Hi there!
My list is most alike the 'Musical Menu'. And this chapter is dedicated to mysterious sounds of Black Metal genre.

1.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

2.Moonspell - Night Eternal

3.Covenant - Nexus Polaris

4.Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

5.Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos

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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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1.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

2.Iron Maiden - Brave New World

3.Queens Of The Stone Age - Rated R

4.Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)

5.Decapitated - Winds Of Creation

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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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

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Album art is a crucial element to what makes a great album become monumental to the music fan. It gives us a vision and a feeling through visual sensations that are linked in the mind to the sounds that embody those ideas. A great album is intertwined into those concrete images and the two aspects make them whole. The following is a list of albums by some of the most influential, well known illustrators in the Arts Community. These artists are key figures in relation to how famous their art has become either by the success of the bands they worked for or the popularity of their own work.

1.Electric Wizard - Electric Wizard

2.Darkthrone - F.O.A.D.

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Converge - Jane Doe

5.Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth

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1.Nevermore - Dead Heart, In A Dead World

2.Nightwish - Wishmaster

3.Therion - Deggial

4.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

5.After Forever - Prison Of Desire

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1.Cradle Of Filth - Dusk... And Her Embrace

2.Cradle Of Filth - Cruelty And The Beast

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Cradle Of Filth - The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh

5.Cradle Of Filth - Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder

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1.Kobra And The Lotus - Kobra And The Lotus

2.Sinner - Danger Zone

3.Danzig - Danzig

4.Iced Earth - Dystopia

5.Pretty Maids - Pandemonium

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From last.fm (27.07.12)

1.Dream Theater - Train Of Thought

2.Machine Head - Unto The Locust

3.Machine Head - The Blackening

4.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

5.Machine Head - Through The Ashes Of Empires

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OK, let's get this straight right now: THIS IS NOT A LIST OF MY FAVOURITE ALBUMS. Neither is it a 'Best Of' list in any shape, manner or form. And it is also not a list of albums I consider to be important in Metal history in general (though many of them assuredly would be considered so).

What this list is:
I started thinking about why I listen to Metal, and why I listen to certain bands and not others. And how my tastes have changed enormously in the approx 15 years I've been, as one might say, a Metalhead. I thought it would be interesting to look over my collection and pick out those albums I consider to be landmarks in my listening career and write a little bit about why each is significant to me.

1.Anathema - Judgement

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

5.Def Leppard - Hysteria

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1.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

2.The Gathering - If_Then_Else

3.After Forever - Prison Of Desire

4.The Sins Of Thy Beloved - Perpetual Desolation

5.Draconian - Frozen Features

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1.Cradle Of Filth - V Empire

2.Cradle Of Filth - Dusk... And Her Embrace

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Cradle Of Filth - Cruelty And The Beast

5.Cradle Of Filth - Nymphetamine

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These are my favorite 25 albums, not really in any particular order. They are favorites due to the fact I at least like every song on the album, and there are at least three songs on the album that I love.

1.Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

2.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

3.Cradle Of Filth - Midian

4.Black Sabbath - Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath

5.Cradle Of Filth - The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh

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My take on the greatest albums ever... (No, early 70s Black Sabbath is NOT metal, and neither is Led Zeppelin.)

1.Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast

2.Cradle Of Filth - Cruelty And The Beast

3.King Diamond - Abigail

4.Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant

5.Slayer - Reign In Blood

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