2015 was the edge, the cliff, the abyss looking back at us... and we jumped... oh yes we did...

Top 50 of my 8+ ratings

Enjoy! or not I don't really care

Album count: 155
Average rating: 7.15

1.Shape Of Despair - Monotony Fields

2.Arcturus - Arcturian

3.Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

4.Kauan - Sorni Nai

5.Swallow The Sun - Songs From The North I, II & III

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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
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828

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 grows 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 2015 to 2019, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2015-2019.
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 2015-2019 = 7.422
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2015 - 31
2016 - 24
2017 - 18
2018 - 12
2019 - 17

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

2.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Vektor - Terminal Redux

5.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

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1.Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls

2.Leprous - The Congregation

3.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

4.Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor

5.Puscifer - Money Shot

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I'm not saying anything apart from that these hit me the hardest last year. Feel free to comment, recommend or just hate my taste.

Honorable mentions:
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms | Remmirath - Shambhala Vril Saucers | Tribulation - Children of the Night | Panopticon - Autumn Eternal

1.Mesarthim - Isolate

2.Ahab - The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

3.Myrkur - Myrkur

4.Deafheaven - New Bermuda

5.Leprous - The Congregation

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1.Slayer - Repentless

2.Monster Magnet - Cobras And Fire (The Mastermind Redux)

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.Lamb Of God - VII: Sturm Und Drang

5.Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat

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Been a bit slow checking releases around the halfway point of the year, but should get back into it soon and hopefully flesh out this list.

1.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

2.Horrendous - Anareta

3.Slugdge - Dim & Slimeridden Kingdoms

4.Teramaze - Her Halo

5.Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Exile

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Another year long journey into the world of Metal! The Earth's most interesting music. My tastes are pretty diverse. I enjoy that music that hits the nerve closest to the soul , and also that nasty sound that makes you want to break stuff! BTW that pic is not of me I'm far uglier!

1.High On Fire - Luminiferous

2.Intronaut - The Direction Of Last Things

3.Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction

4.Minsk - The Crash & The Draw

5.Between The Buried And Me - Coma Ecliptic

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Due to new developments and time constraints, I have streamlined this back into one list. I have taken off anything that I did not care for, so just consider it a list of recommended listens. You can find full reviews on Metal Trenches (MT) in most cases. Also jumping on the artwork bandwagon:

1.Between The Buried And Me - Coma Ecliptic

2.Abyssal - Antikatastaseis

3.Death Karma - The History Of Death & Burial Rituals Part I

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

5.Leviathan - Scar Sighted

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It's starting to seem like and endless circle...

1.Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

2.Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

3.Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

4.The Aristocrats - Tres Caballeros

5.Enslaved - In Times

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