this neverending journey of discovering music. It always felt like there is a unique world hidden in every album and that makes me want to discover as much as possible to broaden my horizons.

1.TesseracT - Altered State

2.Behemoth - The Satanist

3.Wintersun - Time I

4.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

5.Myrath - Legacy

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Are you addicted to the eerie sound of Deathspell Omega, Ulcerate and Portal? Then this list is for you.

1.Above Aurora - Path To Ruin

2.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

3.Ad Nauseam - Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est

4.Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

5.Akhlys - The Dreaming I

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In no particular order.

I originally made a top 15 but there is just too much music to do that shit anymore.

1.Tribulation - The Children Of The Night

2.Abigail Williams - The Accuser

3.Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls

4.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

5.Imperial Triumphant - Abyssal Gods

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Every album to catch my ear during 2015, rated, with plenty of non-metal for those of you who like to branch out and see what the whole world of music has to offer. Variety'll always be a virtue.

Numerous focused listens needed before rating.
Updates will (hopefully) be constant.

New Update: In order to promote exploration into albums you may not know, I've decided to include "Standout Track" segments for any album which has a track I feel you all MUST listen to. Hopefully these can help hook people with albums they're not familiar with, because chances are they instantaneously hooked me.

1.Death Grips - The Powers That B

2.Leprous - The Congregation

3.Clarence Clarity - No Now

4.Björk - Vulnicura

5.Envy - Atheist's Cornea

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This list contains most beautiful, majestic and soul-touching releases I've ever experienced.
My most favorite genres are Black Metal, Post Metal, Shoegaze, Doom Metal, Ambient and Neo-Classical in general .

Albums are ranked by the year,I think this way is more useful.

I will keep expanding my list as i can.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

3.Deinonychus - The Silence Of December

4.Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I - Fathers Of The Icy Age

5.Burzum - Filosofem

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1.Arcturus - Arcturian

2.Corpo-Mente - Corpo-Mente

3.A Forest Of Stars - Beware The Sword You Cannot See

4.Baldrs Draumar - Aldgillissoan

5.Ragnaröek - Dornig

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2015. Best to worst. Simple as that.

1.Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss

2.Sea Witch - The Blackened Sea

3.Echoes Of Yul - The Healing

4.Chrch - Unanswered Hymns

5.Zuriaake - 孤雁

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