The purpose of this list is not to find and record which albums are the best but to define Dark Metal. We will try to specify which albums are the definitive examples of Dark Metal. "Dark Metal" is what we would call a "post-subgenre". An album that's not quite Black, not quite Death, sometimes a little Doom or Gothic, other times just Melodic or Symphonic or even "Atmospheric", anything that could fall somewhere in between some or all of these categories, that could probably be a "Dark Metal" album, as long as the tone is somewhat dark.

1.Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos

2.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

3.Nightfall - At Night We Prey

4.Septicflesh - Sumerian Daemons

5.Behemoth - I Loved You At Your Darkest

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Not my genre so this is a pretty limpdicked list.

Inc. Avant Garde Metal because I'm a Philistine who can't tell the difference.

1.Tool - Lateralus

2.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

3.Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale

4.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

5.Death - Symbolic

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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.Cacophony - Speed Metal Symphony

2.Cadaveria - In Your Blood

3.Caïna - Mourner

4.Caïnan Dawn - F.O.H.A.T.

5.Cain's Offering - Stormcrow

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A list of bands ordered by the biggest difference between their highest rated album on MS and their lowest rated album on MS. Finally my Excel skills paid off. Some ratings may be a bit outdated. Open to suggestions because I barely scratched the surface.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Metallica - Lulu [Collaboration]

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Celtic Frost - Cold Lake

5.Machine Head - The Blackening

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2000-2004 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5844
2010-2014 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=5828
2015-2019 list: http://www.metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6722

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 grow 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 2005 to 2009, with at least 1 vote, were included.
The average expected rating (C) was determined by averaging all the Metal Storm ratings from 2005-2009.
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 +8.

C for 2005-2009 = 7.593
m = 20

Number of albums from each year in the list:
2005 - 26
2006 - 20
2007 - 23
2008 - 17
2009 - 23

Ratings are accurate as of 30/10/2023

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

4.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

5.Saturnus - Veronika Decides To Die

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Comebacks are greeted with excitement and trepidation. Albums released after a band break-up can either send bands into the heavenly stratosphere or the basements of hell. I'm compiling the former. To qualify for the list a band has to have officially broken up, regrouped and released an album of new original material. Releases after a period of studio inactivity or a string of weaker albums don't count so no Death Magnetic, Worship Music, Formation of Damnation, Brave New World or Angel of Retribution. My list, my rules okay?

1.Faith No More - Sol Invictus

2.Septicflesh - Communion

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Heaven And Hell - The Devil You Know

5.At The Gates - At War With Reality

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1.Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar

2.After Forever - After Forever

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

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1.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

2.Rammstein - Mutter

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.The Gathering - Mandylion

5.Alice In Chains - Dirt

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1.Judas Priest - Stained Class

2.Motörhead - Overkill

3.Judas Priest - British Steel

4.Venom - Welcome To Hell

5.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

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1.Tool - 10,000 Days

2.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

3.Vader - Impressions In Blood

4.Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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AtoZ (Album)

1.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

2.Ihsahn - After

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Faith No More - Angel Dust

5.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

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This is not a list over my favourite albums, although some of them on the list of course are. These are albums that formed me, had a huge impact on me and defined my musical taste. Without some of these releases I probably wouldn't even be the person that I am today.

1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio

3.Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death

4.Iron Maiden - Killers

5.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

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1.Judas Priest - British Steel

2.Venom - Welcome To Hell

3.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

4.Slayer - Show No Mercy

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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Note 1: This list will take time before it gets a definitive form (or it might take forever if good gothic metal albums will be released in the future).

Note 2: Another important feature is that this list will not take into consideration the Metalstorm way of labeling what is gothic metal and what isn't. Some albums have gothic metal elements yet they are not categorized as gothic metal. No hard feelings. I am also accepting suggestions as I might slip a couple of albums in the process.

1.Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance

2.Tiamat - Wildhoney

3.The Sins Of Thy Beloved - Lake Of Sorrow

4.Tristania - Widow's Weeds

5.Theatre Of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness They Fear

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