Fifty years of metal, 50 best albums of the year. Note that in order to diversify the list I limited it to one album per band, otherwise there would have been too much Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3.Deep Purple - Machine Head

4.Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend

5.Queen - Queen II

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1.Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath

2.Sarcófago - I.N.R.I.

3.Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

4.Hellhammer - Satanic Rites

5.Bathory - The Return Of The Darkness And Evil

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1.Destruction - Infernal Overkill

2.Dokken - Under Lock And Key

3.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

4.Overkill - Feel The Fire

5.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

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Unfinished as I still have to catch up on more recent years. Also all of the places on the list are of course subject to change as I discover more music from each year.

My taste is very much centred around the power of the riff. That means most of the albums on this list are thrash, death, heavy, black, or some offshoot of those genres.

1.After The Burial - Dig Deep

2.Behemoth - The Satanist

3.Carcass - Surgical Steel

4.Cattle Decapitation - Monolith Of Inhumanity

5.Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony

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Some time ago I made a list for heavy metal albums I enjoyed the most. I got it cleaned up after ripening my tastes.I also tried to organize the list a bit, in subcategories. There is one album per band (choices were hard sometimes), with no strict order, but my favorite albums are usualy on top.

2020 EDIT:
I like heavy metal with atmoshpere, with melody, and ideally it should be some kind of gate to a fantastic universe. I don't care about modern HM with a shiny production and simplistic riffs. I don't care obscure occult band with horrendous prod and no musical ideas. Here's the list of what I consider classics of the genre, pinnacle of dreamy, groovy, beautiful and well composed oldschool heavy metal

1.Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny

2.

3.Angra - Angels Cry

4.

5.Fates Warning - No Exit

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1.Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force

2.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Artillery - By Inheritance

5.Baphomet - The Dead Shall Inherit

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1.Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

2.Death - Scream Bloody Gore

3.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

4.Slayer - Reign In Blood

5.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

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Like my other genre-based lists, this exists purely for my own organizational purposes and not to provide a definitive statement about or guidebook to the thrash genre. I've folded some speed metal and other occasional outliers into this list, maybe a few not-so-thrash albums by otherwise-thrash bands, since they're close enough and I wasn't going to make a separate list.

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Gama Bomb - Citizen Brain

3.Cross Examination - Menace II Sobriety

4.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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Main criterias:
How much I love it(obviously)
Songwritting
Importance and originality
Consistency and diversity (consistency is more importance, but diversity can make a difference)

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

4.Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

5.Slayer - Haunting The Chapel

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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.Sarcófago - I.N.R.I.

2.Hellhammer - Satanic Rites

3.Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

4.Venom - Black Metal

5.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

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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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As is the case with my other lists, this is for my own organizational purposes and is designed purely to help me keep track of all the many black metal bands and albums that I enjoy, since I can't keep all of this information in my head. It has no other benefit whatsoever and will likely result in tantrums should anyone else see it. I'm aware that I haven't listened to every black metal album that I should have. I only went down to the 6s on this list, so it's possible that I have listened to your favorite black metal album that you desperately need to suggest and I thought it was terrible. There are a lot of heinously incompetent black metal bands out there.

On the off-chance that you've found this and actually care about what I think (you shouldn't), be advised that my favorites come first. Some are favorites in the general sense; some are favorites within black metal. The first few of those are in some order and not so much after that.

Because this is for my own purposes and not intended to be a definitive list of pure black metal, there are some black metal-adjacent bands, or albums by black metal bands that may not themselves be black metal. That's why you'll find so much Sigh clogging up the top of the list. I prefer to keep whole discographies together on one list. I used to include Primordial, Forefather, and other such bands, but a while back I created a list for folk and I decided that those artists would fit better there.

I update these lists very infrequently. This was last updated December 7, 2022.

1.Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape

2.Sigh - Graveward

3.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

4.Sigh - Heir To Despair

5.The Meads Of Asphodel - The Murder Of Jesus The Jew

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Full Lengths Only

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

3.Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare

4.Slayer - Reign In Blood

5.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

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1.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

2.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

3.Slayer - Reign In Blood

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

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