1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

3.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

4.Dream Theater - Images And Words

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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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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LATEST EDIT: December 12/2016- Added a whole bunch of progressive rock albums; processing earlier suggestions on the list.

Assembled below are some choice selections in alternative metal, prog rock, prog metal, jazz and avant-garde metal. I don't necessarily consider these styles to be my favourite (I do have a penchant for post-metal and cavernous death metal these days), but they have been the foundations of my taste for the last seven or eight years.

1.

2.Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

3.Rishloo - Living As Ghosts With Buildings As Teeth

4.Karnivool - Asymmetry

5.Blindead - Absence

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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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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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On the picture - John Cobbett - Hammers Of Misfortune, Vhöl, Ludicra, The Lord Weird Slough Feg

1.Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Hammers Of Misfortune - The August Engine

4.Mastodon - Remission

5.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

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Only a "20 best" list for this quite good year - or well, 'quite good year' for prog at least.

The first four are arranged in preference order, then th sixteen order are in alphabetical order.

Beware: this is a consolidated - but not definitive - version, it might see some changes in the newt few months.

1.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

4.Sólstafir - Köld

5.Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

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1.Machine Head - The Blackening

2.Overkill - Ironbound

3.Tool - Lateralus

4.Rush - Clockwork Angels

5.Rush - Snakes & Arrows

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1.Katatonia - Night Is The New Day

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Insomnium - Across The Dark

4.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

5.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

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My favorite and most enjoyed album's of the decade 2000-2009. Roughly in order, but not exactly.

You can kinda tell from this list that I joined Metalstorm in 2009. I started discovering far more music thanks to this site, hence the number of '09 releases featured. I'm slowly starting to pick back through the top lists of previous years, so I expect more pre-'09 releases will be added to this list.

1.Opeth - Blackwater Park

2.Vektor - Black Future

3.Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect

4.SikTh - Death Of A Dead Day

5.Protest The Hero - Fortress

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Overall year rating:
3,5/5

1.Process Of Guilt - Erosion

2.Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu

3.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

4.Exivious - Exivious

5.Fen - The Malediction Fields

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I wanted to create my personal Top List for a long time and to be honest, I always considered it as some kind of cool Prog Metal, Avantgarde Metal mix. As you can see, it has become a bit more complicated. So finally, there are Unexpect and Pain Of Salvation next to Bands like Kamelot and Savatage. Also, some Non-Metal Bands got involved like Jeff Buckley and Oingo Boingo. But could you imagine how PoS would sound without Jeffs influence? Or what would have become of Mr. Bungle if it weren't for Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo?!

1.Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I

2.Kalisia - Cybion

3.Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera

4.Dog Fashion Disco - Adultery

5.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

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I'll start with the disclaimer that I am not, nor ever have been, a musician. This list is of my own favorite performers, not the actual technical best musicians as I am a layman and can only go by what my stupid ears tell me. You'll notice the list is vocalist heavy which is a byproduct of my lack of musical talent. The list contains the artist, their instrument and the release where I feel they are at their best. **Last Update 08/16/11**

1.Symphony X - The Odyssey

2.Septicflesh - Communion

3.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

4.Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress

5.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

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I just finished making this list and I hate it already. Trying to put your favorite albums in order is very hard. I went at thinking which 20 would I take with me to a deserted island so I went for some variety. However, I don't think I got it right so expect the list to change frequently but for now this is roughly accurate. **Last Update 09/03/11**

1.Septicflesh - Communion

2.Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite

3.Septicflesh - The Great Mass

4.Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy

5.Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs

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I'm putting off "The Top 20 Albums Ever" list I was going to make this week a little bit longer. Instead I'll make another list of the 5 best songs of the week. These tracks will be songs I haven't listened to in a while or new ones I've recently discovered to go along with the treasure theme. **Last Update 07/13/2011**

1.Allen/Lande - The Battle

2.At Vance - No Escape

3.Chthonic - Takasago Army

4.Dream Theater - Octavarium

5.Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition

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