These are my top 100 favorite albums - they are the reason why I love metal!
Enjoy!
Format: Band | Album | (genre, release year, country) What I like about the album; Favorite songs
Statistics:
Genre:
Death: 28
Black: 20
Thrash: 19
Heavy: 15
Progressive: 9
Power: 4
Doom: 4
Symphonic: 1
Years with most album favorites:
1995: 8
1996: 7
1990: 7
1984: 5
Countries with most album favorites:
USA: 35
Sweden: 20
UK: 16
Norway: 6

----Last Update: June 15, 2022----

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Death - Spiritual Healing

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Black Sabbath albums from best to worst. VERY difficult list to make and I've been changing places on the albums pretty much every time i've opened the list. But this will do for now

1.Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Black Sabbath - The Eternal Idol

4.Black Sabbath - Headless Cross

5.Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell

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My top ranked (in order from best down) favorite hard rock/heavy metal albums. I've also one included my top three favorite tracks from each album.

Enjoy!

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Rush - Hemispheres

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Judas Priest - Painkiller

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1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

5.Motörhead - Inferno

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An ongoing list for personal use as well as for reference for beginners (& veterans alike). This is solely my personal opinion and taste (Death & Prog mostly but do give every genre a try). Basically will include albums I've rated 8 & above. Sorted by year since I'll need a Venn diagram to sort by genre (seriously MS please make it happen if possible). Will feature multiple releases per year (obviously) and per band (since if a band is putting out better albums it deserves more recognition). Keeping the metal faith alive from India

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

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

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Uriah Heep - Look At Yourself

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Just some of my favorite records of all time. Not really in a particular order besides maybe some of the first few.

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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Fuzz me up buttercup

1.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

2.Clutch - Clutch

3.Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

4.Mastodon - Leviathan

5.Melvins - Lysol

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1.Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

4.Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

5.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

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Gotta respect your roots! This is a list of my favorite pre 1980s heavy metal (or heavy metal influence) albums. And yes, of course the first two will be Sabbath and Zeppelin...(Pink Floyd is my favorite band, but they’re excluded because they’re not on metal storm)

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

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

4.Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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Yes, I know, Black Sabbath... But they was completely before their time.

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Saint Vitus - Born Too Late

3.Trouble - Psalm 9

4.Candlemass - Nightfall

5.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

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In chronological order of release.

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Uriah Heep - Very 'eavy... Very 'umble

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Budgie - Budgie

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me. To be as transparent as possible, I've labelled albums as 'nostalgia bias' where my memories of the album give it an advantage over others.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here. There are a ton of albums that I've rated 9/10 in the 'TBR' tab that may never make it to this list, be sure to check those out.)

If you discovered any new albums or like the same sort of metal, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
Top 25 EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
Top 200 Overrated Albums (trigger warning)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)

Genre-Specific:
Top 50 Black Metal Albums
Top 50 Melodic Death Metal Albums
Top 45 Thrash Metal Albums
Top 40 Power Metal Albums
Top 30 Doom Metal Albums
Top 30 Heavy Metal Albums

1.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Opeth - Still Life

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In no real particular order. These albums are all great.

1.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3.Budgie - Budgie

4.Deep Purple - Fireball

5.Uriah Heep - Salisbury

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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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