2016 was... well... oh oh... oh oh... well... what the fuck!

Anyhow, here is my top 50 ranking of albums I scored 8+

Album count: 126
Average rating: 7.1

1.Alcest - Kodama

2.Khemmis - Hunted

3.Insomnium - Winter's Gate

4.Trees Of Eternity - Hour Of The Nightingale

5.Skuggsjá - A Piece For Mind & Mirror

      View entire list ››

I feel like my overall favorites list is getting too long. I'm splitting it up by rating.

1.Thy Catafalque - Meta

2.Sepulcros - Vazio

3.Kassad - Faces Turn Away

4.Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

5.Xanthochroid - Of Erthe And Axen: Act I

      View entire list ››

1.The Ocean - Pelagial

2.Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma

3.Neurosis - The Eye Of Every Storm

4.Isis - Panopticon

5.Ghost Brigade - IV - One With The Storm

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

These are MY Top 250 Albums that are featured on Metal Storm in chronological order to celebrate 50 Years of Metal.

Some bands are featured on this list with more than one album, which means that they are perticulary amazing to me.

I listen to a wide spectrum of metal genres, which is why I tried to keep it diverse and not focus on one genre.

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

      View entire list ››

1.Alcest - Kodama

2.Dark Tranquillity - Atoma

3.Omnium Gatherum - Grey Heavens

4.Uada - Devoid Of Light

5.Harakiri For The Sky - III: Trauma

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security

5.Before The Dawn - Deadlight

      View entire list ››

1.Vanhelgd - Temple Of Phobos

2.Zhrine - Unortheta

3.Krypts - Remnants Of Expansion

4.Temple Nightside - The Hecatomb

5.Blood Incantation - Starspawn

      View entire list ››

A lot of great albums from different genres this year. Ereb Altor released the best cover album of all time.

1.Borknagar - Winter Thrice

2.Netherbird - The Grander Voyage

3.Equilibrium - Armageddon

4.Twilight Force - Heroes Of Mighty Magic

5.Katatonia - The Fall Of Hearts

      View entire list ››

1.Cult Of Luna - Mariner [Collaboration]

2.Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

3.Mistur - In Memoriam

4.Thy Catafalque - Meta

5.In The Woods... - Pure

      View entire list ››

I have never attempted to create a complete end of the year list so far, but here it is. It consists of the albums that I have either purchased myself throughout the year (most of them), or that I still spent enough time listening to to get a more or less complete impression (a few). I know that there are countless albums out there that I haven't paid any attention to so far and I might change the list a bit in the coming months because of that. Since I am mostly listening to Black Metal, expect to see a lot from that genre in my list.

1.Forteresse - Thèmes Pour La Rébellion

2.Mare Cognitum - Luminiferous Aether

3.Schammasch - Triangle

4.Inquisition - Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith

5.Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole Of The Law

      View entire list ››

2016 - What An amazing year for Metal!

End of the year list for the bands & albums I heard this year - sorted In alphabetical order. List is WIP.

1.Abbath - Abbath

2.Alcest - Kodama

3.Ancient - Back To The Land Of The Dead

4.Antimatter - Welcome To The Machine

5.Borknagar - Winter Thrice

      View entire list ››

https://fullblackreviews.blogspot.com
My blog if you want to read some reviews.

1.Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

2.Schammasch - Triangle

3.Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

4.Bethlehem - Bethlehem

5.Ulcerate - Shrines Of Paralysis

      View entire list ››

1.Alcest - Kodama

2.Myrath - Legacy

3.Fallujah - Dreamless

4.Krampus - Counter//Current

5.Rotting Christ - Rituals

      View entire list ››