Ratings go from:

WORSHIP ❤️❤️❤️: Absolute greatness, a mindblowing album.
LOVE ❤️❤️🖤: Amazing release with very few flaws.
LIKE ❤️🖤🖤: Enjoyable but far from perfect.
DISLIKE 💔: Not very good or maybe not fitting my tastes.

I've decided to stop rating albums with a numerical value as I tend to feel uncomfortable with that. This list has a minimalistic, subjective and visceral approach, based purely on sensations and personal tastes. Mainly for personal use and doesn't pretend to be a serious ranking, but emerges from the need to remember which bands and albums I enjoyed and the ones I disliked. I constantly revisit new releases so first impressions may change over time. It usually takes 8-10 spins for me to get completely sure of a rating.

1.Æther Realm - Tarot

2.Abhoria - Abhoria

3.Acid Bath - When The Kite String Pops

4.Agrypnie - Metamorphosis

5.Allegaeon - Fragments Of Form And Function

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The bands are in that order on purpose, from most to least favorite, but favorite nonetheless. The format is:

band | favourite album by the band | favorite song (or 2) by the band

Last updated on 4 November 2022.

1.Meshuggah - Nothing

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Immolation - Close To A World Below

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Agalloch - The Mantle

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I like to create playlists for fun when I'm not busy. Usually, though, I abandon them soon after. I want this playlist to be a bit different - perhaps not infinitely useful, but I associate all these songs with the season of winter and the winter holidays, and I'll be listening to all these a lot at least for a while. I thought I'd share the songs I included in my digital playlist, maybe you'll find something you like. Many of these are purposely blasphemous - I live surrounded by fundamentalist Christians and they're gonna spend the holidays singing about the birth of Christ - I need me some counterbalance.

1.Dream Theater - Awake

2.Immolation - Close To A World Below

3.Vader - Impressions In Blood

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

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* Updating this as I get around to doing song-by-song on RYM.
* 1 album per band
* limiting this to actual black metal releases, as opposed to releases by bands that were, at one time, black metal.
>> Some bands really do incorporate a lot of both death metal or doom (or avant garde or folk, etc) and black metal in their albums, so I consider them to be 'black metal adjacent' even if it might not be 'purely black metal'

1.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

2.Caladan Brood - Echoes Of Battle

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

4.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

5.Altar Of Plagues - Teethed Glory & Injury

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Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile (Industrial)
Kamelot - The Fourth Legacy (Power/Symphonic)
Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles (Alternative)
Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst (Death)
Static-X - Wisconsin Death Trip (Industrial/Nu)

1.Emperor - IX Equilibrium

2.Tristania - Beyond The Veil

3.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

4.Behemoth - Satanica

5.Slipknot - Slipknot

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The albums below is my definition of extreme metal music, regardless of their genre. Entire list is based only on my personal preferences in metal.
Rules:
1. One album per band
2. 305 groups/305 albums

1.In Flames - Clayman

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Chimaira - Chimaira

4.Death - Symbolic

5.Testament - The New Order

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Last updated on 11 April 2024.

1.Dream Theater - Images And Words

2.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

3.Wintersun - Wintersun

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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Note: Tool intentionally ommitted because they don't consider themselves metal. Otherwise you'd see their first 4 albums in top 25.

Last updated: 27 March 2024.

1.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Opeth - Blackwater Park

4.Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5.Lost Horizon - A Flame To The Ground Beneath

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I just want to note that these are my favorites to listen to right now, and not necessarily the albums I would rate "best" or "most classic". Pure preference

1.Entombed - Left Hand Path

2.Antestor - The Forsaken

3.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

4.Amenra - De Doorn

5.Wintersun - Wintersun

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All my favourite songs ranked in order best down.

1.Rush - 2112

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Jethro Tull - Aqualung

4.Rainbow - Rising

5.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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These are my favorite opening songs of all time. When I listened to them, I was instantly hooked! Whether it starts with a slow instrumental build-up or an aggressive assault of riffs, these openers set the tone for the rest of their respective albums. Enjoy!

1.Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

2.Judas Priest - Painkiller

3.Summoning - Minas Morgul

4.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

5.Testament - The Legacy

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Albums with the most epic cover art!

1.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

2.Rainbow - Rising

3.Death - Scream Bloody Gore

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

5.Necrophobic - Mark Of The Necrogram

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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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My favourite black metal albums listed and ranked, all varieties within the black metal genre.

1.Summoning - Oath Bound

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

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Must Have: The First 14

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Anathema - Judgement

3.Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black

4.Amorphis - Tuonela

5.Crimson Glory - Astronomica

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