1.Afgrund - Vid Helvetets Grindar

2.After Forever - After Forever

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

5.Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

      View entire list ››

1.Wintersun - Wintersun

2.Be'lakor - Of Breath And Bone

3.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4.Shade Empire - Sinthetic

5.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

      View entire list ››

1.Wintersun - Wintersun

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Ensiferum - Ensiferum

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Insomnium - Above The Weeping World

      View entire list ››

It's always changing.

1.Moonsorrow - V: Hävitetty

2.Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet

3.Equilibrium - Sagas

4.Týr - Ragnarok

5.Finsterforst - Rastlos

      View entire list ››

1.Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos

2.Behemoth - Demigod

3.My Dying Bride - Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light

4.Vader - The Beast

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

      View entire list ››

one album from each group (in alphabetical order)

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Be'lakor - Stone's Reach

3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

4.Burzum - Filosofem

5.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

One album per band/artist, in order.

1.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

2.Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale

3.An Axis Of Perdition - The Ichneumon Method (And Less Welcome Techniques)

4.Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega

5.Kayo Dot - Choirs Of The Eye

      View entire list ››

1.Death - Symbolic

2.Slayer - Reign In Blood

3.Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power

4.Carcass - Heartwork

5.Overkill - The Years Of Decay

      View entire list ››

1.AC/DC - Back In Black

2.AC/DC - High Voltage

3.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

4.Accept - Blood Of The Nations

5.Allen/Lande - The Showdown

      View entire list ››

My favorite albums on alphabetical order.

1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation Of The Black Widow

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

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

      View entire list ››

This is not a list over my favourite albums, although some of them on the list of course are. These are albums that formed me, had a huge impact on me and defined my musical taste. Without some of these releases I probably wouldn't even be the person that I am today.

1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio

3.Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death

4.Iron Maiden - Killers

5.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

      View entire list ››

My top 3 albums per year starting in 1999.

1.

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Finntroll - Midnattens Widunder

4.Shaman (FIN) - Idja

5.

      View entire list ››