I'm bored, so I'm doing this. My technique involves going to the page of every thrash band I've listened to, pulling out their top three albums that I'd rate over 8.5/10 (if there are three) and placing them in the list.

1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Coroner - No More Color

3.Coroner - Mental Vortex

4.Toxik - Think This

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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Metal albums (and yes, I consider metalcore to be metal) that rocked my world, with maximum 2 albums per band sorted by bands in alphabetic order. Live, EP and compilation albums allowed, also including hard rock and stoner rock albums.

It will be updated as I discover new bands so check it sometime

1.Alabama Thunderpussy - Open Fire

2.Alice In Chains - Dirt

3.All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

4.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

5.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

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Metal and not so metal albums that had huge impact on my taste as metalhead and love for "heavy" music, ordered approximately by time I first listened to them

1.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

2.Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll

3.In Flames - The Jester Race

4.Lamb Of God - Sacrament

5.Sepultura - Arise

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Without repeating bands, not in mega particular order but roughly

1.Watain - The Wild Hunt

2.The Faceless - Autotheism

3.Behemoth - The Satanist

4.Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

5.The Black Dahlia Murder - Everblack

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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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1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.Sepultura - Schizophrenia

3.Stormtroopers Of Death - Speak English Or Die

4.Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal

5.D.R.I. - 4 Of A Kind

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Metal albums from 1987

1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.Artillery - Terror Squad

3.Death - Scream Bloody Gore

4.Candlemass - Nightfall

5.Toxik - World Circus

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1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.

3.King Diamond - Abigail

4.Dio - Dream Evil

5.

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1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Slayer - Reign In Blood

5.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

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Albums I have downloaded and are in the process of obtaining

1.AC/DC - Back In Black

2.AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

3.AC/DC - High Voltage

4.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

5.AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

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These are the 211 essential hard rock/metal albums of the 80's, as were selected by the Greek Magazine "Metal Hammer" (August 2001 issue).

The albums followed by a star are the "must have", whereas the rest albums are the "could have".

1.Angel Witch - Angel Witch

2.AC/DC - Back In Black

3.Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell

4.Diamond Head - Lightning To The Nations

5.Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

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1.Warning - Watching From A Distance

2.Aquilus - Griseus

3.King Diamond - Abigail

4.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

5.Candlemass - Nightfall

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1.Dio - Holy Diver

2.Huntress - Spell Eater

3.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

4.Judas Priest - British Steel

5.Nightmare - Insurrection

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Here is my personnal top 50 Thrash Metal album of all time, order by my preference. (even if it's really hard to order after the top 20 )
Feel free to suggest me some I've forgot to mention, there's so much excellent band and I should have not listen to all of them ! ^^
In my opinion, the best style to see live !!

1.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Slayer - Reign In Blood

4.Vektor - Black Future

5.Machine Head - Burn My Eyes

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