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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The music of progressive metal features complex, layered arrangements in longer than typical songs, often including lengthy instrumental passages allowing the performers to display technical proficiency and interplay. Many time signature changes are common, as is the incorporation of Western classical music influences. The sound is generally driven by the guitars and drums, but it is quite typical to add elements non-standard to rock or metal such as synthesizers and an array of orchestral elements.

1.Atheist - Unquestionable Presence

2.Cynic - Focus

3.Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia

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Pretty self-explanatory, with a couple caveats: first, this is mostly just a list of my favorite metal bands in approximate order (after the top 10 or so the order matters far less), with extra weight given to influence and timelessness of sound; and second, the albums selected are not necessarily the band's "best" album, or even my personal favorite -- they are the albums that I feel best represent the band's classic sound and/or well-represent the span of their career. List includes all sub-genres of metal and some post-metal metal. Feel free to spew your hatred below. \m/ (xx) \m/

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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My most listened to and favourite albums in my collection.

1.AC/DC - High Voltage

2.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

3.AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

4.Amon Amarth - Fate Of Norns

5.Amon Amarth - Once Sent From The Golden Hall

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Well, here I put my personal top with which to me have been the best albums of 2008. They are not all they are, but if they all are.

1.Septicflesh - Communion

2.Textures - Silhouettes

3.The Faceless - Planetary Duality

4.Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh

5.Whitechapel - This Is Exile

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My musical journey seems to be radically different to most that I've seen, so here are some defining albums (one per band) for my taste in list form. There are, of course, quite a few here that I don't listen to anymore.

Generally chronological.

1.

2.

3.Muse - Absolution

4.Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (')

5.Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures

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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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1.Volbeat - Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood

2.Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh

3.Trivium - Shogun

4.Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

5.Septicflesh - Communion

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1.Meshuggah - ObZen

2.Persefone - Spiritual Migration

3.Eye Of The Enemy - Eye Of The Enemy

4.Circus Maximus - Isolate

5.James LaBrie - Static Impulse

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1.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

2.My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River

3.Opeth - Morningrise

4.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

5.Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes

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1.Tool - Lateralus

2.Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

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

4.Devin Townsend - Ziltoid The Omniscient

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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Coolingsrock's Albums of 2008. What I managed to listen to that year and know very well. order: Best to worst.

1.Protest The Hero - Fortress

2.After The Burial - Rareform

3.Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh

4.Trivium - Shogun

5.Testament - The Formation Of Damnation

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Updated version of the list previously published here. You'll notice that the comments are a bit different for sure, as is the order:
1 to 3: best of the year (in preference order)
4 to 25: other great stuff (alphabetical order)

And then there were some average (sometimes bad, sometimes good) albums that didn't make it in this list, but they featured some of the most awesome songs of the year. Like Voices Of The Fallen by Battlelore, Dylath-Leen's Frozen Reflect On A Broken Mirror, and particularly Iced Earth's Come What May...

1.Textures - Silhouettes

2.Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

3.Burst - Lazarus Bird

4.ADX - Division Blindée

5.Cynic - Traced In Air

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Another yearly top 10 list.

1.Ayreon - 01011001

2.Sabaton - The Art Of War

3.Eluveitie - Slania

4.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

5.Draconian - Turning Season Within

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So here are some Brutal, Technical, Progressive and sometimes Atmospheric death metal works I enjoy or that I believe should be given a try because they're unique and interesting, almost an essentials list when it comes to that style. There are some unorthodox choices as well in the mix that aren't just full-on tech death, some bands also incorporate grind, black, core elements or even jazz. Hope you'll all find something that suits your taste! The list is ordered by years. Feel free to comment and give recommendations! Just refrain from telling me an album shouldn't be featured here... All the albums here are deliberately hand-picked and if it made the list, it's for a reason.

Personal absolute favorites of mine have a ★ beside the genre. And my pics of best album for each year are identified by (best of xxxx) beside the albums.

🇨🇦 = From Canada, My Country! We're quite good at Technical and Brutal Death Metal... Trust me. I mean, you'll see for yourself.

-Guib-

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Guib's Best Tech/Brutal/Prog Death Metal Album Picks

Best Of 2023:
The Zenith Passage - Datalysium

Best of 2024 So Far:
Exist - Hijacking The Zeitgeist

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TAGS: Technical Death Metal, Melodic Tech-Death, Brutal, Atmospheric, Progressive, Blackened Tech-Death, Technical Thrash, Deathgrind, Deathcore, Symphonic, Dissonant Tech-Death, Experimental, Avantgarde, Grindcore, Jazz

Last Updated: April 15th, 2024

1.Atheist - Piece Of Time

2.Nocturnus - The Key

3.Atrocity - Hallucinations

4.Death - Human

5.Suffocation - Effigy Of The Forgotten

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