Metal albums that blow me away every time I hear them. Loosely ordered... list gets less organized as it goes on. My favorite song from each album is included.

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Faith No More - Angel Dust

3.Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

4.Tool - Ænima

5.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

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Back when I joined the site in 2011, I did a customary top 100 album list. Every year since then, when I've looked back at it it's become increasingly unrecognisable from my own tastes. Seeing bands I once listened to daily vanish from my playlists, new bands emerge as favourites, and bands even come and go in my reckonings during that time period (Iced Earth, Alcest, even Pain Of Salvation and more certainly peaked in my listening habits around 2011-12 to slowly vanish into obscurity). Now that it's just gone 5 years since I did that list, I thought I might do an updated list just to see how much my tastes have shifted. Whilst compiling the list, I pretty much worked on gut instinct, which was weird as I found myself almost disregarding albums I know I like whilst promoting albums I'm honestly undecided on - it almost seemed to veer away from album quality at times to embracing a subconscious effect the albums have had. Anyway, here it is, plus some honorable mentions that I was surprised missed out.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Sylosis - Monolith

3.Sylosis - Edge Of The Earth

4.Agalloch - The Mantle

5.Protest The Hero - Kezia

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Dream Theater are good for what they are, and what they are is a stepping stone into prog. To be fair, they have some great albums (WDADU, I&W, and Awake), but once Kevin Moore left, it's been a steady decline, leaving nothing but scattered moments.
These bands are, in a way, the 'next step.' They represent the meat of prog, in albums that showcase the range of the genre.

1.Anekdoten - Vemod

2.Arcane - Known / Learned

3.Arena - Contagion

4.Beardfish - Sleeping In Traffic: Part Two

5.Communic - Waves Of Visual Decay

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Simple ranking of all my favorite albums. Favorite song from the album in the notes. Sure to change/expand as I learn and explore more within metal.
2023: This was starting to get too long so I split it into separate lists for albums at each ranking 10 to 7. This list will no longer be updated.
10: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6891
9: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7213
8: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7512
7: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=8058

1.Madder Mortem - Eight Ways

2.Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

3.Ayreon - 01011001

4.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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Take a look at the Top Album lists of recent years and you'll notice an obvious trend. In 2005 the average rating of the top 25 albums is 8.76. Jump to 2014 and the average among the top 25 has dropped to 8.26. An almost linear decrease is observable for the 10 years in between.

I was curious to see what a Top 100 for 2000-2014 would look like if I factored the votes to account for the 'rating decline'. I hope you find it interesting.

1.Agalloch - The Mantle

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Blindead - Affliction XXIX II MXMVI

4.Aquilus - Griseus

5.Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World

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1.

2.Fates Warning - The Spectre Within

3.Slauter Xstoyes - Winter Kill

4.Watch Tower - Energetic Disassembly

5.Trilogy - Life On Earth

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This is my personal favourite top 50 albums of all time, this list can change because i can enter new things and my tastes may differ over time.

IS NOT UPDATED!

1.Cult Of Luna - Somewhere Along The Highway

2.Ulver - Perdition City

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

5.Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal

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From A to Z.

1.Agalloch - Faustian Echoes

2.Alkerdeel - Dyodyo Asema [Collaboration]

3.Bongripper - The Great Barrier Reefer

4.Boris - Flood

5.Boris - Boris At Last - Feedbacker

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So here we are again . After many years of dedication and love to this music that we call progressive metal, here are some of the best albums that ever existed and made the earth a better place . Give to these albums the attention and the respect they deserve and you will be fully awarded. I think i will try and limit this list to 3 cd's maximum per band to make this thing more challenging .

1.Dan Swanö - Moontower

2.Cynic - Traced In Air

3.Cynic - Focus

4.Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

5.Enslaved - Ruun

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In no order, just the my favorite of that decade.

1.Swallow The Sun - The Morning Never Came

2.Equilibrium - Sagas

3.The Defaced - Karma In Black

4.Susperia - Vindication

5.Masterplan - Aeronautics

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1.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

2.Theatre Of Tragedy - Theatre Of Tragedy

3.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

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An entirely subjective list of my all-time favourite metal albums, well lets better say albums/genres featured on MS, since not all here is precisely metal.
Objective quality is not a criteria here, just how much I like the album. Ordered by preference, top down.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Opeth - Morningrise

3.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

4.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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There are the albums that have impressed me. Alphabetical orders. Hope you enjoy this list.

1.Acatalepsy - Acatalepsy (EP)

2.Across Tundras - Dark Songs Of The Prairie

3.Aelter - Dusk Dawn/Follow You Beloved

4.A Forest Of Stars - The Corpse Of Rebirth

5.Ain Sof Aur - Atra Serpens

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List of my top epics - long songs (all in one or split into parts) with multiple parts and recurring themes, with an overall concept.

1.Symphony X - The Odyssey

2.Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons

3.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

4.Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade Of Gray

5.Green Carnation - Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness

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My favourite prog rock/metal albums. In no order.

1.Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon

2.Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

3.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

4.Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

5.Yes - Close To The Edge

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