Ratings go from:

WORSHIP ❤️❤️❤️: Absolute greatness, a mindblowing album.
LOVE ❤️❤️🖤: Amazing release with very few flaws.
LIKE ❤️🖤🖤: Enjoyable but far from perfect.
DISLIKE 💔: Not very good or maybe not fitting my tastes.

I've decided to stop rating albums with a numerical value as I tend to feel uncomfortable with that. This list has a minimalistic, subjective and visceral approach, based purely on sensations and personal tastes. Mainly for personal use and doesn't pretend to be a serious ranking, but emerges from the need to remember which bands and albums I enjoyed and the ones I disliked. I constantly revisit new releases so first impressions may change over time. It usually takes 8-10 spins for me to get completely sure of a rating.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot

2.Abhoria - Abhoria

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agrypnie - Metamorphosis

5.Allegaeon - Fragments Of Form And Function

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A little list of some great black metal albums by someone who generally doesn't listen to black metal. So there will not be any Mayhem, Bathory, Immortal, Watain, Burzum, Marduk or the likes of them on this list since I'm not interested in that kind of traditional old school black metal.
A maximum of one album per band is allowed and they need to have some sort of black metal labeled to them. Enjoy!

1.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

2.Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

3.Hoth - Infinite Darkness

4.Shylmagoghnar - Emergence

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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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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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.W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

2.Wachenfeldt - The Interpreter

3.Wake - Devouring Ruin

4.Waldgeflüster - Femundsmarka - Eine Reise In Drei Kapiteln

5.Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows

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One band, one album in alphabetical order. No EPs, demos, etc.
Favourite album: Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
Favourite song: Schammasch - "Above The Stars Of God"

1.1914 - The Blind Leading The Blind

2.Abbath - Abbath

3.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

4.Aenaon - Hypnosophy

5.Agalloch - Marrow Of The Spirit

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That was a really rough year that take me off since the second half of May, so there'll be just few small reviews. I don't even know if'll able to finish them, so this year the Interesting Picks will be incomplete. I just hope now to get well soon as i can.

Non Metalstrom Bands

Anakim: https://anakimuk.bandcamp.com/releases

1.Blaze Of Perdition - Conscious Darkness

2.Anakim - Monuments To Departed Worlds

3.Iapetus - The Long Road Home

4.Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon

5.Below The Sun - Alien World

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This is my Top-20 list of the albums I listened to obsessively this year. Apart from #1 the rest are in no particular order. Feel free to comment.

Other albums that I enjoyed a lot, but didn't make the list: Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper, Satyricon - Deep Calleth Upon Deep, The Ominous Circle - Appalling Ascension, Vallenfyre - Fear Those Who Fear Him, Loss (USA) - Horizonless, Iced Earth - Incorruptible, Havok - Conformicide, Full Of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy, River Of Souls - The Well Of Urd, Aetherian - The Untamed Wilderness, Below - Upon A Pale Horse, Midnight - Sweet Death And Ecstasy, Immolation - Atonement, Yellow Eyes - Immersion Trench Reverie, Sorcerer - The Crowning Of The Fire King, Converge - The Dusk In Us, Ophis - The Dismal Circle, Inconcessus Lux Lucis - The Crowning Quietus, Temple Of Void - Lords Of Death, Persefone - Aathma, Necrot - Blood Offerings.

1.Wormwood - Ghostlands - Wounds From A Bleeding Earth

2.Venenum - Trance Of Death

3.Sun Of The Sleepless - To The Elements

4.Paradise Lost - Medusa

5.Kreator - Gods Of Violence

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Some list from 2017, 1-13 is in order, rest is just what I have heard and what is good to mention. I don't made this to please MS elitists staffers, spammers, ordinary users, shotbox freaks, media and what so ever. This list is what I think was best from this year and its my own thoughts, I don't care what other things, never have and never will!

1.Iced Earth - Incorruptible

2.Sun Of The Sleepless - To The Elements

3.Evertale - The Great Brotherwar

4.Paradise Lost - Medusa

5.Wolves In The Throne Room - Thrice Woven

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1.Akercocke - Renaissance In Extremis

2.Leprous - Malina

3.Decapitated - Anticult

4.Archspire - Relentless Mutation

5.Wolves In The Throne Room - Thrice Woven

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1.Septicflesh - Codex Omega

2.Zornheym - Where Hatred Dwells And Darkness Reigns

3.Havukruunu - Kelle Surut Soi

4.Deadwood Lake - Forest Of Whispers

5.Stone Sour - Hydrograd

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1.Elder - Reflections Of A Floating World

2.The Ruins Of Beverast - Exuvia

3.Pallbearer - Heartless

4.Enslaved - E

5.Mastodon - Emperor Of Sand

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1.Septicflesh - Codex Omega

2.Enslaved - E

3.Immolation - Atonement

4.Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

5.Cradle Of Filth - Cryptoriana: The Seductiveness Of Decay

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1.Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

2.Analepsy - Atrocities From Beyond

3.Kreator - Gods Of Violence

4.Ulver - The Assassination Of Julius Caesar

5.Mors Principium Est - Embers Of A Dying World

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Last updated on 30.12.2017

1.Paradise Lost - Medusa

2.Kind Man - Kindness Ends

3.Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

4.Septicflesh - Codex Omega

5.Immolation - Atonement

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Top 50 albums/EPs/whatever roughly in order. Reviews on the way

1.Merkabah (POL) - Million Miles

2.Ashenspire - Speak Not Of The Laudanum Quandry

3.Almyrkvi - Umbra

4.White Ward - Futility Report

5.Netra - Ingrats

      View entire list ››