Thrash was one of the first metal genres I got into around 2005. I discovered Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, etc through Kerrang! magazine and their albums quickly became my favourites at the time. Now, I've discovered many more such as Vektor, Testament and Nevermore thanks to MS.

So here are my favourites of the genre with my rating, its sub-genre and release year:

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of thrash metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 500 Albums (ordered & rated)
Top 25 EPs (also ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

      View entire list ››

My glorious ranking of the year of our Lord 2017

Top 50 rated 8 and above

Album count: 132
Average rating: 7.1

1.Enslaved - E

2.Mors Principium Est - Embers Of A Dying World

3.Pallbearer - Heartless

4.Myrkur - Mareridt

5.Ulver - The Assassination Of Julius Caesar

      View entire list ››

A little list series where I list my top 20 favorite metal albums every year starting from the year I was born in.

2017 was an interesting year, overall a solid year but the most notable thing about it the nostalgia sound, many new and old bands reuniting to old sounds but in a new way, Thrash metal had a pretty solid year same with death metal and doom, black metal was in its peak with the ambient mix sound and Progressive metal had a solid showing along with power metal.

My favorite non metal albums of 2017

1. No Shape
By Perfume Genius (Art pop)


2. Brutalism
By Idles (Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore)


3. Melodrama
By Lorde (Synthpop, Art Pop)


4. Ctrl
By SZA (R&B, Neo-Soul)


5. Relatives in Descent
By Protomartyr (Post-Punk, Noise Rock)


My favorite movie from 2017

1.Kreator - Gods Of Violence

2.Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

3.Lingua Ignota - All Bitches Die

4.La Torture Des Ténèbres - IV - Memoirs Of A Machine Girl

5.Dvne - Asheran

      View entire list ››

My very subjective ranking of all heard metal and metal-adjacent albums 2020.

1.Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville

2.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

3.Mamaleek - Come & See

4.Sweven - The Eternal Resonance

5.Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh

      View entire list ››

At the end of the 80s the Thrash metal popularity go down… those five or Ten years of success are destined to disappear and only will survive just a bunch of popular bands like Metallica, Slayer, Overkill, Kreator, Testament, Megadeth, Anthrax and a few more.
Maybe the reasons was the irruption of the Glam Metal, Grunge Music was all over the place too, I always believed that the popularity of Pantera . But the real thing is the world its a little bit tired of the lack of originality of the genre and the new bands are part of the same.

1.Mantic Ritual - Executioner

2.Bonded By Blood - Feed The Beast

3.Havok - Burn

4.Blessed Curse - Blessed Curse

5.Evile - Skull

      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 ››

1.Adagio - Life

2.Anathema - The Optimist

3.Annihilator - For The Demented

4.Anubis Gate - Covered In Black

5.Accept - The Rise Of Chaos

      View entire list ››

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.P.H.O.B.O.S. - Phlogiston Catharsis

2.Paara - Riitti

3.Pagan Altar - Mythical & Magical

4.Pagan's Mind - Enigmatic : Calling

5.Paganizer - Into The Catacombs

      View entire list ››

1.Immolation - Atonement

2.Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

3.Necrot - Blood Offerings

4.Belphegor - Totenritual

5.Cytotoxin - Gammageddon

      View entire list ››

1.Overkill - The Electric Age

2.Vektor - Outer Isolation

3.Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

4.Testament - Dark Roots Of Earth

5.Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

      View entire list ››

Erm... sorry Dave... >.>

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Kreator - Pleasure To Kill

4.Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

5.Sodom - M-16

      View entire list ››

1.Shylmagoghnar - Transience

2.Alcest - Spiritual Instinct

3.Wilderun - Veil Of Imagination

4.Ángeles Del Infierno - Si Tú No Estás Aquí

5.Ángeles Del Infierno - Al Otro Lado Del Silencio

      View entire list ››

1.Converge - The Dusk In Us

2.Sólstafir - Berdreyminn

3.Pharmakon - Contact

4.Oktoplut - Le démon normal

5.Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon

      View entire list ››

I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

      View entire list ››

1.Septicflesh - Codex Omega

2.Spectral Voice - Eroded Corridors Of Unbeing

3.Paradise Lost - Medusa

4.Samael - Hegemony

5.Egonaut - The Omega

      View entire list ››